How to allow http server in android webview

[proneon267]

I am trying to allow http traffic in android webview, but it return error clear text traffic is not permitted . So, I added android:usesCleartextTraffic="true" to AndroidManifest.xml. after I do briefcase create android and before briefcase build android, but still it returns clear text traffic not permitted. Is there any way to allow http localhost traffic in android webview?

[freakboy3742]

The default Briefcase Android template should be sufficient to display content from a localhost http server, without any additional permissions. By way of proof, the positron-static and positron-django demos both work in my experience. Do these demos work for you? If not, then we have something to investigate; if they do, then it sounds like there's something not quite right with your localhost server.

[mhsmith]

Strange, I specifically tested with localhost when we made this change, and it worked fine. Maybe it varies from device to device.

[proneon267]

Hello
On which android version did you test? I tested the following cases on an Android 10 physical device and also on Windows Subsystem For Android:

Value in network_security_config.xml	Value in app.py	HTTP Traffic Permission
127.0.0.1	127.0.0.1	Allowed
127.0.0.1	localhost	Not Allowed
localhost	localhost	Allowed
localhost	127.0.0.1	Not Allowed
Both 127.0.0.1 and localhost	127.0.0.1	Allowed
Both 127.0.0.1 and localhost	localhost	Allowed

I don't think localhost and 127.0.0.1 can be interchangeably used. Since, we need maximum cross compatibility, maybe both the localhost and 127.0.0.1 should be added to network_security_config.xml

[mhsmith]

Thanks, I'll look into this. My previous testing was probably on Android 7, 12 or 13.

[mhsmith]

I'm seeing the same behavior on an API level 33 emulator, so I've created beeware/briefcase-android-gradle-template#67 to fix it. Thanks for the report.

[proneon267]

Thanks for the pull request :)