iOS Newbee HTML and Parameters

[KeithsPuma]

Hi
I have added a HTML file to my project so that it's embedded within the application.
With the following code I can view the HTML file in the iPhone simulator.

NSBundle *bundle   = [ NSBundle mainBundle ];
NSString *path     = [ bundle bundlePath ];
NSString *fullPath = [ NSBundle pathForResource:@"TestHTML" ofType:@"html" inDirectory:path ];
NSString *params   = @"?Fred=1.2&Bert=-2.2&Harry=3";
NSString *fullURL  = [ NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@%@", fullPath, params ];
// fullPath = "/Users/keith/Library/Application Support/iPhone Simulator/User/Applications/xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx/TestApp.app/TestHTML.html"
[ self loadRequest:[ NSURLRequest requestWithURL:[ NSURL fileURLWithPath:fullPath ] ] ];

Now this works as it can Find the Embedded HTML file "TestHTML.html"

My question is how do I pass parameters into the HTML file ie "Fred=1 Bert=-2.2 Harry=3" so that the java script can use them.
If I try the usual method by appending "?Fred=1.2&Bert=-2.2&Harry=3" to the URL then the application does not work, I suspect its trying to find the file "TestHTML.html?Fred=1.2&Bert=-2.2&Harry=3"

// fullURL = "/Users/keith/Library/Application Support/iPhone Simulator/User/Applications/xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx/TestApp.app/TestHTML.html?Fred=1.2&Bert=-2.2&Harry=3"
[ self loadRequest:[ NSURLRequest requestWithURL:[ NSURL fileURLWithPath:fullURL ] ] ];

This does NOT work

any suggestions please

Keith

 

[pashik]

U can add this parameters as hidden fields into html
<input type="hidden" name="Fred" value="1">
Javascript can work with elements in DOM without probelms

 

[KeithsPuma]

U can add this parameters as hidden fields into html
<input type="hidden" name="Fred" value="1">
Javascript can work with elements in DOM without probelms

Thanks for your reply, but I don't think I explained the problem properly.
I have a HTML file that works when I pass variable into it by adding "?fred=1" etc. after the html extension.

I want the application to pass these variable to the HTML so that the javascript can use these values.
The way I usually do this is by doing "test.html?Fred=1"
Then the java script processes this as a parameter and creates the variable accordingly.

I need to pass these variable values into the HTML file, but because I've EMBEDDED the HTML file within the application, it can't find the HTML file in its Bundle if a append anything after the ".html" even a space.

Thanks
Keith

 

[kainjow]

Are you sure the NSURL object is valid on the iPhone? I'd put it in a separate variable so you can check it specifically.

Also I would use this code for getting the path - a bit cleaner:

NSString *fullPath = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"TestHTML.html" ofType:nil];

 

[KeithsPuma]

Are you sure the NSURL object is valid on the iPhone? I'd put it in a separate variable so you can check it specifically.

I'm pretty sure as if I don't append parameters it works. if i just an a single space to the URL then it doesn't.
I have used 2 variable above initial post the testing ( fullpath and fullURL ) if I use the fullpath in the call "requestWithURL" it works but not if I call "requestWithURL" with the fullURL variable.
I've tested it with fullpath and just added a space to it and that doen't.

Also I would use this code for getting the path - a bit cleaner:

..@"TestHTML.html" ofType:nil];

agreed that does look neater, thanks for that.
Thanks for the help. I just wonder if its a bug or by design ?

Keith

 

[kainjow]

I bet it's not working because fileURLWithPath expects a valid file, but you are appending the URL parameters to the file path. I would try using fileURLWithPath with the original .html file name (without the parameters), then on the URL call absoluteString to get the full URL as a string (which would be file://something, and then append to that the URL parameters.

 

[KeithsPuma]

Thanks

Thanks to all who tried to help.
I've given up with trying to pass variables.
I now dynamically create the web page.
For those who are interested this seems to work ;-)

float fred = 1.234;
NSError *error;
// Create the webpage
NSString * webPage = @"";
webPage = [ webPage stringByAppendingString:@"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN\" \"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd\">\n" ];
webPage = [ webPage stringByAppendingString:@"<html\">\n" ];
webPage = [ webPage stringByAppendingString:@"  <head>\n" ];
webPage = [ webPage stringByAppendingString:@"    <meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text/html; charset=utf-8\"/>\n" ];
webPage = [ webPage stringByAppendingString:@"    <title>iPhone - Test WebPage</title>\n" ];
webPage = [ webPage stringByAppendingString:@"    <script type=\"text/javascript\">\n" ];
webPage = [ webPage stringByAppendingString:@"      var fred =" ];
webPage = [ webPage stringByAppendingString: [ NSString stringWithFormat:@"%f", fred ] ];
webPage = [ webPage stringByAppendingString:@";" ];
.....
webPage = [ webPage stringByAppendingString:@"</html>\n" ];
		
// write to file
if ( [ webPage writeToFile:@"webpage.html" atomically:YES encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding error:&error ] )
{
  NSLog( @"SUCCESS IN WRITING FILE" );
  // Now try to display the WebPage
  [ self loadRequest:[ NSURLRequest requestWithURL:[ NSURL fileURLWithPath:@"webpage.html" ] ] ];
}
else
{
  NSLog( @"FAILED TO WRITE FILE" );
}

NSLog( webPage );

regards Keith

 

[kainjow]

Did you try what I wrote above? I just tested and it works

NSString *htmPath = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"params.htm" ofType:nil];
NSString *fileURLString = [[NSURL fileURLWithPath:htmPath] absoluteString];
NSString *params = @"?name=bob";
NSURL *fileURL = [NSURL URLWithString:[fileURLString stringByAppendingString:params]];
[webView loadRequest:[NSURLRequest requestWithURL:fileURL]];

The HTML I used:

<html>
<meta name="viewport" content="minimum-scale=1.0, width=device-width, maximum-scale=1">
<script language="javascript">
// from http://netlobo.com/url_query_string_javascript.html
function gup( name )
{
  name = name.replace(/[\[]/,"\\\[").replace(/[\]]/,"\\\]");
  var regexS = "[\\?&]"+name+"=([^&#]*)";
  var regex = new RegExp( regexS );
  var results = regex.exec( window.location.href );
  if( results == null )
    return "";
  else
    return results[1];
}

function get_name()
{
  return gup('name');
}
</script>
<body>
Your name is: <script language="javascript">document.write(get_name());</script>
</body>
</html>

 

[KeithsPuma]

Did you try what I wrote above? I just tested and it works

I did try but i misunderstood what you meant, I just put "file://" at the beginning of the string. Anyway Just tried your method and it works a treat. All is not lost as a newbee I have been learning xcode. As a seasoned windows "delphi" programmer its a big culture shock in the differences between Object C and Pascal.
Thanks
Keith

 

[svjim]

referencing bundled javascript files

This thread has been a tremendous help to me, however I have an additional question.

I am using a UIWebView and I am able to load an html file that is in the resources directory, but it references javascript libraries that are also in the resource directory.

<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="foo.js"></script>

Since foo.js in in the in the same directory, I thought it would load, but not so. Any suggestion on what I need to do to make this work would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Jim

 

[kainjow]

I would suggest using tokens. For exame, replace foo.js with $foo.js$, then you could use NSMutableString to replace $foo.js$ with the full path, which you can find using NSBundle's pathForResourcefType:. So the first time you launch the app, read in the HTML from your app's resources folder, replace the tokens, and then write it out to your app's documents folder.

 

[svjim]

Thanks, that makes a lot of sense.

Jim

 

[kainjow]

Actually, you might be able to use URLWithString:relativeToURL: instead.

 

[svjim]

relative URLS with UIWebView

Again thanks for all the help. I ended up doing the following.

// get the path to the main bundle

	NSString *bundlePath = [[NSBundle mainBundle]bundlePath];
	
	// get the path to the  the html file
	
	NSString *fullPath = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"tutorial2.html" ofType:nil];
	
	// read the html page into a string
	NSString *htmlText = [NSString stringWithContentsOfFile:fullPath];
	
	// Load the page as a string with the base URL set to the bundlePath 
            -- Now relative references in the page work
	
	[webView loadHTMLString:htmlText baseURL:[NSURL fileURLWithPath:bundlePath]];

I am still going to use tokens in the HTML, but not for relative URL addresses. I hope this might help someone else facing a similar problem.

Jim