UIWebView leak? Can someone confirm? - iphone

I was leak-testing my current project and I'm stumped. I've been browsing like crazy and tried everything except chicken sacrifice. I just created a tiny toy project app from scratch and I can duplicate the leak in there. So either UIWebView has a leak or I'm doing something really silly.
Essentially, it boils down to a loadRequest: call to a UIWebView object, given an URLRequest built from an NSURL which references a file URL, for a file in the app bundle, which lives inside a folder that Xcode is including by reference. Phew.
The leak is intermittent but still happens ~75% of the time (in about 20 tests it happened about 15 times). It only happens on the device -- this does not leak in the simulator. I am testing targeting both iPhone OS 3.1.2 and 3.1.3, on an original (1st Gen) iPod Touch that is using iPhone OS 3.1.3.
To reproduce, just create a project from scratch. Add a UIWebView to the RootViewController's .xib, hook it up via IBOutlet. In the Finder, create a folder named "html" inside your project's folder. Inside that folder, create a file named "dummy.html" that has the word "Test" in it. (Does not need to be valid HTML.) Then add the html folder to your project in Xcode by choosing "Create Folder References for any added folders"
Add the following to viewDidLoad
NSString* resourcePath = [[NSBundle mainBundle] resourcePath];
NSString* filePath = [[resourcePath stringByAppendingPathComponent:#"html"] stringByAppendingPathComponent:#"dummy.html"];
NSURL* url = [[NSURL alloc] initFileURLWithPath:filePath];
NSURLRequest* request = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:url]; // <-- this creates the leak!
[browserView loadRequest:request];
[url release];
I've tried everything from setting delegate for the UIWebView and implementing UIWebViewDelegate, to not setting a delegate in IB, to not setting a delegate in IB and explicitly setting the web view's delegate property to nil, to using alloc/init instead of getting autoreleased NSURLRequests (and/or NSURLs)...
I tried the answer to a similar question (setting the shared URL cache to empty) and that did not help.
Can anyone help?

Try:
- (void)webViewDidFinishLoad:(UIWebView *)webView {
[[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] setInteger:0 forKey:#"WebKitCacheModelPreferenceKey"];
}
From http://blog.techno-barje.fr/post/2010/10/04/UIWebView-secrets-part1-memory-leaks-on-xmlhttprequest

Forgot about this question.
The leak is not present in 4.1. I would assume the same for 4.2.

Related

UIWebView loading and general performance

I am using UIWebView to display textual content in my app (I store the content in local HTML files that I pack with the app). All together, I have three web views whose content I change dynamically based on user feedback.
Although some might argue that this is not the most accepted way, I find UIWebView very convenient to display formatted text, and modify that text using HTML if necessary. While this works 99% of the time, on occasion, I experience problems that generally fall into one of these categories:
Sometimes, the web view content loads slow and is late a second or so.
The content loads but is not showing. However, as long as, I touch the view (try to scroll or something) the content pops in.
A few times I received memory warnings (usually not long after the app's initial loading) that in no way affected the performance of my app. It logged the memory warning but the app worked like nothing happened.
This is the method I use to load content to my web views:
- (void)loadSimpleDocument:(NSString*)documentName inView:(UIWebView*)webView
{
NSString *path = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:documentName ofType:#"html"];
NSURL *url = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:path];
NSURLRequest *request = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:url];
[webView loadRequest:request];
}
Aside from this, the shouldStartLoadWithRequest delegate method is also implemented, always returning a YES.
My question is: Is there a way to improve the reliability/performance of my web views (in particular loading)? Is there something I have overlooked, did wrong, or do not know about?
Some additional info:
I am on iOS6 SDK, use ARC, and do everything programmatically (do not use IB or storyboard).
You have 2 options to check what's going on:
Implement webViewDidStartLoad & webViewDidFinishLoad delegate methods to check why the content isn't showing (may be the content isn't loaded yet).
read the html content to an NSString then use loadHTMLString:baseURL instead of using loadRequest and check if it loads faster.
Hope this could help.

UIWebView acts differnetly in app store version than dev version

I've got a problem with an app that works perfectly in the simulator as well as a physical iPhone 4 and an iPhone 3GS. The app was approved and is now in the App Store, but the distribution build downloaded from the App Store exhibits a bug not seen in the dev/release build.
This is a free app, but is supported by local advertising. When the app launches (or returns from background), the AppDelegate attempts to download some HTML from our ad server, and if successful, presents a modal view controller with a UIWebView and passes an NSData variable containing the HTML. In development/release builds, this works PERFECTLY; the app launches, and after a few seconds, a view slides up and shows the ad, which can be dismissed with a button.
However distribution build from the App Store is different. When the modal view controller slides up, the UIWebView never loads. Remember, I present the view controller ONLY if able to download the ad data -- otherwise, the view is never presented.
Thankfully I implemented a timer in the ad view controller which will cause the modal view to dismiss itself if the webViewDidFinishLoad never fires (in which the timer is invalidated), so at least app users aren't too annoyed. But it's still ugly to have an empty view controller slide up and then slide away for apparently no reason.
Here's the relevant methods in the AppDelegate:
- (void)launchAd
{
[NetworkActivity showFor:#"ad"];
if (!alreadyActive && [ServerCheck serverReachable:#"openx.freewave-wifi.com" hideAlert:YES])
{
alreadyActive = YES;
[self performSelectorInBackground:#selector(downloadAdData) withObject:nil];
}
[NetworkActivity hideFor:#"ad"];
}
- (void)downloadAdData
{
NSAutoreleasePool *pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
NSString *baseURL = #"http://appdata.freewave-wifi.com/ad/";
NSString *file = (IS_IPAD) ? #"ipad.php" : #"iphone.php";
NSURL *adURL = [NSURL URLWithString:[baseURL stringByAppendingString:file]];
adData = [[NSData alloc] initWithContentsOfURL:adURL];
[self performSelectorOnMainThread:#selector(presentAdModal) withObject:nil waitUntilDone:NO];
[pool release];
}
- (void)presentAdModal
{
if (adData)
{
AdViewController *adView = [[AdViewController alloc] initWithNibName:nil bundle:nil];
[adView setAdData:adData];
UINavigationController *navController = [[UINavigationController alloc] initWithRootViewController:adView];
[navController setModalPresentationStyle:UIModalPresentationFormSheet];
[navController setModalTransitionStyle:UIModalTransitionStyleCoverVertical];
[tabBarController presentModalViewController:navController animated:YES];
[navController release], navController = nil;
[adView release], adView = nil;
}
else
LogError(#"Not presenting ad; unable to create data object.");
}
By the way, adData is defined in header with NSData *adData;
The AdViewController simply contains a UIWebView, which is loaded with
[webView loadData:adData MIMEType:#"text/html" textEncodingName:#"utf-8" baseURL:nil];
Again, this all works PERFECTLY, EVERY TIME with dev/release builds in simulator and physical devices -- just not on distribution build from app store. I have even converted the NSData to an NSString and barfed it out with NSLog() just to prove that the HTML was downloaded before presenting the AdView modally.
[sigh...]
EDIT 1: In case my original post was not clear, the webViewDidFinishLoad never gets called in distribution build (but it does in dev/release build).
EDIT 2: Also, just before I call
[webView loadData:adData MIMEType:#"text/html" textEncodingName:#"utf-8" baseURL:nil];
in the AdViewController, I added a temporary NSLog() and converted adData to NSString and logged it to the console, and the HTML was there. So, the UIWebView just refuses to load the NSData?
HOLY COW. I figure it out.
Okay, before I say what I found, I did want to correct my own original wording: the modal ad has never worked in the simulator, but always on devices. I know the simulator can have its quirks, so I never thought anything of it, especially since it always worked on the devices. I know this is an important detail that was missing for this discussion, but it's been a couple of weeks since I worked on this project, and I'd forgotten all about it until today.
Now then... While tinkering with things, I noticed the AdView.xib was not in my project file list. I expanded a few folders thinking maybe it was accidentally dragged into one of them, but it was not listed at all. This really has me puzzled, though -- Xcode NEVER complained about a missing resource (no warnings or errors; always a perfect compile).
So, I navigated to the physical location and added the AdView.xib into the project. Now, the modal ad is displayed in the simulator, which is a first. I figure that since now the app works correctly in the simulator, it should work fine in the distribution build (odd correlation to make, but it's all I got until my update hits the App Store).
Obviously, I'll be submitting an update, so I won't accept my own answer until after the update hits the App Store (assuming I have actually fixed it).
Ok, this is an extremely long shot, but perhaps worth considering.
The docs for NSData state that with regards to initWithContentsOfURL "The returned object might be different than the original receiver." So, if it was a different object, and one which was in fact autoreleased, consider this line in your code:
adData = [[NSData alloc] initWithContentsOfURL:adURL];
This won't add a retain count for adData -- you didn't write self.adData = or similar. So, bearing in mind the scenario mentioned whereby the returned NSData was autoreleased: your method downloadAdData wraps its content in an NSAutoreleasePool. This is correct practice. However, that might result in adData being released BEFORE presentAdModal is called on the main thread. So...
In presentAdModal you just check that adData isn't nil -- but it can be not nil, and still have been deallocated from memory at that point by your NSAutoreleasePool -- hence, you would in this situation trigger the "show web view" code, but be attempting to load an NSData object that had been trashed. Which probably would contain complete garbage, hence no successful "web view loaded" call.
As I said, a long shot, but the ony thing that jumps out at me at this point.
UPDATE:
A completely different cause of your problem might be this:
Your test environment (i.e. non App-Store builds) is making requests from a certain part of the internet (i.e. your office) which has permission to access the web server containing ads, due to either IP blocking or whatever network setup there is, whereas your App Store release builds are attempting to access the ad server from parts of the internet which are forbidden. Again, probably not the case, but worth mentioning.

objective C Iphone open Google map application direction page url in webview memory warning

HI, WHat am trying to do is load a google direction page directly in webview by passing the lat long values for source and destination (am getting these stored_long lat values that i have previously stored. and am not using google api) everything works fine but the prob is as soon as webview loads the direction page, it starts getting memory warning and on further browsing get crash need a solution to fix these ...am setting webview delegate to nil and also releasing webview also sometimes it crashes wen back btn is pressed ....do need urgent help...guys
NSString* url = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"http://maps.google.com/maps/m?saddr=%f,%f&daddr=%f,%f&view=map&z=13",Stored_lat3,Stored_long3,Stored_lat4,Stored_long4];
NSURLRequest *request = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:url]];
aWebView.delegate = self;
[aWebView loadRequest:request];
Have you tried profiling your application for Allocations using Instruments?
Memory warnings tend to imply your application is using too much memory. It could be that before you even open your web view you are using lots of memory. Opening the webview could be pushing your application over the edge so to speak.
Overriding didReceiveMemoryWarning in your view controllers to clean up memory is also a good tactic to prevent your application from crashing.
I hope this helps!

Audio volume stuck at low level and adjusting volume has no effect?

When I use my app (on the device), the actual volume works OK for a while, but after a few days it seems to get 'stuck' at a low level.
Adjusting the volume rocker has no effect - and it shows 'Ringer' text. I've noticed that other people's apps are similarly affected if they show the 'Ringer' text when adjusting the volume. But apps which don't show 'Ringer' text are not affected by this.
How would I remove the 'Ringer' text and get my app to respond properly to different volumes?
I found some code on Apple's forums which fixes it. You have to use the AVFoundation.framework and put a bit of code into your app delegate. And put an audio file called 'blank.aif' into your project. Basically, it's a hack which prepares a file to play, but then never plays it. This fools the system into thinking that sound is being played all the time, which allows the user to use the main volume control.
#import <AVFoundation/AVFoundation.h>
//...
-(void)applicationDidFinishLaunching:(UIApplication *)application {
//volume control hack
NSString *soundFilePath = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:#"blanksound" ofType:#"aif"];
NSURL *fileURL = [[NSURL alloc] initFileURLWithPath:soundFilePath];
AVAudioPlayer *volumeHack = [[[AVAudioPlayer alloc] initWithContentsOfURL:fileURL error:nil]retain];
[fileURL release];
[volumeHack prepareToPlay];
// other applicationDidFinishLaunching stuff
}

Is this causing EXC_BAD_ACCESS?

I'm getting a EXC_BAD _ACCESS after leaving the method below. At that point htmlDocument becomes invalid, which it should since it falls out of scope. But is that why I'm getting the error? By the time the contentView (UIWebView) loads, htmlDocument is gone. But doesn't contentView already have what it needs from loadHTMLString?
- (void)viewDidLoad {
[super viewDidLoad];
//something other processing here
NSString *htmlDocument = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"<html> \n"
"<body>%#</body> \n"
"</html>", aboutContent];
[contentView loadHTMLString:htmlDocument baseURL:[NSURL URLWithString:#"http://www.abc.com"]];
}
Is there a better way to follow this all the way to failure? Leaving this method is the end of the line for my code. SDK stuff from there.
From your second post, the line you have commented out ([button release]) releases an object already marked to be released automatically.
Either remove the "autorelease" where you are doing an alloc for the button or remove the [button release] statement for the code to compile without errors and exceptions.
If an object is marked for autorelease, calling a release on it will be the same as calling a release on a deallocated instance, hence the error.
At a glance I would say there is nothing wrong with this code, assuming 'aboutContent' is a valid pointer to an object.
You can try running your app with Guard Malloc on the simulator, but that's not guaranteed to turn up anything. I'd suggest you just start commenting out statements until you find the one that's causing the error.
It's not clear what's going on with the code snippet you've just provided without more context. That said, it looks like all you want to do is load some HTML locally in the device. Why not just do this?
- (void)viewDidLoad {
[webView loadRequest:[NSURLRequest
requestWithURL:[NSURL fileURLWithPath:[[NSBundle mainBundle]
pathForResource:#"help/about.html"
ofType:#"html"]isDirectory:NO]]];
}
Using this technique, you can author HTML-based documents right in your phone without the user being wise to the fact that they are actually looking at a web view: this includes Javascript, CSS, the whole ball of a wax. I've seen people actually have their iPhone app go out to the Internet just to render a static page on the Internet which really is not necessary.
From your sample code in the second post, the button you release UIBarButtonItem *button is not retained by anything following the release you have commented out - and so it is deallocated.
You need to add the button to another view (using adSubview) in order for it to display and then you can release it. The parent view will retain the button.
Of course if you are going to refer to the button again, your view controller should keep the retain and release the button in its dealloc.