Add Copy Link with Highlight feature for iOS

Adds support for text fragment URLs that highlight selected text when shared.
When a user selects text and shares the article, the link includes a text
fragment directive (#:~:text=...) that browsers will highlight on load.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Author: jpgmeyer

Shared/Article Rendering/main.js

@@ -136,6 +136,12 @@ function error() {
 	document.body.innerHTML = "error";
 }
 
+// Returns the currently selected text in the WebView, or empty string if no selection
+function getSelectedText() {
+	const selection = window.getSelection();
+	return selection ? selection.toString().trim() : "";
+}
+
 // Takes into account absoluting of URLs.
 function isLocalFootnote(target) {
 	return target.hash.startsWith("#fn") && target.href.indexOf(document.baseURI) === 0;

Shared/TextFragmentURL.swift

@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+//
+//  TextFragmentURL.swift
+//  NetNewsWire
+//
+//  Created by Jérôme Meyer on 1/24/26.
+//  Copyright © 2026 Ranchero Software. All rights reserved.
+//
+
+import Foundation
+
+/// Utility for creating text fragment URLs.
+/// Text fragments allow linking directly to a highlighted portion of a web page.
+/// Format: https://example.com/article#:~:text=selected%20text
+enum TextFragmentURL {
+
+	/// Creates a text fragment URL from a base URL and selected text.
+	/// Returns nil if the URL cannot be created.
+	static func url(from baseURL: URL, selectedText: String) -> URL? {
+		guard !selectedText.isEmpty else {
+			return nil
+		}
+
+		// Remove any existing fragment from the URL
+		var components = URLComponents(url: baseURL, resolvingAgainstBaseURL: false)
+		components?.fragment = nil
+
+		guard var urlString = components?.string else {
+			return nil
+		}
+
+		// Encode the text for use in a text fragment
+		guard let encodedText = encodeTextFragment(selectedText) else {
+			return nil
+		}
+
+		// Append the text fragment directive
+		urlString += "#:~:text=\(encodedText)"
+
+		return URL(string: urlString)
+	}
+
+	private static func encodeTextFragment(_ text: String) -> String? {
+		// Text fragments require encoding per the spec
+		// Special characters that need encoding: & - , =
+		// Plus standard percent encoding for non-ASCII and reserved characters
+
+		var allowed = CharacterSet.urlQueryAllowed
+		// Remove characters that have special meaning in text fragments
+		allowed.remove(charactersIn: "&-,=")
+
+		return text.addingPercentEncoding(withAllowedCharacters: allowed)
+	}
+}

iOS/Article/PreloadedWebView.swift

@@ -7,10 +7,18 @@
 //
 
 import Foundation
+import UIKit
 import WebKit
 
+@MainActor protocol PreloadedWebViewDelegate: AnyObject {
+	var articleURL: URL? { get }
+	func getSelectedText(completion: @escaping (String?) -> Void)
+}
+
 final class PreloadedWebView: WKWebView {
 
+	weak var editMenuDelegate: PreloadedWebViewDelegate?
+
 	private var isReady: Bool = false
 	private var readyCompletion: (() -> Void)?
 
@@ -48,6 +56,24 @@ final class PreloadedWebView: WKWebView {
 			reload()
 		}
 	}
+
+	override func buildMenu(with builder: any UIMenuBuilder) {
+		super.buildMenu(with: builder)
+
+		guard builder.system == .context else {
+			return
+		}
+
+		let copyLinkAction = UIAction(
+			title: NSLocalizedString("Copy Link with Highlight", comment: "Copy Link with Highlight"),
+			image: UIImage(systemName: "link")
+		) { [weak self] _ in
+			self?.copyLinkWithHighlight()
+		}
+
+		let menu = UIMenu(title: "", options: .displayInline, children: [copyLinkAction])
+		builder.insertSibling(menu, afterMenu: .lookup)
+	}
 }
 
 // MARK: WKScriptMessageHandler
@@ -72,4 +98,21 @@ private extension PreloadedWebView {
 		navigationDelegate = nil
 		completion()
 	}
+
+	func copyLinkWithHighlight() {
+		guard let delegate = editMenuDelegate, let baseURL = delegate.articleURL else {
+			return
+		}
+
+		delegate.getSelectedText { selectedText in
+			let urlToCopy: URL
+			if let selectedText, !selectedText.isEmpty,
+			   let textFragmentURL = TextFragmentURL.url(from: baseURL, selectedText: selectedText) {
+				urlToCopy = textFragmentURL
+			} else {
+				urlToCopy = baseURL
+			}
+			UIPasteboard.general.url = urlToCopy
+		}
+	}
 }

iOS/Article/WebViewController.swift

@@ -277,9 +277,23 @@ final class WebViewController: UIViewController {
 
 	func showActivityDialog(popOverBarButtonItem: UIBarButtonItem? = nil) {
 		guard let url = article?.preferredURL else { return }
-		let activityViewController = UIActivityViewController(url: url, title: article?.title, applicationActivities: [FindInArticleActivity(), OpenInBrowserActivity()])
-		activityViewController.popoverPresentationController?.barButtonItem = popOverBarButtonItem
-		present(activityViewController, animated: true)
+
+		getSelectedText { [weak self] selectedText in
+			guard let self else { return }
+			let activityViewController = UIActivityViewController(url: url, title: self.article?.title, selectedText: selectedText, applicationActivities: [FindInArticleActivity(), OpenInBrowserActivity()])
+			activityViewController.popoverPresentationController?.barButtonItem = popOverBarButtonItem
+			self.present(activityViewController, animated: true)
+		}
+	}
+
+	func getSelectedText(completion: @escaping (String?) -> Void) {
+		webView?.evaluateJavaScript("getSelectedText()") { result, error in
+			guard error == nil, let text = result as? String, !text.isEmpty else {
+				completion(nil)
+				return
+			}
+			completion(text)
+		}
 	}
 
 	func openInAppBrowser() {
@@ -558,6 +572,7 @@ private extension WebViewController {
 				webView.navigationDelegate = self
 				webView.uiDelegate = self
 				webView.scrollView.delegate = self
+				webView.editMenuDelegate = self
 				self.configureContextMenuInteraction()
 
 				// Remove possible existing message handlers
@@ -895,3 +910,12 @@ extension WebViewController {
 	}
 
 }
+
+// MARK: PreloadedWebViewDelegate
+
+extension WebViewController: PreloadedWebViewDelegate {
+
+	var articleURL: URL? {
+		return article?.preferredURL
+	}
+}

iOS/UIKit Extensions/UIActivityViewController+Extras.swift

@@ -18,6 +18,22 @@ public extension UIActivityViewController {
 
 		self.init(activityItems: [titleSource, itemSource], applicationActivities: applicationActivities)
 	}
+
+	convenience init(url: URL, title: String?, selectedText: String?, applicationActivities: [UIActivity]?) {
+		// Use text fragment URL when text is selected
+		let shareURL: URL
+		if let selectedText, !selectedText.isEmpty,
+		   let textFragmentURL = TextFragmentURL.url(from: url, selectedText: selectedText) {
+			shareURL = textFragmentURL
+		} else {
+			shareURL = url
+		}
+
+		let itemSource = ArticleActivityItemSource(url: shareURL, subject: title)
+		let titleSource = TitleActivityItemSource(title: title)
+
+		self.init(activityItems: [titleSource, itemSource], applicationActivities: applicationActivities)
+	}
 }
 
 #endif