Can't open an external link when running on iOS 18 (e.g. with '_system' as target)

[kenguest]

Bug Report

Problem

External links won't open on iOS 18. They do open on iOS 17. I upgraded to iOS 18 and it does not any more. e.g.
<a target="_system" href="https://google.com">Click me</a>

iOS 18 is now on 68% of iOS devices - https://uk.pcmag.com/operating-systems/156441/ios-18-adoption-hits-68-among-iphone-users - so it's rather important this gets fixed.

This is described in apache/cordova-ios#1511 which apparently was closed with no code change made. (I looked at the repo for cordova-plugin-inappbrowser and did a "git blame" - couldn't find any relevant code changes)

What is expected to happen?

The link should open in an external browser, most likely Safari.

What does actually happen?

Nothing - no message, no log entry (apart from below in xcode) and no crash. A great absence of the link not opening :(

Information

Logs in Xcode when this happens :

BUG IN CLIENT OF UIKIT: The caller of UIApplication.openURL(_:) needs to migrate to the non-deprecated UIApplication.open(_:options:completionHandler:). Force returning false (NO).

Command or Code

Build an app with the code below on iOS 18 and click the link :

<a target="_system" href="https://google.com">Click me</a>

Or use code like:
cordova.InAppBrowser.open('https://google.com/', '_system');

Environment, Platform, Device

An iPad or iPhone running iOS 18.

Version information

iOS 18.2
cordova-ios 7.1.0
cordova-plugin-inappbrowser 6.0.0
cordova 12.0.0

Checklist

• I searched for existing GitHub issues
• I updated all Cordova tooling to most recent version
• I included all the necessary information above

[guilhermoMetaway]

I'm also having this problem with IOS 18.0.3.

However, I'm using it with Ionic:
`
import {InAppBrowser} from '@awesome-cordova-plugins/in-app-browser/ngx'

const ref = this.iab.create(_url, '_system', options);
ref.show();
`
No page opens and no errors or exceptions are thrown.

[AlexDonn19]

See this link:
https://discussions.unity.com/t/application-openurl-doesnt-work-on-ios-18/1553960/12
You can change CDVWKInAppBrowser.m , string 364 to something like this:
// [[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:url];
if (@available(iOS 10.0, *)) {
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:url options:@{} completionHandler:^(BOOL success) {
if (!success) {
NSLog(@"Failed to open URL: %@", url);
}
}];
} else {
BOOL success = [[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:url];
if (!success) {
NSLog(@"Failed to open URL: %@", url);
}
}

[FabioFerrua]

@kenguest
I was in the exact same situation as you, encountering the same errors. Upon examining the CDVWKInAppBrowser.m file, I noticed that Xcode was displaying a warning:

I realized that the code in this file differed from the version 6.0 of the plugin.
To resolve the issue, I simply uninstalled and reinstalled the plugin using the following commands:

cordova plugin remove cordova-plugin-inappbrowser
cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-inappbrowser

After performing these steps, the method's code changed, and Xcode no longer displayed any warnings:

Now, the system browser (Safari) opens and loads the website correctly.

[guilhermoMetaway]

@kenguest I was in the exact same situation as you, encountering the same errors. Upon examining the CDVWKInAppBrowser.m file, I noticed that Xcode was displaying a warning:

I realized that the code in this file differed from the version 6.0 of the plugin. To resolve the issue, I simply uninstalled and reinstalled the plugin using the following commands:

cordova plugin remove cordova-plugin-inappbrowser cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-inappbrowser

After performing these steps, the method's code changed, and Xcode no longer displayed any warnings:

Now, the system browser (Safari) opens and loads the website correctly.

I'll try that

[blancaster94]

Hi, I fixed this on our enterprise app. Obj-c openUrl function syntax was changed. Just fork the repo, and update the Obj-c code that's showing the warning. If you're not familiar with forking plugins, you'll need to look into that.