Using loadDataWithBaseURL disables links in webview

Question

I use the following code to load html content of ebooks where templateString contains the html content which connects to stylesheet and images in the main file.

String itemURL = "file://" + itemPath;
testWV.loadDataWithBaseURL(itemURL,  templateString, "text/html", "UTF-8", "about:blank");

The problem I'm facing is that anchor links are not responsive at all.

I noticed if itemURL was null or if I use loadData instead of loadDataWithBaseURL, the links work but I loose the connection of the images and the styling connected through the itemURL.

Kindly note that the webview visibility is always set to visible. Add I have added the following features to the webview

this.getSettings().setJavaScriptEnabled(true);
this.requestFocusFromTouch();
this.setVerticalScrollBarEnabled(false);
this.setHorizontalScrollBarEnabled(false);
this.getSettings().setSupportZoom(true);
this.getSettings().setBuiltInZoomControls(true);
this.getSettings().setDisplayZoomControls(false);
this.getSettings().setAllowContentAccess(true);
this.getSettings().setAllowFileAccess(true);
this.getSettings().setJavaScriptCanOpenWindowsAutomatically(true);
this.getSettings().setAllowFileAccessFromFileURLs(true);
this.getSettings().setAllowUniversalAccessFromFileURLs(true);

This is the onTouch method initialized for the webview:

this.setOnTouchListener(new View.OnTouchListener() {

    public boolean onTouch(View v, MotionEvent event) {

        WebView.HitTestResult hr = ((WebView)v).getHitTestResult();
        System.out.println("getExtra: "+hr.getExtra());
        // getExtra always gives null when webview loaded with loadDataWithBaseURL while it should give the url of the link pressed when the user touches a link

        return false;
    }
});

If further code is needed, I can share it.

Answer 1

Seems the issue was not related to baseURL but to the css file connected to the WebView. In the absence of the baseURL, the css file was not loaded which enabled the footnotes to be clickable.

the line of code in the css file that was causing the issue was:

pointer-events: none;

So if anyone is looking for a way to make the webview non interactive, this is one way of doing so.

Thanks for every person that has contributed to this question.