BetterSafariView

A better way to present a SFSafariViewController or start a ASWebAuthenticationSession in SwiftUI.

BetterSafariView-Cover

Motivation

BetterSafariView-Comparison

SwiftUI is a strong, intuitive way to build user interfaces, but was released with some part of existing elements missing. One example of those missing elements is the SFSafariViewController.

Fortunately, Apple provides a way to wrap UIKit elements into SwiftUI views. A common approach to place the SFSafariViewController inside SwiftUI is to create a simple view representing a SFSafariViewController, then present it with a sheet(isPresented:onDismiss:content:) modifier or a NavigationLink button (See ContentView.swift in the demo project).

However, there’s a problem in this approach: it can’t present the SFSafariViewController with its default presentation style — a push transition covers full screen. A sheet modifier can present the view only in a modal sheet, and a navigation link shows the two navigation bars at the top so we have to deal with them. This comes down to the conclusion that there’s no option to present it the right way except for using present(_:animated:completion:) method of a UIViewController instance, but it is prohibited and not a good design to access the UIHostingController directly from the SwiftUI view.

BetterSafariView clearly achieves this goal by hosting a simple UIViewController to present a SFSafariViewController as a view’s background. In this way, a ASWebAuthenticationSession is also able to be started without any issue in SwiftUI.

Usage

You can use it easily with the following modifiers in a similar way to presenting a sheet.

SafariView

Modifiers

.safariView(isPresented:onDismiss:content)

.safariView(item:onDismiss:content)

Example

import SwiftUI
import BetterSafariView

struct ContentView: View {
    
    @State private var presentingSafariView = false
    
    var body: some View {
        Button(action: {
            self.presentingSafariView = true
        }) {
            Text("Present SafariView")
        }
        .safariView(isPresented: $presentingSafariView) {
            SafariView(
                url: URL(string: "https://github.com/")!,
                configuration: SafariView.Configuration(
                    entersReaderIfAvailable: false,
                    barCollapsingEnabled: true
                )
            )
            .preferredBarAccentColor(.clear)
            .preferredControlAccentColor(.accentColor)
            .dismissButtonStyle(.done)
        }
    }
}

WebAuthenticationSession

Modifiers

.webAuthenticationSession(isPresented:content)

.webAuthenticationSession(item:content)

Example

import SwiftUI
import BetterSafariView

struct ContentView: View {
    
    @State private var startingWebAuthenticationSession = false
    
    var body: some View {
        Button(action: {
            self.startingWebAuthenticationSession = true
        }) {
            Text("Start WebAuthenticationSession")
        }
        .webAuthenticationSession(isPresented: $startingWebAuthenticationSession) {
            WebAuthenticationSession(
                url: URL(string: "https://github.com/login/oauth/authorize")!,
                callbackURLScheme: "github"
            ) { callbackURL, error in
                print(callbackURL, error)
            }
            .prefersEphemeralWebBrowserSession(false)
        }
    }
}

Known Issues

  • In .webAuthenticationSession(item:content:) modifier, the functionality that replaces a session on the item's identity change is not implemented, as there is no non-hacky way to be notified when the session's dismissal animation is completed.

Installation

Swift Package Manager

Add the following line to the dependencies in your Package.swift file:

.package(url: "https://github.com/stleamist/BetterSafariView.git", .upToNextMajor(from: "2.0.0"))

Next, add BetterSafariView as a dependency for your targets:

.target(name: "MyTarget", dependencies: ["BetterSafariView"])

Your completed description may look like this:

// swift-tools-version:5.1

import PackageDescription

let package = Package(
    name: "MyPackage",
    dependencies: [
        .package(url: "https://github.com/stleamist/BetterSafariView.git", .upToNextMajor(from: "2.0.0"))
    ],
    targets: [
        .target(name: "MyTarget", dependencies: ["BetterSafariView"])
    ]
)

Xcode

Select File > Swift Packages > Add Package Dependency, then enter the following URL:

https://github.com/stleamist/BetterSafariView.git

For more details, see Adding Package Dependencies to Your App.

Demo

BetterSafariViewDemo-RootView

You can compare the behavior of BetterSafariView with the other ways above in the demo project. Check out the demo app by opening BetterSafariView.xcworkspace.

GitHub