How to access text views in custom collection view cell class from the main class - ios

Question

I've got two text views in each of my collection view cells, I've made a custom class for the cells. here is the code:
class CustomWriterPageCell: UICollectionViewCell {
fileprivate let textViewOne: UITextView = {
let tv = UITextView()
tv.backgroundColor = .cyan
tv.text = "Chapter Title"
tv.font = UIFont(name: "Avenir-Roman", size: 27)
tv.textColor = .gray
return tv
}()
fileprivate let textViewTwo: UITextView = {
let tv = UITextView()
tv.textColor = .gray
tv.text = "Start your story..."
tv.textContainerInset = UIEdgeInsets(top: 20, left: 15, bottom: 20, right: 15)
tv.font = UIFont(name: "Avenir-Book", size: 23)
tv.backgroundColor = .black
return tv
}()
}
I would like to add placeholders to both these text views but the problem is that since they are in a custom class there is no way, that I know of, to find out which text view is being edited so I can't add the respective placeholders back when textViewDidEndEditing takes place, is there a way to find out which text view is being edited? Is there a way to access the text views from the main class?

Answer 1

In your CustomWriterPageCell class:
fileprivate let textViewOne: UITextView = {
let tv = UITextView()
tv.backgroundColor = .cyan
tv.text = "Chapter Title"
tv.font = UIFont(name: "Avenir-Roman", size: 27)
tv.textColor = .gray
return tv
}()
fileprivate let textViewTwo: UITextView = {
let tv = UITextView()
tv.textColor = .gray
tv.text = "Start your story..."
tv.textContainerInset = UIEdgeInsets(top: 20, left: 15, bottom: 20, right: 15)
tv.font = UIFont(name: "Avenir-Book", size: 23)
tv.backgroundColor = .black
return tv
}()
override init(frame: CGRect) {
super.init(frame: frame)
textViewOne.delegate = self
textViewTwo.delegate = self
required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
fatalError("init(coder:) has not been implemented")
}
}
Then:
extension CustomWriterPageCell : UITextViewDelegate {
func textViewDidEndEditing(_ textView: UITextView) {
if textView == textViewOne {
textView.text = "..."
}
else if textView == textViewTwo {
textView.text = "..."
}
}
}
This way, your View Controller still does not need to know about your text views.

Answer 2

You can always access the actual textView and know which one is being edited in delegate methods, just like this:
class ViewController: UIViewController {
var textViewA: UITextView = .init()
var textViewB: UITextView = .init()
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
textViewA.delegate = self
textViewB.delegate = self
}
}
extension ViewController: UITextViewDelegate {
func textViewDidEndEditing(_ textView: UITextView) {
switch textView {
case textViewA:
textView.text = "Placeholder A"
case textViewB:
textView.text = "Placeholder B"
default:
break
}
}
}
Also, because of the fact that UITextView doesn't have any built-in placeholder mechanism - you could use this nice pod: https://github.com/devxoul/UITextView-Placeholder
If you use this pod and don't want to make textViews public/internal - you can create computedProperties for it:
var placeholder: String {
get {
return textView.placeholder
} set {
textView.placeholder = newValue
}
}