WKWebView not loading local files under iOS 8

Question

For previous iOS 8 betas, load a local web app (in Bundle) and it works fine for both UIWebView and WKWebView, and I even ported a web game using the new WKWebView API.

var url = NSURL(fileURLWithPath:NSBundle.mainBundle().pathForResource("car", ofType:"html"))

webView = WKWebView(frame:view.frame)
webView!.loadRequest(NSURLRequest(URL:url))

view.addSubview(webView)

But in beta 4, I just got a blank white screen (UIWebView still work), looks like nothing is loaded or executed. I saw an error in the log:

Could not create a sandbox extension for /

Any help to guide me to the right direction? Thanks!

Answer 1

They finally solved the bug! Now we can use -[WKWebView loadFileURL:allowingReadAccessToURL:]. Apparently the fix was worth some seconds in WWDC 2015 video 504 Introducing Safari View Controller

For iOS8 ~ iOS10 (Swift 3)

As Dan Fabulish's answer states this is a bug of WKWebView which apparently is not being solved any time soon and as he said there is a work-around :)

I am answering just because I wanted to show the work-around here. IMO code shown in https://github.com/shazron/WKWebViewFIleUrlTest is full of unrelated details most people are probably not interested in.

The work-around is 20 lines of code, error handling and comments included, no need of a server :)

func fileURLForBuggyWKWebView8(fileURL: URL) throws -> URL {
    // Some safety checks
    if !fileURL.isFileURL {
        throw NSError(
            domain: "BuggyWKWebViewDomain",
            code: 1001,
            userInfo: [NSLocalizedDescriptionKey: NSLocalizedString("URL must be a file URL.", comment:"")])
    }
    try! fileURL.checkResourceIsReachable()

    // Create "/temp/www" directory
    let fm = FileManager.default
    let tmpDirURL = URL(fileURLWithPath: NSTemporaryDirectory()).appendingPathComponent("www")
    try! fm.createDirectory(at: tmpDirURL, withIntermediateDirectories: true, attributes: nil)

    // Now copy given file to the temp directory
    let dstURL = tmpDirURL.appendingPathComponent(fileURL.lastPathComponent)
    let _ = try? fm.removeItem(at: dstURL)
    try! fm.copyItem(at: fileURL, to: dstURL)

    // Files in "/temp/www" load flawlesly :)
    return dstURL
}

And can be used as:

override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()
    var fileURL = URL(fileURLWithPath: Bundle.main.path(forResource:"file", ofType: "pdf")!)

    if #available(iOS 9.0, *) {
        // iOS9 and above. One year later things are OK.
        webView.loadFileURL(fileURL, allowingReadAccessTo: fileURL)
    } else {
        // iOS8. Things can (sometimes) be workaround-ed
        //   Brave people can do just this
        //   fileURL = try! pathForBuggyWKWebView8(fileURL: fileURL)
        //   webView.load(URLRequest(url: fileURL))
        do {
            fileURL = try fileURLForBuggyWKWebView8(fileURL: fileURL)
            webView.load(URLRequest(url: fileURL))
        } catch let error as NSError {
            print("Error: " + error.debugDescription)
        }
    }
}