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swiftalamofirewkwebview

How to download a blob URI using AlamoFire


I am trying to work with a WKWebView in swift and currently have a download engine using AlamoFire. I have run into a site that uses the blob: url scheme to download items. Is there a way to download blob files using AlamoFire or WKWebView in general?

My specific goal is to download the content from this blob URI to a file.

I would appreciate any help. Thank you.

All relevant code is attached below.

Here's the URL I was having a problem with:

blob:https://cubari.moe/87d49857-dfef-4f0f-bb83-db8517fd3094

Here is the error in my logs:

2021-12-10 22:41:45.382527-0500 Asobi[14529:358202] -canOpenURL: failed for URL: "blob:https://cubari.moe/87d49857-dfef-4f0f-bb83-db8517fd3094" - error: "This app is not allowed to query for scheme blob"
2021-12-10 22:41:45.474214-0500 Asobi[14529:358357] Task <4B011CC1-60E9-4AAD-98F0-BB6A6D0C92FB>.<1> finished with error [-1002] Error Domain=NSURLErrorDomain Code=-1002 "unsupported URL" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=unsupported URL, NSErrorFailingURLStringKey=blob:https://cubari.moe/87d49857-dfef-4f0f-bb83-db8517fd3094, NSErrorFailingURLKey=blob:https://cubari.moe/87d49857-dfef-4f0f-bb83-db8517fd3094, _NSURLErrorRelatedURLSessionTaskErrorKey=(
    "LocalDownloadTask <4B011CC1-60E9-4AAD-98F0-BB6A6D0C92FB>.<1>"
), _NSURLErrorFailingURLSessionTaskErrorKey=LocalDownloadTask <4B011CC1-60E9-4AAD-98F0-BB6A6D0C92FB>.<1>, NSUnderlyingError=0x6000017e99b0 {Error Domain=kCFErrorDomainCFNetwork Code=-1002 "(null)"}}
2021-12-10 22:41:45.476703-0500 Asobi[14529:358202] [Process] 0x124034e18 - [pageProxyID=6, webPageID=7, PID=14540] WebPageProxy::didFailProvisionalLoadForFrame: frameID=3, domain=WebKitErrorDomain, code=102
Failed provisional nav: Error Domain=WebKitErrorDomain Code=102 "Frame load interrupted" UserInfo={_WKRecoveryAttempterErrorKey=<WKReloadFrameErrorRecoveryAttempter: 0x6000019a88c0>, NSErrorFailingURLStringKey=blob:https://cubari.moe/87d49857-dfef-4f0f-bb83-db8517fd3094, NSErrorFailingURLKey=blob:https://cubari.moe/87d49857-dfef-4f0f-bb83-db8517fd3094, NSLocalizedDescription=Frame load interrupted}

Here is the code for my download decision handler in WKNavigation decision policy

// Check if a page can be downloaded
func webView(_ webView: WKWebView,
             decidePolicyFor navigationResponse: WKNavigationResponse,
             decisionHandler: @escaping (WKNavigationResponsePolicy) -> Void) {
    
    if navigationResponse.canShowMIMEType {
        decisionHandler(.allow)
    } else {
        let url = navigationResponse.response.url
        
        // Alternative to decisionHandler(.download) since that's iOS 15 and up
        //let documentUrl = url?.appendingPathComponent(navigationResponse.response.suggestedFilename!)
        parent.webModel.downloadDocumentFrom(url: url!)
        decisionHandler(.cancel)
    }
}

Here is the code for my download data function (it uses the AF.download method)

// Download file from page
func downloadDocumentFrom(url downloadUrl : URL) {
    if currentDownload != nil {
        showDuplicateDownloadAlert = true
        return
    }
    
    let queue = DispatchQueue(label: "download", qos: .userInitiated)
    var lastTime = Date()
    
    let destination: DownloadRequest.Destination = { tempUrl, response in
        let documentsURL = FileManager.default.urls(for: .documentDirectory, in: .userDomainMask)[0]
        let suggestedName = response.suggestedFilename ?? "unknown"
        
        let fileURL = documentsURL.appendingPathComponent(suggestedName)

        return (fileURL, [.removePreviousFile, .createIntermediateDirectories])
    }
    
    self.showDownloadProgress = true
    
    currentDownload = AF.download(downloadUrl, to: destination)
        .downloadProgress(queue: queue) { progress in
            if Date().timeIntervalSince(lastTime) > 1.5 {
                lastTime = Date()
                
                DispatchQueue.main.async {
                    self.downloadProgress = progress.fractionCompleted
                }
            }
        }
        .response { response in
            DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter(deadline: .now() + 1) {
                self.showDownloadProgress = false
                self.downloadProgress = 0.0
            }
            
            if response.error == nil, let currentPath = response.fileURL {
                self.downloadFileUrl = currentPath
                self.showFileMover = true
            }
            
            if let error = response.error {
                self.errorDescription = "Download could not be completed. \(error)"
                self.showError = true
            }
        }
}

Solution

  • After a few days, I was able to figure out how to download a blob URL without WKDownloadDelegate. The following code builds upon this answer.

    A message handler needs to be created to respond to JS messages. I created this in the makeUIView function

    webModel.webView.configuration.userContentController.add(context.coordinator, name: "jsListener")
    

    Inside your WKNavigationDelegate, you need to add this code on a navigation action.

    NOTE: Since I use SwiftUI, all of my variables/models are located in the parent class (UIViewRepresentable coordinator).

    func webView(_ webView: WKWebView,
                 decidePolicyFor navigationAction: WKNavigationAction,
                 decisionHandler: @escaping (WKNavigationActionPolicy) -> Void) {
        if let url = navigationAction.request.url, let scheme = url.scheme?.lowercased() {
            if scheme == "blob" {
                // Defer to JS handling
                parent.webModel.executeBlobDownloadJS(url: url)
                
                decisionHandler(.cancel)
            } else {
                decisionHandler(.allow)
            }
        }
    }
    

    Here's the JS to request for the blob stored in the browser memory. I added this JS in a wrapper function which called evaluateJavaScript with the url for cleanliness of my code.

    function blobToDataURL(blob, callback) {
        var reader = new FileReader()
        reader.onload = function(e) {callback(e.target.result.split(",")[1])}
        reader.readAsDataURL(blob)
    }
    
    async function run() {
        const url = "\(url)"
        const blob = await fetch(url).then(r => r.blob())
    
        blobToDataURL(blob, datauri => {
            const responseObj = {
                url: url,
                mimeType: blob.type,
                size: blob.size,
                dataString: datauri
            }
            window.webkit.messageHandlers.jsListener.postMessage(JSON.stringify(responseObj))
        })
    }
    
    run()
    

    In addition to the returned JS object, I had to make a struct where I can deserialize the JSON string:

    struct BlobComponents: Codable {
        let url: String
        let mimeType: String
        let size: Int64
        let dataString: String
    }
    

    I then took the messages sent to the WKScriptMessageHandler and interpreted them for saving to files. I used the SwiftUI file mover here, but you can do anything you want with this content.

    func userContentController(_ userContentController: WKUserContentController, didReceive message: WKScriptMessage) {
        guard let jsonString = message.body as? String else {
            return
        }
        
        parent.webModel.blobDownloadWith(jsonString: jsonString)
    }
    

    In my web model (needed to import CoreServices):

    func blobDownloadWith(jsonString: String) {
        guard let jsonData = jsonString.data(using: .utf8) else {
            print("Cannot convert blob JSON into data!")
            return
        }
    
        let decoder = JSONDecoder()
        
        do {
            let file = try decoder.decode(BlobComponents.self, from: jsonData)
            
            guard let data = Data(base64Encoded: file.dataString),
                let uti = UTTypeCreatePreferredIdentifierForTag(kUTTagClassMIMEType, file.mimeType as CFString, nil),
                let ext = UTTypeCopyPreferredTagWithClass(uti.takeRetainedValue(), kUTTagClassFilenameExtension)
            else {
                print("Error! \(error)")
                return
            }
            
            let fileName = file.url.components(separatedBy: "/").last ?? "unknown"
            let path = FileManager.default.urls(for: .documentDirectory, in: .userDomainMask)[0]
            let url = path.appendingPathComponent("blobDownload-\(fileName).\(ext.takeRetainedValue())")
            
            try data.write(to: url)
            
            downloadFileUrl = url
            showFileMover = true
        } catch {
            print("Error! \(error)")
            return
        }
    }