Android Jetpack Compose – Create Dynamic WebView using Firebase Realtime Database

Last Updated : 28 Dec, 2022

Converting a website into an application seems like a basic task to do on Android. With the help of WebView, we can show any webpage in our Android Application. We just have to implement the widget of WebView and add the URL inside the WebView that we have to load. So if you are looking for loading a website into your app which can be changed dynamically without reformatting the code then this will become easier to update our WebView application dynamically according to our requirements. So in this article, we will take a look at implementing dynamic WebView in our application using Firebase in Android using Jetpack Compose. A sample video is given below to get an idea about what we are going to do in this article.

Step by Step Implementation

Step 1: Create a New Project in Android Studio

To create a new project in Android Studio please refer to How to Create/Start a New Project in Android Studio. While choosing the template, select Empty Compose Activity. If you do not find this template, try upgrading the Android Studio to the latest version. We demonstrated the application in Kotlin, so make sure you select Kotlin as the primary language while creating a New Project.

Step 2: Adding a new color in the Color.kt file

Navigate to app > java > your app’s package name > ui.theme > Color.kt file and add the below code to it.

Kotlin

package com.example.newcanaryproject.ui.theme 
  
import androidx.compose.ui.graphics.Color 
  
val Purple200 = Color(0xFF0F9D58) 
val Purple500 = Color(0xFF0F9D58) 
val Purple700 = Color(0xFF3700B3) 
val Teal200 = Color(0xFF03DAC5) 
  
// on below line we are adding different colors. 
val greenColor = Color(0xFF0F9D58) 

Step 3: Connect your app to Firebase

After creating a new project, navigate to the Tools option on the top bar. Inside that click on Firebase. After clicking on Firebase, you can get to see the right column mentioned below in the screenshot.

Inside that column Navigate to Firebase Realtime Database. Click on that option and you will get to see two options Connect the app to Firebase and Add Firebase Realtime Database to your app. Click on Connect now and your app will be connected to Firebase. After that click on the second option and now your App is connected to Firebase.

After completing this process you will get to see the below screen.

Now verify whether your app is connected to Firebase or not. Go to your build.gradle file. Navigate to the app > Gradle Scripts > build.gradle file and make sure that the below dependency is added in your dependencies section.

implementation platform('com.google.firebase:firebase-bom:30.3.2')
implementation 'com.google.firebase:firebase-database-ktx'

If the above dependency is not added to your dependencies section. Add this dependency and sync your project.

Step 4: Add internet permission to your AndroidManifest.xml file

Add the permission for the internet in the AndroidManifest.xml file.

XML

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" /> 
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" />

Step 5: Working with the MainActivity.kt file

Go to the MainActivity.kt file and refer to the following code. Below is the code for the MainActivity.kt file. Comments are added inside the code to understand the code in more detail.

Kotlin

package com.example.firebaseproject 
  
import android.annotation.SuppressLint 
import android.content.Context 
import android.os.Bundle 
import android.view.ViewGroup 
import android.webkit.WebView 
import android.webkit.WebViewClient 
import android.widget.Toast 
import androidx.activity.ComponentActivity 
import androidx.activity.compose.setContent 
import androidx.compose.foundation.Image 
import androidx.compose.foundation.background 
import androidx.compose.foundation.layout.* 
import androidx.compose.material.* 
import androidx.compose.runtime.* 
import androidx.compose.ui.Alignment 
import androidx.compose.ui.Modifier 
import androidx.compose.ui.graphics.Color 
import androidx.compose.ui.platform.LocalContext 
import androidx.compose.ui.text.TextStyle 
import androidx.compose.ui.text.font.FontFamily 
import androidx.compose.ui.text.font.FontStyle 
import androidx.compose.ui.text.font.FontWeight 
import androidx.compose.ui.text.input.TextFieldValue 
import androidx.compose.ui.text.style.TextAlign 
import androidx.compose.ui.unit.dp 
import androidx.compose.ui.unit.sp 
import androidx.compose.ui.viewinterop.AndroidView 
import coil.compose.rememberAsyncImagePainter 
import com.example.firebaseproject.ui.theme.FirebaseProjectTheme 
import com.example.firebaseproject.ui.theme.greenColor 
import com.google.firebase.database.* 
  
class MainActivity : ComponentActivity() { 
    @SuppressLint("UnrememberedMutableState") 
    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) { 
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState) 
        setContent { 
            FirebaseProjectTheme { 
                // A surface container using the 'background' color from the theme 
                Surface( 
                    // on below line we are specifying modifier and color for our app 
                    modifier = Modifier.fillMaxSize(), color = MaterialTheme.colors.background 
                ) { 
                    // on the below line we are specifying 
                    // the theme as the scaffold. 
                    Scaffold( 
                        // in scaffold we are specifying the top bar. 
                        topBar = { 
                            // inside top bar we are  
                            // specifying background color. 
                            TopAppBar(backgroundColor = greenColor, 
                                // along with that we are specifying 
                                // title for our top bar. 
                                title = { 
                                    // in the top bar we are  
                                    // specifying tile as a text 
                                    Text( 
                                        // on below line we are specifying 
                                        // text to display in top app bar 
                                        text = "GFG", 
                                        // on below line we are specifying 
                                        // modifier to fill max width 
                                        modifier = Modifier.fillMaxWidth(), 
                                        // on below line we are  
                                        // specifying text alignment 
                                        textAlign = TextAlign.Center, 
                                        // on below line we are  
                                        // specifying color for our text. 
                                        color = Color.White 
                                    ) 
                                }) 
                        }) { 
                        // on below line we are calling  
                        // method to display UI 
                        firebaseUI(LocalContext.current) 
                    } 
                } 
            } 
        } 
    } 
} 
  
@Composable
fun firebaseUI(context: Context) { 
  
    // on below line creating 
    // variable for url. 
    val url = remember { 
        mutableStateOf("") 
    } 
    // on below line creating variable for firebase 
    // database and database reference. 
    val firebaseDatabase = FirebaseDatabase.getInstance(); 
    val databaseReference = firebaseDatabase.getReference("Url"); 
  
    // on below line adding value event listener for database reference. 
    databaseReference.addValueEventListener(object : ValueEventListener { 
        override fun onDataChange(snapshot: DataSnapshot) { 
            // this method is call to get the realtime 
            // updates in the data. 
            // this method is called when the data is 
            // changed in our Firebase console. 
            // below line is for getting the data from 
            // snapshot of our database. 
            val value = snapshot.getValue(String::class.java) 
  
            // after getting the value we are setting 
            // our value to url. 
            url.value = value!! 
        } 
  
        override fun onCancelled(error: DatabaseError) { 
            // calling on cancelled method when we receive 
            // any error or we are not able to get the data. 
            Toast.makeText(context, "Fail to get data.", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show() 
        } 
    }) 
  
    // on below line creating a column 
    // to display our retrieved image view. 
    Column( 
        // adding modifier for our column 
        modifier = Modifier 
            .fillMaxHeight() 
            .fillMaxWidth() 
            .background(Color.White), 
        // on below line adding vertical and 
        // horizontal alignment for column. 
        verticalArrangement = Arrangement.Center, horizontalAlignment = Alignment.CenterHorizontally 
    ) { 
  
  
        // Adding a WebView inside AndroidView 
        // with layout as full screen 
        AndroidView(factory = { 
            WebView(it).apply { 
                // on below line adding layout params for webview. 
                layoutParams = ViewGroup.LayoutParams( 
                    ViewGroup.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, 
                    ViewGroup.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT 
                ) 
                // on below line setting webview client. 
                webViewClient = WebViewClient() 
                // on below line loading webview url 
                loadUrl(url.value) 
            } 
        }, update = { 
            // on below line updating  
            // webview url on change. 
            it.loadUrl(url.value) 
        }) 
    } 
}

After adding this code to your app. Now go to Firebase and click on Go to console option which is in the top right corner.

After clicking on this screen you will get to see the below screen with your all project inside that select your project.

Inside that screen click n Realtime Database in the left window.

After clicking on this option you will get to see the screen on the right side. On this page click on the Rules option which is present in the top bar. You will get to see the below screen.

In this project, we are adding our rules as true for reading as well as a write because we are not using any authentication to verify our user. So we are currently setting it to true to test our application. After changing your rules. Click on the publish button at the top right corner and your rules will be saved there. Now again come back to the Data tab. Now we will be adding our data to Firebase manually from Firebase itself. Now again come back to the Data tab. Now we will be adding our data to Firebase manually from Firebase itself.

Step 6: Adding URL for your Web Page in Firebase Console

Inside Firebase Realtime Database. Navigate to the Data tab. Inside this tab Hover on the database section inside click on the “+” icon. After clicking on the “+” icon you will get to see two input fields which are the Name and Value fields. Inside the Name field, you have to add the reference for your web page which in our case is “url”. And in our value field, we have to add a URL for our web page. After adding the value in this field. Click on Add button and your data will be added to Firebase Console. After adding the URL for your video. Now run your app and see the output of the app below.

Output:

You can change the URL of your web page dynamically from the database and the web view will be updated inside the application in real-time.