Start local server iOS & load it on WKWebView

Question

I found following libraries to start a server locally.

• https://github.com/httpswift/swifter
• https://github.com/swisspol/GCDWebServer

For instance, I'm using swifter. It does compile for iOS.

I also added code to start a local server as follows.

class ViewController: UIViewController {
    var webView: WKWebView!
    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        let server = HttpServer()
        server["/hello"] = { .ok(.htmlBody("You asked for \($0)"))  }
        let semaphore = DispatchSemaphore(value: 0)
        do {
            try server.start(9080, forceIPv4: true)
            print("Server has started ( port = \(try server.port()) ). Try to connect now...")
            let config = WKWebViewConfiguration()
            webView = WKWebView(frame: self.view.bounds, configuration: config)
            /////////////////////////////
            // What should be url here to point to local server?
            webView.load(URLRequest(url: URL(string: "http://192.168.31.70:9080/hello")!))
            /////////////////////////////
            view = webView
            semaphore.wait()
        } catch {
            print("Server start error: \(error)")
            semaphore.signal()
        }
    }
}

Also, If I submit it to apple, is there any possibility of rejection because of starting a local server?

Answer 1

Can you elaborate on what you are trying to achieve by starting an HTTP server in-process?

If you need control over the way that responses are made, I would recommend looking at registering a custom URL protocol handler with WKWebViewConfiguration.setURLSchemeHandler(_:forURLScheme:). Then, ask the WKWebView to load a resource from that custom URL scheme, and your handler (that conforms to WKURLSchemeHandler) will get called, and you can construct a URLResponse however you'd like.

Answer 2

I tried Telegraph

Step 1. Open Podfile & add a dependency - pod 'Telegraph'

Step 2. Open AppDelegate.swift & put code as follows.

// Serve the Server from Build folder
let demoBundleURL = Bundle.main.url(forResource: "webApp", withExtension: nil)!
// and handle those requests at Path
serverHTTP.serveDirectory(demoBundleURL, "/webApp")
// Setting Custom Router - OPTIONAL
serverHTTP.httpConfig.requestHandlers.insert(DRHTTPMiddleWare(), at: 0)
// Start Server
try? serverHTTP.start(port: 9000, interface: "localhost")

Step 3. In ViewController.swift, put code as follows.

func loadWebView() {
    guard let url = URL(string: "http://localhost:9000/webApp") else { return }
    webView = WKWebView(
        frame: self.view.bounds, 
        configuration: WKWebViewConfiguration()
    )
    webView.load(URLRequest(url: url))
    view = webView
}