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The Android WebView @ PhoneGap Day

The Android WebView @ PhoneGap Day

PhoneGap Day EU 2015

Niels Leenheer

May 18, 2015
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  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    has outdated standards support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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