React Native Show Progress bar While Loading WebView

React Native WebView LoadingBar

This example is sort of extension of our previous post of Webview Example in which we have loaded the HTML page from URL. Here is the example of how to Show Progress bar While Loading WebView. As it is the imported topic to cover so we decided to cover it separately.

In this example, we will show the ActivityIndicator while the webpage is loading this will help the user to understand that the application is doing some task. If we do not apply the progress bar and web page took some extra time to load then the user will be confused that the application is not working so we suggest you use Progress Bar if you are using WebView to load the webpage.

We have to add renderLoading prop in WebView in which we will return the view which we want to show while the page is loading. For this example, we will return the ActivityIndicator like

const ActivityIndicatorElement = () => {
   //making a view to show to while loading the webpage
   return (
     <ActivityIndicator
        color="#009688"
        size="large"
        style={styles.activityIndicatorStyle}
     />
   );
}

To Import WebView in code

import { WebView } from "react-native-webview"

Render WebView Using

<WebView
    style={styles.WebViewStyle}
    //Loading URL
    source={{ uri: 'https://aboutreact.com' }}
    //Enable Javascript support
    javaScriptEnabled={true}
    //For the Cache
    domStorageEnabled={true}
    //View to show while loading the webpage
    renderLoading={this.ActivityIndicatorLoadingView}
    //Want to show the view or not
    startInLoadingState={true}
/>

To Make a React Native App

Getting started with React Native will help you to know more about the way you can make a React Native project. We are going to use react native command line interface to make our React Native App.

If you have previously installed a global react-native-cli package, please remove it as it may cause unexpected issues:

npm uninstall -g react-native-cli @react-native-community/cli

Run the following commands to create a new React Native project

npx react-native init ProjectName

If you want to start a new project with a specific React Native version, you can use the --version argument:

npx react-native init ProjectName --version X.XX.X

Note If the above command is failing, you may have old version of react-native or react-native-cli installed globally on your pc. Try uninstalling the cli and run the cli using npx.

This will make a project structure with an index file named App.js in your project directory.

Installation of Dependency

To use WebView you need to install react-native-webview dependency. To install this dependency open the terminal and jump into your project

cd ProjectName

Run the following commands

npm install react-native-webview --save

This command will copy the dependency into your node_module directory. –save is optional, it is just to update the dependency in your package.json file.

CocoaPods Installation

After the updation of React Native 0.60, they have introduced autolinking so we do not require to link the library but need to install pods. So to install pods use

npx pod-install

Code

Now open App.js in any code editor and replace the code with the following code

App.js

(Use if you want to show the loader once when opening a web URL)

// React Native Show Progress bar While Loading WebView
// https://aboutreact.com/react-native-show-progress-bar-while-loading-webview/

//import React in our code
import React from 'react';

//import all the components we are going to use
import {
  SafeAreaView,
  StyleSheet,
  View,
  ActivityIndicator
} from 'react-native';

//import WebView
import {WebView} from 'react-native-webview';

const ActivityIndicatorElement = () => {
  return (
    <ActivityIndicator
      color="#009688"
      size="large"
      style={styles.activityIndicatorStyle}
    />
  );
};

const App = () => {
  return (
    <SafeAreaView style={{flex: 1}}>
      <View style={styles.container}>
        <WebView
          //Loading URL
          source={{uri: 'https://aboutreact.com'}}
          //Enable Javascript support
          javaScriptEnabled={true}
          //For the Cache
          domStorageEnabled={true}
          //View to show while loading the webpage
          renderLoading={ActivityIndicatorElement}
          //Want to show the view or not
          startInLoadingState={true}
        />
      </View>
    </SafeAreaView>
  );
};

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    backgroundColor: '#F5FCFF',
    flex: 1,
  },
  activityIndicatorStyle: {
    flex: 1,
    justifyContent: 'center',
  },
});

export default App;

App.js (Updates)

(Use if you want to show the loader every time whenever you click on links in Webview)

// React Native Show Progress bar While Loading WebView
// https://aboutreact.com/react-native-show-progress-bar-while-loading-webview/

//import React in our code
import React, {useState} from 'react';

//import all the components we are going to use
import {
  SafeAreaView,
  StyleSheet, 
  View,
  ActivityIndicator
} from 'react-native';

//import WebView
import {WebView} from 'react-native-webview';

const ActivityIndicatorElement = () => {
  return (
    <View style={styles.activityIndicatorStyle}>
      <ActivityIndicator
        color="#009688"
        size="large"
      />
    </View>
  );
};

const App = () => {
  const [visible, setVisible] = useState(false);
  return (
    <SafeAreaView style={{flex: 1}}>
      <View style={styles.container}>
        <WebView
          style={{flex: 1}}
          //Loading URL
          source={{uri: 'https://aboutreact.com/'}}
          //Enable Javascript support
          javaScriptEnabled={true}
          //For the Cache
          domStorageEnabled={true}
          onLoadStart={() => setVisible(true)}
          onLoad={() => setVisible(false)}
        />
        {visible ? <ActivityIndicatorElement /> : null}
      </View>
    </SafeAreaView>
  );
};

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    backgroundColor: '#F5FCFF',
    flex: 1,
  },
  activityIndicatorStyle: {
    flex: 1,
    position: 'absolute',
    marginLeft: 'auto',
    marginRight: 'auto',
    marginTop: 'auto',
    marginBottom: 'auto',
    left: 0,
    right: 0,
    top: 0,
    bottom: 0,
    justifyContent: 'center',
  },
});

export default App;

To Run the React Native App

Open the terminal again and jump into your project using.

cd ProjectName

1. Start Metro Bundler

First, you will need to start Metro, the JavaScript bundler that ships with React Native. To start Metro bundler run following command:

npx react-native start

Once you start Metro Bundler it will run forever on your terminal until you close it. Let Metro Bundler run in its own terminal. Open a new terminal and run the application.

2. Start React Native Application

To run the project on an Android Virtual Device or on real debugging device:

npx react-native run-android

or on the iOS Simulator by running (macOS only)

npx react-native run-ios

Output Screenshots

Output in Online Emulator

This is how you can show the progress bar while loading webview. If you have any doubts or you want to share something about the topic you can comment below or contact us here. There will be more posts coming soon. Stay tuned!

Hope you liked it. 🙂