Change User Agent in UIWebView

Question

I have a business need to be able to customize the UserAgent for an embedded UIWebView    For instance  I d like the server to respond differently if  say  a user is using one version of the app versus another    Is it possible to customize the UserAgent in the existing UIWebView control the way it is  say  for an embedded IE browser in a Windows app

User · Answer

Actually adding any header field to the NSURLRequest argument in shouldStartLoadWithRequest seems to work, because the request responds to setValue:ForHTTPHeaderField - but it doesn't actually work - the request is sent out without the header.

So I used this workaround in shouldStartLoadWithRequest which just copies the given request to a new mutable request, and re-loads it. This does in fact modify the header which is sent out.

if ( [request valueForHTTPHeaderField:@"MyUserAgent"] == nil )
{
    NSMutableURLRequest *modRequest = [request mutableCopyWithZone:NULL];
    [modRequest setValue:@"myagent" forHTTPHeaderField:@"MyUserAgent"];
    [webViewArgument loadRequest:modRequest];
    return NO;
}

Unfortunately, this still doesn't allow overriding the user-agent http header, which is apparently overwritten by Apple. I guess for overriding it you would have to manage a NSURLConnection by yourself.

User · Answer

Taking everything this is how it was solved for me   -  void viewDidLoad       NSURL  url    NSURL URLWithString    http   www amazon com        NSMutableURLRequest  request    NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL url        request setValue   Foobar 1 0  forHTTPHeaderField   User-Agent         webView loadRequest request       Thanks Everyone

User · Answer

Try this in the AppDelegate m     void initialize             Set user agent  the only problem is that we can   t modify the User-Agent later in the program          iOS 5 1      NSDictionary  dictionnary     NSDictionary alloc  initWithObjectsAndKeys     Mozilla 5 0  iPad  CPU OS 5 1 like Mac OS X  AppleWebKit 534 46  KHTML  like Gecko  Version 5 1 Mobile 9B176 Safari 7534 48 3         UserAgent     nil           NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults  registerDefaults dictionnary

User · Answer

Taking everything this is how it was solved for me   -  void viewDidLoad       NSURL  url    NSURL URLWithString    http   www amazon com        NSMutableURLRequest  request    NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL url        request setValue   Foobar 1 0  forHTTPHeaderField   User-Agent         webView loadRequest request       Thanks Everyone

User · Answer

Try this in the AppDelegate m     void initialize             Set user agent  the only problem is that we can   t modify the User-Agent later in the program          iOS 5 1      NSDictionary  dictionnary     NSDictionary alloc  initWithObjectsAndKeys     Mozilla 5 0  iPad  CPU OS 5 1 like Mac OS X  AppleWebKit 534 46  KHTML  like Gecko  Version 5 1 Mobile 9B176 Safari 7534 48 3         UserAgent     nil           NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults  registerDefaults dictionnary

User · Answer

This solution seems to have been seen as a pretty clever way to do it  changing-the-headers-for-uiwebkit-http-requests  It uses Method Swizzling and you can learn more about it on the CocoaDev page  Give it a look

User · Answer

I faced the same question  I want to add some info to the user-agent  also need to keep the original user-agent of webview  I solved it by using the code below         get the original user-agent of webview UIWebView  webView     UIWebView alloc  initWithFrame CGRectZero   NSString  oldAgent    webView stringByEvaluatingJavaScriptFromString   navigator userAgent    NSLog   old agent       oldAgent      add my info to the new agent NSString  newAgent    oldAgent stringByAppendingString    Jiecao 2 4 7 ch appstore    NSLog   new agent       newAgent      regist the new agent NSDictionary  dictionnary     NSDictionary alloc  initWithObjectsAndKeys newAgent    UserAgent   nil     NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults  registerDefaults dictionnary     Use it before you instancing webview

User · Answer

Very simple in Swift   Just place the following into your App Delegate   UserDefaults standard register defaults    UserAgent     Custom Agent      If you want to append to the existing agent string then   let userAgent   UIWebView   stringByEvaluatingJavaScript from   navigator userAgent        Custom Agent  UserDefaults standard register defaults    UserAgent    userAgent     Note  You may will need to uninstall and reinstall the App to avoid appending to the existing agent string

User · Answer

The only problem I have found was change user agent only  -  BOOL application  UIApplication   application         didFinishLaunchingWithOptions  NSDictionary   launchOptions       NSDictionary  dictionary    NSDictionary          dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys            Mozilla 5 0  iPod  U  CPU iPhone OS 4 3 3 like Mac OS X  ja-jp  AppleWebKit 533 17 9  KHTML  like Gecko  Version 5 0 2 Mobile 8J2 Safari 6533 18 5              UserAgent   nil         NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults  registerDefaults dictionary

User · Answer

I faced the same question  I want to add some info to the user-agent  also need to keep the original user-agent of webview  I solved it by using the code below         get the original user-agent of webview UIWebView  webView     UIWebView alloc  initWithFrame CGRectZero   NSString  oldAgent    webView stringByEvaluatingJavaScriptFromString   navigator userAgent    NSLog   old agent       oldAgent      add my info to the new agent NSString  newAgent    oldAgent stringByAppendingString    Jiecao 2 4 7 ch appstore    NSLog   new agent       newAgent      regist the new agent NSDictionary  dictionnary     NSDictionary alloc  initWithObjectsAndKeys newAgent    UserAgent   nil     NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults  registerDefaults dictionnary     Use it before you instancing webview

User · Answer

By pooling the answer by Louis St-Amour and the NSUserDefaults UnRegisterDefaults category from this question answer  you can use the following methods to start and stop user-agent spoofing at any time while your app is running    define kUserAgentKey   UserAgent   -  void startSpoofingUserAgent  NSString   userAgent         NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults  registerDefaults    kUserAgentKey   userAgent        -  void stopSpoofingUserAgent         NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults  unregisterDefaultForKey kUserAgentKey

User · Answer

Using   User Agent  simply causes a custom header to appear in the GET request      User agent  Foobar 1 0 r nUser-Agent  Mozilla 5 0  iPhone  U  CPU   iPhone OS 3 1 2 like Mac OS X  en-us  AppleWebKit 528 18  KHTML  like   Gecko  Mobile 7D11 r n   The above is what appears in the dissected HTTP packet  essentially confirming what Sfjava was quoting from that forum  It s interesting to note that  User-Agent  gets turned into  User agent

User · Answer

Modern Swift  Here s a suggestion for Swift 3  projects from StackOverflow users PassKit and Kheldar   UserDefaults standard register defaults    UserAgent     Custom Agent      Source  https   stackoverflow com a 27330998 128579  Earlier Objective-C Answer  With iOS 5 changes  I recommend the following approach  originally from this StackOverflow question  UIWebView iOS5 changing user-agent as pointed out in an answer below  In comments on that page  it appears to work in 4 3 and earlier also      Change the  UserAgent  default value by running this code once when   your app starts   NSDictionary  dictionary       UserAgent     Your user agent      NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults  registerDefaults dictionary     NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults  synchronize      See previous edits on this post if you need methods that work in versions of iOS before 4 3 5 0  Note that because of the extensive edits  the following comments   other answers on this page may not make sense  This is a four year old question  after all   -

User · Answer

Actually adding any header field to the NSURLRequest argument in shouldStartLoadWithRequest seems to work, because the request responds to setValue:ForHTTPHeaderField - but it doesn't actually work - the request is sent out without the header.

So I used this workaround in shouldStartLoadWithRequest which just copies the given request to a new mutable request, and re-loads it. This does in fact modify the header which is sent out.

if ( [request valueForHTTPHeaderField:@"MyUserAgent"] == nil )
{
    NSMutableURLRequest *modRequest = [request mutableCopyWithZone:NULL];
    [modRequest setValue:@"myagent" forHTTPHeaderField:@"MyUserAgent"];
    [webViewArgument loadRequest:modRequest];
    return NO;
}

Unfortunately, this still doesn't allow overriding the user-agent http header, which is apparently overwritten by Apple. I guess for overriding it you would have to manage a NSURLConnection by yourself.

User · Answer

I had this problem too  and tried all methods  I found that only this method works  iOS 5 x   UIWebView iOS5 changing user-agent  The principle is to set the user agent permanently in the user settings  This works  Webview sends the given header  Just two lines of code   NSDictionary  dictionary    NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys   Mozilla Whatever version 913 6 beta     UserAgent   nil     NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults  registerDefaults dictionary     Setting User-Agent  or User Agent in the mutable request  or overriding the setValue in the NSHttpRequest by swizzling  - I tried all that and controlled the results with wireshark  and none of that seems to work  because Webview still uses the user agent value from the user defaults  no matter what you try to set in the NSHttpRequest

User · Answer

It should work with an NSMutableURLRequest as Kuso has written   NSMutableURLRequest  urlRequest     NSMutableURLRequest alloc  initWithURL   NSURL URLWithString    http   www google com       urlRequest setValue    iPhone  forHTTPHeaderField    User-Agent       Or any other User-Agent value    You ll have to use NSURLConnection to get the responseData  Set the responseData to your UIWebView and the webView should render    webView loadData  NSData   data MIMEType  NSString   MIMEType textEncodingName  NSString   encodingName baseURL  NSURL   baseURL

User · Answer

By pooling the answer by Louis St-Amour and the NSUserDefaults UnRegisterDefaults category from this question answer  you can use the following methods to start and stop user-agent spoofing at any time while your app is running    define kUserAgentKey   UserAgent   -  void startSpoofingUserAgent  NSString   userAgent         NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults  registerDefaults    kUserAgentKey   userAgent        -  void stopSpoofingUserAgent         NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults  unregisterDefaultForKey kUserAgentKey

User · Answer

To just add a custom content to the current UserAgent value  do the following   1 - Get the user agent value from a NEW WEBVIEW  2 - Append the custom content to it  3 - Save the new value in a dictionary with the key UserAgent  4 - Save the dictionary in standardUserDefaults    See the exemple below   NSString  userAgentP1      UIWebView alloc  init  stringByEvaluatingJavaScriptFromString   navigator userAgent    NSString  userAgentP2     My custom value   NSString  userAgent    NSString stringWithFormat           userAgentP1  userAgentP2   NSDictionary  dictionary    NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys userAgent    UserAgent   nil     NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults  registerDefaults dictionary

User · Answer

Very simple in Swift   Just place the following into your App Delegate   UserDefaults standard register defaults    UserAgent     Custom Agent      If you want to append to the existing agent string then   let userAgent   UIWebView   stringByEvaluatingJavaScript from   navigator userAgent        Custom Agent  UserDefaults standard register defaults    UserAgent    userAgent     Note  You may will need to uninstall and reinstall the App to avoid appending to the existing agent string

User · Answer

Apple will soon stop accepting apps with UIWebView  Find below for how you could change the user agent in WKWebView   let config   WKWebViewConfiguration    config applicationNameForUserAgent    My iOS app   webView   WKWebView frame   lt the frame you need gt   configuration  config

User · Answer

Using   User Agent  simply causes a custom header to appear in the GET request      User agent  Foobar 1 0 r nUser-Agent  Mozilla 5 0  iPhone  U  CPU   iPhone OS 3 1 2 like Mac OS X  en-us  AppleWebKit 528 18  KHTML  like   Gecko  Mobile 7D11 r n   The above is what appears in the dissected HTTP packet  essentially confirming what Sfjava was quoting from that forum  It s interesting to note that  User-Agent  gets turned into  User agent

User · Answer

It should work with an NSMutableURLRequest as Kuso has written   NSMutableURLRequest  urlRequest     NSMutableURLRequest alloc  initWithURL   NSURL URLWithString    http   www google com       urlRequest setValue    iPhone  forHTTPHeaderField    User-Agent       Or any other User-Agent value    You ll have to use NSURLConnection to get the responseData  Set the responseData to your UIWebView and the webView should render    webView loadData  NSData   data MIMEType  NSString   MIMEType textEncodingName  NSString   encodingName baseURL  NSURL   baseURL

User · Answer

I had this problem too  and tried all methods  I found that only this method works  iOS 5 x   UIWebView iOS5 changing user-agent  The principle is to set the user agent permanently in the user settings  This works  Webview sends the given header  Just two lines of code   NSDictionary  dictionary    NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys   Mozilla Whatever version 913 6 beta     UserAgent   nil     NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults  registerDefaults dictionary     Setting User-Agent  or User Agent in the mutable request  or overriding the setValue in the NSHttpRequest by swizzling  - I tried all that and controlled the results with wireshark  and none of that seems to work  because Webview still uses the user agent value from the user defaults  no matter what you try to set in the NSHttpRequest

User · Answer

Apple will soon stop accepting apps with UIWebView  Find below for how you could change the user agent in WKWebView   let config   WKWebViewConfiguration    config applicationNameForUserAgent    My iOS app   webView   WKWebView frame   lt the frame you need gt   configuration  config

User · Answer

This solution seems to have been seen as a pretty clever way to do it  changing-the-headers-for-uiwebkit-http-requests  It uses Method Swizzling and you can learn more about it on the CocoaDev page  Give it a look

User · Answer

The only problem I have found was change user agent only  -  BOOL application  UIApplication   application         didFinishLaunchingWithOptions  NSDictionary   launchOptions       NSDictionary  dictionary    NSDictionary          dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys            Mozilla 5 0  iPod  U  CPU iPhone OS 4 3 3 like Mac OS X  ja-jp  AppleWebKit 533 17 9  KHTML  like Gecko  Version 5 0 2 Mobile 8J2 Safari 6533 18 5              UserAgent   nil         NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults  registerDefaults dictionary

User · Answer

Modern Swift  Here s a suggestion for Swift 3  projects from StackOverflow users PassKit and Kheldar   UserDefaults standard register defaults    UserAgent     Custom Agent      Source  https   stackoverflow com a 27330998 128579  Earlier Objective-C Answer  With iOS 5 changes  I recommend the following approach  originally from this StackOverflow question  UIWebView iOS5 changing user-agent as pointed out in an answer below  In comments on that page  it appears to work in 4 3 and earlier also      Change the  UserAgent  default value by running this code once when   your app starts   NSDictionary  dictionary       UserAgent     Your user agent      NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults  registerDefaults dictionary     NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults  synchronize      See previous edits on this post if you need methods that work in versions of iOS before 4 3 5 0  Note that because of the extensive edits  the following comments   other answers on this page may not make sense  This is a four year old question  after all   -

User · Answer

To just add a custom content to the current UserAgent value  do the following   1 - Get the user agent value from a NEW WEBVIEW  2 - Append the custom content to it  3 - Save the new value in a dictionary with the key UserAgent  4 - Save the dictionary in standardUserDefaults    See the exemple below   NSString  userAgentP1      UIWebView alloc  init  stringByEvaluatingJavaScriptFromString   navigator userAgent    NSString  userAgentP2     My custom value   NSString  userAgent    NSString stringWithFormat           userAgentP1  userAgentP2   NSDictionary  dictionary    NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys userAgent    UserAgent   nil     NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults  registerDefaults dictionary

[ios] Change User Agent in UIWebView

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