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

• Motivation
• Requirements
• Usage
  • SafariView
  • WebAuthenticationSession
• Known Issues
• Installation
  • Swift Package Manager
  • Xcode
• Demo
• License

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 RootView.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.

• Xcode 11.0+
• Swift 5.1+

• iOS 13.0+
• Mac Catalyst 13.0+

• iOS 13.0+
• Mac Catalyst 13.0+
• macOS 10.15+
• watchOS 6.2+

With the following modifiers, you can use it in a similar way to present a sheet.

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)
        }
    }
}

/// Presents a Safari view when a given condition is true.
func safariView(
    isPresented: Binding<Bool>,
    onDismiss: (() -> Void)? = nil,
    content: @escaping () -> SafariView
) -> some View

/// Presents a Safari view using the given item as a data source for the `SafariView` to present.
func safariView<Item: Identifiable>(
    item: Binding<Item?>,
    onDismiss: (() -> Void)? = nil,
    content: @escaping (Item) -> SafariView
) -> some View

/// Creates a Safari view that loads the specified URL.
init(url: URL)

/// Creates and configures a Safari view that loads the specified URL.
init(url: URL, configuration: SafariView.Configuration)

/// Sets the accent color for the background of the navigation bar and the toolbar.
func preferredBarAccentColor(_ color: Color?) -> SafariView

/// Sets the accent color for the control buttons on the navigation bar and the toolbar.
func preferredControlAccentColor(_ color: Color?) -> SafariView

/// Sets the style of dismiss button to use in the navigation bar to close `SafariView`.
func dismissButtonStyle(_ style: SafariView.DismissButtonStyle) -> SafariView

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)
        }
    }
}

/// Starts a web authentication session when a given condition is true.
func webAuthenticationSession(
    isPresented: Binding<Bool>,
    content: @escaping () -> WebAuthenticationSession
) -> some View

/// Starts a web authentication session using the given item as a data source for the `WebAuthenticationSession` to start.
func webAuthenticationSession<Item: Identifiable>(
    item: Binding<Item?>,
    content: @escaping (Item) -> WebAuthenticationSession
) -> some View

/// Creates a web authentication session instance.
init(
    url: URL,
    callbackURLScheme: String?,
    completionHandler: @escaping (URL?, Error?) -> Void
)

/// Creates a web authentication session instance.
init(
    url: URL,
    callbackURLScheme: String?,
    onCompletion: @escaping (Result<URL, Error>) -> Void
)

/// Configures whether the session should ask the browser for a private authentication session.
func prefersEphemeralWebBrowserSession(_ prefersEphemeralWebBrowserSession: Bool) -> WebAuthenticationSession

• 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.

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

.package(url: "https://github.com/stleamist/BetterSafariView.git", .upToNextMajor(from: "2.4.2"))

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: "2.4.2"))
    ],
    targets: [
        .target(name: "MyTarget", dependencies: ["BetterSafariView"])
    ]
)

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.

You can see how it works on each platform and compare it with the other naive implementations in the demo project. Check out the demo app by opening BetterSafariView.xcworkspace.

NOTE: This demo project is available for iOS 14.0+, macOS 11.0+, and watchOS 7.0+, while the package is compatible with iOS 13.0+, macOS 10.15+, and watchOS 6.2+.

BetterSafariView is released under the MIT license. See LICENSE for details.