Kowe - Compose Webviews for Kotlin Multiplatform

Kowe is a Kotlin Multiplatform library which enables you to include native WebViews in your Compose Mulitplatform Application on Android, iOS and Desktop.

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Getting Started

To start using Kowe you need to include its dependency in your build.gradle.kts:

commonMain.dependencies {
    implementation("dev.anthonyhfm:kowe:<current-version>")
}

Usage

Take a look at the example repository

Common (Android, iOS, Desktop)

Building WebViews with the Kowe library is very easy. All you need is a WebViewState and the WebView-Composable. You can also do further configuration for your webview using the WebViewState.

Example Code:

@Composable
fun App() {
    val state = rememberWebViewState(url = "https://www.jetbrains.com/compose-multiplatform/")

    WebView(
        state = state,
        modifier = Modifier
            .fillMaxSize()
    )
}

Desktop specific

For using Kowe in Compose for Desktop you will need to do some extra configuration:

1. Use the Jetbrains Runtime with JCEF to compile your application
2. Configure needed JVM Flags for setting up KCEF
3. Initialize the WebViewCore before starting your Application:

fun main() = application {
    WebViewCore.init() // <-- Initializing the Chromium Engine (runs blocking)

    Window(
        onCloseRequest = ::exitApplication,
        title = "kowe-example",
    ) {
        App() // <-- Your App

        DisposableEffect(Unit) { // Needed for closing the Chromium Engine
            onDispose {
                WebViewCore.close() // <-- Properly closing the Chromium Engine
            }
        }
    }
}

Feature List

This is a list of all the features the Kowe library currently supports. This library is currently under heavy development and the feature list will most likely grow by a lot over time.

• Basic Web Views
  • Android (android.webkitx)
  • iOS (WkWebView)
  • Desktop (KCEF/JCEF, Jetbrains Runtime JCEF edition)
• Web Navigation
  • Load URLs
  • Load HTML
  • Reloading
  • Loading States
• Configuration (only for Android and iOS right now)
  • Enable / Disable JavaScript
  • Custom User-Agents
• URL Policies
• JavaScript Evaluation
• Unified Kowe JavaScript API
  • window.kowe.postMessage for sending string messages to the webview
• Console Message forwarding (currently Android only)

Issues

Feel free to test the Kowe library and submit issues and feature requests here

Credits

• KCEF