Note: Advice in this article will only work for JxBrowser 6. See the corresponding article for JxBrowser 7 here.


HTML5 supports Web Storage API that allows browsers to store key/value pairs, in a much more better way than using cookies. Web Storage API provides two mechanisms of storing data locally:

  • window.localStorage stores data with no expiration date.
  • window.sessionStorage stores data for one session (data is lost when the browser tab is closed).

JxBrowser provides API that allows working with both Local and Session storages. See the following methods:
  • Browser.getLocalWebStorage() returns Local web storage instance.
  • Browser.getSessionWebStorage() returns Session web storage instance.

Local and Session storages implement same WebStorage interface that provides methods for working with storage.

Important: the Browser.getLocalWebStorage() method returns null if JavaScript hasn't accessed the localStorage variable. The reason is that there's a lazy initialization of the local storage in Chromium engine. You need access the localStorage variable in JavaScript to initialize local storage. After that you can access it via JxBrowser Web Storage API. It's a limitation in the current implementation. The following code snippet demonstrates how to workaround this limitation:

browser.addLoadListener(new LoadAdapter() {
    @Override
    public void onDocumentLoadedInMainFrame(LoadEvent event) {
        Browser browser = event.getBrowser();
        // Initialize WebStorage
        browser.executeJavaScript("localStorage");
        
        // Access WebStorage
        WebStorage webStorage = browser.getLocalWebStorage();
        // Read and display the 'myKey' storage value.
        String itemValue = webStorage.getItem("myKey");
    }
});


The following sample demonstrates how to access Local web storage of the loaded web page, read and set key/value pairs: 
import com.teamdev.jxbrowser.chromium.Browser;
import com.teamdev.jxbrowser.chromium.LoadHTMLParams;
import com.teamdev.jxbrowser.chromium.LoggerProvider;
import com.teamdev.jxbrowser.chromium.WebStorage;
import com.teamdev.jxbrowser.chromium.events.LoadAdapter;
import com.teamdev.jxbrowser.chromium.events.LoadEvent;
import com.teamdev.jxbrowser.chromium.swing.BrowserView;

import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.util.logging.Level;

/**
 * The sample demonstrates how to access WebStorage on
 * the loaded web page using JxBrowser API.
 */
public class WebStorageSample {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        LoggerProvider.setLevel(Level.OFF);

        Browser browser = new Browser();
        BrowserView view = new BrowserView(browser);

        JFrame frame = new JFrame();
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        frame.add(view, BorderLayout.CENTER);
        frame.setSize(800, 600);
        frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
        frame.setVisible(true);

        browser.addLoadListener(new LoadAdapter() {
            @Override
            public void onDocumentLoadedInMainFrame(LoadEvent event) {
                Browser browser = event.getBrowser();
                WebStorage webStorage = browser.getLocalWebStorage();
                // Read and display the 'myKey' storage value.
                System.out.println("The myKey value: " + webStorage.getItem("myKey"));
                // Modify the 'myKey' storage value.
                webStorage.setItem("myKey", "Hello from Local Storage");
            }
        });

        browser.loadHTML(new LoadHTMLParams(
                "<html><body><button onclick=\"myFunction()\">" +
                        "Modify 'myKey' value</button>" +
                        "<script>localStorage.myKey = \"Initial Value\";" +
                        "function myFunction(){alert(localStorage.myKey);}" +
                        "</script></body></html>",
                "UTF-8",
                "http://teamdev.com"));
    }
}