Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
84 lines (68 loc) · 2.64 KB

webview-shell.md

File metadata and controls

84 lines (68 loc) · 2.64 KB

System WebView Shell

WebView team maintains a "shell"--a thin interface over the WebView APIs--to exercise WebView functionality. The System WebView Shell (AKA "shell browser," "WebView shell") is a standalone app implemented in chromium. While often used for manual testing, we also use the shell for automated tests (see our layout and page cycler tests).

*** note This relies on the WebView installed on the system. So if you're trying to verify local changes to WebView, or run against a specific WebView build, you must install WebView first.

*** promo Tip: the shell displays the WebView version (the corresponding chromium version number) in the title bar at the top. This can be helpful for checking which WebView version is installed & selected on the device.

Building the shell

$ autoninja -C out/Default system_webview_shell_apk

Installing the shell

# Build and install
$ out/Default/bin/system_webview_shell_apk install

The WebView shell may be preinstalled on a device or emulator. If the signature of the locally built shell does not match the preinstalled shell then the install will fail – usually with this error:

...
path/to/SystemWebViewShell.apk: Failure [INSTALL_FAILED_UPDATE_INCOMPATIBLE:
Package org.chromium.webview_shell signatures do not match previously installed
version; ignoring!]

If this occurs then delete the preinstalled WebView shell as so:

*** note Note: If using the emulator ensure it is being started with the -writable-system option as per the Writable system partition instructions.

# Remount the /system partition read-write
$ adb root
$ adb remount
# Get the APK path to the WebView shell
$ adb shell pm path org.chromium.webview_shell
package:/system/app/Browser2/Browser2.apk
# Use the APK path above to delete the APK
$ adb shell rm /system/app/Browser2/Browser2.apk
# Restart the Android shell to "forget" about the WebView shell
$ adb shell stop
$ adb shell start

Running the shell

# Launch a URL from the commandline, or open the app from the app launcher
$ out/Default/bin/system_webview_shell_apk launch "https://www.google.com/"

# For more commands:
$ out/Default/bin/system_webview_shell_apk --help

*** note Note: system_webview_shell_apk does not support modifying CLI flags. See https://crbug.com/959425. Instead, you should modify WebView's flags by following commandline-flags.md.