Ios – Stop reloading of web app launched from iPhone Home Screen

iosiphoneiphone-standalone-web-appmobile-safari

I created a web app and added to my iPhone Home Screen. When I switch to another app and back, iPhone automatically reload my web app. This breaks my app flow.

How do I prevent iPhone from reloading the app?

I have apple-mobile-web-app-capable meta tag enabled to hide Safari toolbar and I don't want to turn it off.

Best Answer

I just found this related question on SO: Stop native web app from reloading itself upon opening on iOS

As it seems it's a limitation of Safari, a proposed solution is to persist your web apps state using Javascript and HTML5 localStorage. When your web app is launched, check for the persisted state and load it if available.

You can read about using localStorage in Safari here: http://developer.apple.com/library/safari/#documentation/iPhone/Conceptual/SafariJSDatabaseGuide/Introduction/Introduction.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40007256-CH1-SW1

Hope that helps you. At least it did for me, as I had the same problem as you. :-)

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window.top.scrollTo(0, 1);

Works on iPhone, but not in iPad. I have been successful hiding the browser components on iPad (so presumably everywhere) by using

<meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-capable" content="yes" />

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<meta name="viewport" 
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This will add a Splash Screen to your Web App. Below are the sizes you’ll need for iPad (both retina and non), iPhone/iPod Touch (retina and non), and iPhone 5. These include the status bar area as well.

Apple Docs-Launch Images, Apple Docs-Icon and Image Sizes

<!-- iPhone (Retina) -->
<link href="http://www.example.com/mobile/images/apple-startup-iPhone-RETINA.jpg" media="(device-width: 320px) and (device-height: 480px) and (-webkit-device-pixel-ratio: 2)" rel="apple-touch-startup-image">

<!-- iPhone 5 -->
<link href="http://www.example.com/mobile/images/apple-startup-iPhone-Tall-RETINA.jpg"  media="(device-width: 320px) and (device-height: 568px) and (-webkit-device-pixel-ratio: 2)" rel="apple-touch-startup-image">

<!-- iPad Portrait -->
<link href="http://www.example.com/mobile/images/apple-startup-iPad-Portrait.jpg" media="(device-width: 768px) and (device-height: 1024px) and (orientation: portrait) and (-webkit-device-pixel-ratio: 1)" rel="apple-touch-startup-image">

<!-- iPad Landscape -->
<link href="http://www.example.com/mobile/images/apple-startup-iPad-Landscape.jpg" media="(device-width: 768px) and (device-height: 1024px) and (orientation: landscape) and (-webkit-device-pixel-ratio: 1)" rel="apple-touch-startup-image">

<!-- iPad Portrait (Retina) -->
<link href="http://www.example.com/mobile/images/apple-startup-iPad-RETINA-Portrait.jpg" media="(device-width: 768px) and (device-height: 1024px) and (orientation: portrait) and (-webkit-device-pixel-ratio: 2)" rel="apple-touch-startup-image">

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<link href="http://www.example.com/mobile/images/apple-startup-iPad-RETINA-Landscape.jpg" media="(device-width: 768px) and (device-height: 1024px) and (orientation: landscape) and (-webkit-device-pixel-ratio: 2)" rel="apple-touch-startup-image">

If creating a Web App for iPad compatibility it’s recommended that both Landscape and Portrait sizes are used.

Best Answer

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