The Android WebView @ PhoneGap Day

PhoneGap Day EU 2015

Transcript

1. the android webview
   niels leenheer - phonegap day eu 2015
   

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2. what is a webview?
   a system level component for 

   displaying html in applications
   

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3. up to android 4.3, 

   the webview was
   based on webkit
   android 4.4 and later
   use a webview based
   on chromium
   

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4. the old webkit webview has 

   not been properly updated in 

   the last four years
   almost no changes between 

   android 4.0 and 4.3
   

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5. the webkit webview is slow and
   has outdated standards support
   its standards support can be 

   compared to ios 4 or 5
   

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6. the chromium webview is not only
   much faster, it has much better
   standards support
   at the same level or even better
   standards support as ios 8
   

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7. the chromium webview will 

   be updated regularly
   android 4.4 ⟶ chromium 30

   android 4.4.3 ⟶ chromium 33

   android 5 ⟶ chromium 37 or higher
   

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8. in a couple of years all android

   phones will have the chromium

   webview
   

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9. but today we still have to deal with

   the webkit webview
   5
   10%
   4.4
   40%
   4.1 - 4.3
   39%
   4.0
   5%
   2.2 - 2.3
   6%
   

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10. but unfortunately we are not
    dealing with just one webkit
    webview
    

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11. device manufacturers improved
    the default browser
    differentiation by having better
    standards support than your
    competitors
    

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12. differentiation is just
    a pretty name for
    fragmentation
    

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13. the reality is that we now have
    many different webviews that all
    behave slightly different
    not only different versions of webkit, but
    also different features enabled
    

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14. better standards support is
    useless if it is only available on a
    subset of devices
    apps still need to be build for the
    lowest common denominator
    

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15. ?
    webgl
    indexeddb
    websockets
    webaudio
    requestanimationframe
    form field types
    

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16. having frequent updates is not 

    always good!
    removing older apis and features 

    can cause legacy apps to break
    

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17. some devices will never get an
    upgrade to android 5
    chromium 30 and 33 based webviews will
    be around for the next couple of years
    

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18. bad performance
    limited standards support
    vendor specific versions
    

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19. better standards support
    limited control
    

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20. fragmentation
    

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21. how to deal with this mess
    

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22. test
    as often as possible, 

    on as many devices as possible
    

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23. perhaps try an 

    open device lab?
    

    144 labs across 34 countries 

    and 4002 devices available
    

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24. test
    as often as possible, 

    on as many devices as possible
    

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25. but there is also 

    another solution
    

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26. crosswalk
    

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28. thank you
    @html5test
    

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