How to view mobile web pages without using an open browser?

Hi there,

So at some point I guess iOS changed something where if you have a url in your game that opens a browser, it means the app is automatically 17+

In the past I used to do a "more games" feature which simply went to a hidden page on my web site

http://part12studios.com/moregames/

So my question is how can I perhaps bring up a web page inside of C2 without opening an external browser?

I realize I could just make a more games type page in a layout and that's fine, but the reason I like it pointing to something external is that as I add new games, the list would update automatically, not be something I have to push updates to every platform for every game each time I want to add a new game to the list.

Thanks!

Caleb

It was previously reported as a bug that 'Go to URL' would navigate the app instead of opening the device browser, so we changed it. If your app just navigates to a web page, why not just open it in the browser where the user can bookmark it, add it to their home screen etc?

Ashley well the issue is that when I go to submit the app to the app store for iOS they ask in the rating system if my app takes the user to an open browser..

I have no problem with this functionality. I think it's great. like you said, people can bookmark and all that..

however when you say yes to this question it instantly makes your rating 17+ the game I'm working on is a game for all ages. I'm concerned that I'll lose installs if I users see a big "are you 17 or older?" which could smack of malware or other shady activities in my 100% harmless little free game.

my hope would be that maybe there is a way to open an HTML page inside of C2 as a kind of "in app" browser. I still want to point to a specific URL on my web site, but I don't care if they can't navigate out of that page.. hide the address bar or other efforts to render the browser only good for one page.

Thanks

Caleb

Isn't that just trying to circumvent the app store restrictions if you open it inside the app instead of inside a separate browser? Then the app itself is the browser.

exactly. I want to know how I can do that, if it's even possible. I want the user to stay inside my app but be able to see real URLs.

For example a "more games" page on my web site can be updated on the fly and users who visit it will see the latest info rather than me baking in the information to a layout which would require updates any time i make a new game..

when i use the "go to" browser action it opens an external browser which = 17+ for iOS no matter what else I mark.

Really this issue seems to be isolated to iOS, but it's a significant platform so I'm looking to find a solution if there is one.

My latest build has been modified avoid this 17+ mark by removing any "go to" actions and simply tell people to go to a URL, but we all know this is going to be much less effective than allowing them to surf to the location in their browser at that moment with a simple click.

I did a little more digging around with this new update and seeing that Twitter has passed to become officially supported and documented as well as exploring leadbolt I came across the iframe plugin which I wasn't aware of previously.

This should pretty much get the job done I believe. I can simply make a new layout that would display an iframe, although if this isn't something that works for mobile or other gotcha's that anyone reading this knows I'd love to find out before I get too deep into this

this is the plugin I found / installed. SO far it seems to work well at least on chrome, but I haven't tried wrapping anything for mobile yet.

Thanks!

Caleb

so yea after some testing I see that iOS locks up when I go to a layout that has the pode iFrame in it. So this isn't going to be a good solution, unless someone knows if there is something I can do

I'm using Ejecta.. Perhaps I should try CocoonJS.. I'm not doing anything fancy like IAP or game center/leaderboard stuff (though I have plans to try eventually)

Thanks!

Caleb

I'm not sure it's a good idea to try and circumvent the app store restrictions - if they realise your app basically is a browser, won't the 17+ rating still apply?

well that's true I suppose, but reading it literally, I see it says "to navigate and view web pages". An iFrame would not allow you to get to anything except what I want them to get too. It would have no address bar. it would only go to a specific URL which means they can view, but not navigate. A more games page would only give links directly to the app store.

However I do see how someone could technically make a say... kids app pointing to and then be a creep and swap out that pageforkids page which was one puppys and kittens and replace it with something unsavory..

----

So I think that it will work IF I can bring up a URL that has no address bar. Something that prevents the user from seeing anything but what I link too (baked into the app). I want to at least try and see what happens. Worse case is that they reject it.

So it goes back to the question. Is it possible (through ejecta/cocoonjs) to view a web page in the app without just summoning an external browser? I realize that phone gap can do it from what I've researched about leadbolt, however until iOS8 is out it seems that phone gap is going to continue to be undesirable because of performance concerns.

i can't understand why a simple iframe is not working on mobiles yet? what the hell...

well much of this has become moot xanxion thanks to cordova / phonegap / xdk and all the plugins out there now. pode's iframe works fine for this purpose. when i was asking the question at the time it was before Cordova was officially adopted as the favored export method by Scirra.