Atomic Webview

A powerful, cross-platform WebView for Flutter supporting Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, Web, and Windows with a single unified API.

Platform Support

Platform	Support	Engine
Android	✅	Android WebView (via webview_flutter)
iOS	✅	WKWebView (via webview_flutter)
Linux	✅	WebKitGTK (webkit2gtk-4.0 or 4.1)
macOS	✅	WKWebView (native)
Windows	✅	Microsoft WebView2
Web	✅	Browser iframe

Features

• Unified API: One WebViewController works across all 6 platforms.
• Navigation: Load URLs, go back/forward, reload, and stop loading.
• JavaScript: Evaluate JavaScript and receive results.
• Asset Loading: Load local Flutter assets directly into the WebView.
• Native Performance: Uses each platform's native web engine.
• Desktop Windows: A separate native window with an optional Flutter-based title bar.

Requirements

Windows

Microsoft WebView2 Runtime must be installed. It ships by default with Windows 11 and recent Windows 10 updates.

Linux (Ubuntu / Debian)

Install the WebKitGTK development library. The plugin automatically detects which version is available:

# Ubuntu 22.04+ (preferred)
sudo apt install libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev

# Ubuntu 20.04 / older systems
sudo apt install libwebkit2gtk-4.0-dev

Android

Minimum SDK version 19. Enable cleartext traffic in AndroidManifest.xml if needed for non-HTTPS URLs:

<application android:usesCleartextTraffic="true" ...>

Installation

Add atomic_webview to your pubspec.yaml:

dependencies:
  atomic_webview: ^0.1.2

Then run:

flutter pub get

Quick Start

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:atomic_webview/atomic_webview.dart';

void main() {
  runApp(const MaterialApp(home: MyWebViewPage()));
}

class MyWebViewPage extends StatefulWidget {
  const MyWebViewPage({super.key});

  @override
  State<MyWebViewPage> createState() => _MyWebViewPageState();
}

class _MyWebViewPageState extends State<MyWebViewPage> {
  final WebViewController _controller = WebViewController();

  @override
  void initState() {
    super.initState();
    WidgetsBinding.instance.addPostFrameCallback((_) async {
      await _controller.init(
        context: context,
        setState: setState,
        uri: Uri.parse('https://flutter.dev'),
      );
    });
  }

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return Scaffold(
      appBar: AppBar(
        title: const Text('Atomic Webview'),
        actions: [
          IconButton(
            icon: const Icon(Icons.arrow_back),
            onPressed: () => _controller.goBack(),
          ),
          IconButton(
            icon: const Icon(Icons.arrow_forward),
            onPressed: () => _controller.goForward(),
          ),
          IconButton(
            icon: const Icon(Icons.refresh),
            onPressed: () => _controller.reload(),
          ),
        ],
      ),
      body: WebView(controller: _controller),
    );
  }
}

Desktop Note: On Linux, macOS, and Windows the WebView opens as a separate native window. The WebView widget in your Flutter app displays a placeholder text while the native window is open.

API Reference

Initialization

await controller.init(
  context: context,    // BuildContext – required
  setState: setState,  // Required to trigger UI rebuild after init
  uri: Uri.parse('https://example.com'),
);

Navigation

// Navigate to a URL
await controller.go(uri: Uri.parse('https://example.com'));

// Synchronous variant (fire-and-forget)
controller.goSync(uri: Uri.parse('https://example.com'));

// Back / Forward
await controller.goBack();
await controller.goForward();

// Reload / Stop
await controller.reload();
await controller.stop();

Loading Local Assets

// Load a Flutter asset (e.g. assets/index.html declared in pubspec.yaml)
await controller.loadAsset('assets/index.html');

JavaScript

// Evaluate JS and get the result as a String
String? title = await controller.evaluateJavaScript('document.title');

// Run JS without needing the result
await controller.evaluateJavaScript('console.log("hello")');

State Checks

bool ready       = controller.is_init;    // true after init() succeeds
bool onDesktop   = controller.is_desktop; // Linux / macOS / Windows
bool onMobile    = controller.is_mobile;  // Android / iOS / Web

Desktop-Only: Advanced WebView API

On desktop platforms, webview_desktop_controller exposes additional native capabilities:

if (controller.is_desktop && controller.is_init) {
  final wv = controller.webview_desktop_controller;

  // Inject a script that runs at document creation
  wv.addScriptToExecuteOnDocumentCreated('window.myFlag = true;');

  // Set a custom user-agent suffix
  await wv.setApplicationNameForUserAgent('MyApp/1.0');

  // Listen for navigation events
  wv.setOnHistoryChangedCallback((canGoBack, canGoForward) {
    print('canGoBack=$canGoBack canGoForward=$canGoForward');
  });

  // Monitor URL changes
  wv.addOnUrlRequestCallback((url) => print('Navigating to $url'));

  // Open browser DevTools (Windows / macOS)
  await wv.openDevToolsWindow();

  // Post a message to a web page
  await wv.postWebMessageAsString('hello from Flutter');

  // Close the native window
  wv.close();

  // Wait for the window to close
  await wv.onClose;
}

Desktop Title Bar

On desktop, a thin Flutter-powered title bar is displayed above the WebView. You can customise it in your app's main() with runWebViewTitleBarWidget:

import 'package:atomic_webview/atomic_webview.dart';

void main(List<String> args) {
  // If this process was launched as the title-bar sub-engine, handle it here.
  if (runWebViewTitleBarWidget(args)) return;

  runApp(const MyApp());
}

This allows your app to provide a fully custom title bar using the TitleBarWebViewController mixin and TitleBarWebViewState widget.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Solution
MissingPluginException on Windows	Ensure WebView2 Runtime is installed. Rebuild the app after adding the plugin.
MissingPluginException on Linux	Install libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev (or 4.0-dev) and rebuild.
Linux build error (webkit_javascript_result_get_js_value)	Update to v0.1.2+; the build system now auto-selects the correct WebKit API.
WebView shows placeholder on desktop	This is correct – on desktop the WebView is a separate native window.
Blank page on Android	Add android:usesCleartextTraffic="true" for HTTP URLs.