Disabling user selection in UIWebView

Solution 1:

Here are a few ways to disable selection:

Add the following to your mobile web documents

<style type="text/css">
* {
    -webkit-touch-callout: none;
    -webkit-user-select: none; /* Disable selection/copy in UIWebView */
}
</style>

Programmatically load the following Javascript code:

NSString * jsCallBack = @"window.getSelection().removeAllRanges();";    
[webView stringByEvaluatingJavaScriptFromString:jsCallBack];

Disable the Copy / Paste user menu:

- (BOOL)canPerformAction:(SEL)action withSender:(id)sender 
{    
    if (action == @selector(copy:) ||
        action == @selector(paste:)||
        action == @selector(cut:)) 
    {
        return _copyCutAndPasteEnabled;
    }
    return [super canPerformAction:action withSender:sender];
}

Solution 2:

I can confirm that the following code works in iOS 5.0 - 8.0.

- (void)webViewDidFinishLoad:(UIWebView *)webView {
    // Disable user selection
    [webView stringByEvaluatingJavaScriptFromString:@"document.documentElement.style.webkitUserSelect='none';"];
    // Disable callout
    [webView stringByEvaluatingJavaScriptFromString:@"document.documentElement.style.webkitTouchCallout='none';"];
}

Also works for iOS 9 and later. Here's the swift code:

func webViewDidFinishLoad(webView: UIWebView) {
    // Disable user selection
    webView.stringByEvaluatingJavaScriptFromString("document.documentElement.style.webkitUserSelect='none'")!
    // Disable callout
    webView.stringByEvaluatingJavaScriptFromString("document.documentElement.style.webkitTouchCallout='none'")!
}

Solution 3:

I am using this technique in a web app for Android / iPhone (packaged with Trigger.IO) and found it would only work with the chaining syntax for the :not() pseudo-class, :

*:not(input):not(textarea) {
-webkit-user-select: none; /* disable selection/Copy of UIWebView */
    -webkit-touch-callout: none; /* disable the IOS popup when long-press on a link */

}