Question

I have a very simple UIWebView with content from my application bundle. I would like any links in the web view to open in Safari instead of in the web view. Is this possible?

Answer 1

Add this to the UIWebView delegate:

(edited to check for navigation type. you could also pass through file:// requests which would be relative links)

- (BOOL)webView:(UIWebView *)webView shouldStartLoadWithRequest:(NSURLRequest *)request navigationType:(UIWebViewNavigationType)navigationType {
    if (navigationType == UIWebViewNavigationTypeLinkClicked ) {
        [[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:[request URL]];
        return NO;
    }

    return YES;
}

Swift Version:

func webView(webView: UIWebView, shouldStartLoadWithRequest request: NSURLRequest, navigationType: UIWebViewNavigationType) -> Bool {
        if navigationType == UIWebViewNavigationType.LinkClicked {
            UIApplication.sharedApplication().openURL(request.URL!)
            return false
        }
        return true
    }

Swift 3 version:

func webView(_ webView: UIWebView, shouldStartLoadWith request: URLRequest, navigationType: UIWebViewNavigationType) -> Bool {
    if navigationType == UIWebViewNavigationType.linkClicked {
        UIApplication.shared.openURL(request.url!)
        return false
    }
    return true
}

Swift 4 version:

func webView(_ webView: UIWebView, shouldStartLoadWith request: URLRequest, navigationType: UIWebView.NavigationType) -> Bool {
    guard let url = request.url, navigationType == .linkClicked else { return true }
    UIApplication.shared.open(url, options: [:], completionHandler: nil)
    return false
}

Update

As openURL has been deprecated in iOS 10:

- (BOOL)webView:(UIWebView *)webView shouldStartLoadWithRequest:(NSURLRequest *)request navigationType:(UIWebViewNavigationType)navigationType {
        if (navigationType == UIWebViewNavigationTypeLinkClicked ) {
            UIApplication *application = [UIApplication sharedApplication];
            [application openURL:[request URL] options:@{} completionHandler:nil];
            return NO;
        }

        return YES;
}