UITextField in UITableView with InputView of DatePicker - ios

Question

I am attempting the following:
Within each cell I have date-from and date-to UITextField. When the user presses either TextField an InputView of the DatePicker appears with a Done button to complete.
My challenge is I only want the user to be able to select either of the TextFields inside the selected cell and no other. The user must press Done on InputView when they have finished, so the app can validate and reload TableView if necessary.
I have code that manages normal cell selection well when the 'keyboard' is shown, but cannot manage the UITextField behavior as I would like.
I share some code in the hope someone can help me:
- (void)keyboardWillShow:(NSNotification*)aNotification {
self.TableViewDiary.allowsSelection = NO;
}
- (void)keyboardWillBeHidden:(NSNotification*)aNotification {
self.TableViewDiary.allowsSelection = YES;
}
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
ActivityDiaryCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:#"ActivityDiaryCellId"];
cell.activity = [self.activitycollection objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];
cell.LabelName.text = cell.activity.name;
cell.TextFieldStartDt.text = [self FormatPrettyTime :cell.activity.startdt];
cell.TextFieldEndDt.text = [self FormatPrettyTime :cell.activity.enddt];
cell.datePickerStart.date = cell.activity.startdt;
cell.datePickerEnd.date = cell.activity.enddt;
cell.tag = indexPath.row;
cell.selectionStyle = UITableViewCellSelectionStyleNone;
return cell;
}
ActivityDiaryCell
- (void)awakeFromNib {
[super awakeFromNib];
// Initialization code
self.datePickerStart = [[UIDatePicker alloc] init];
self.datePickerStart.datePickerMode = UIDatePickerModeDateAndTime;
//self.datePickerStart.date = self.activity.startdt;
[self.datePickerStart addTarget:self action:#selector(datePickerStartValueChanged:) forControlEvents:UIControlEventValueChanged]; // method to respond to changes in the picker value
self.datePickerEnd = [[UIDatePicker alloc] init];
self.datePickerEnd.datePickerMode = UIDatePickerModeDateAndTime;
//self.datePickerEnd.date = self.activity.enddt;
[self.datePickerEnd addTarget:self action:#selector(datePickerEndValueChanged:) forControlEvents:UIControlEventValueChanged]; // method to respond to changes in the picker value
self.datePickerToolbar=[[UIToolbar alloc]initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, self.bounds.size.width, 44)];
[self.datePickerToolbar setTintColor:[UIColor grayColor]];
UIBarButtonItem *doneBtn=[[UIBarButtonItem alloc]initWithTitle:#"Done" style:UIBarButtonItemStylePlain target:self action:#selector(dismissPicker:)];
UIBarButtonItem *space=[[UIBarButtonItem alloc]initWithBarButtonSystemItem:UIBarButtonSystemItemFlexibleSpace target:nil action:nil];
[self.datePickerToolbar setItems:[NSArray arrayWithObjects:space,doneBtn, nil]];
self.TextFieldStartDt.delegate = self;
self.TextFieldStartDt.inputView = self.datePickerStart;
self.TextFieldStartDt.inputAccessoryView = self.datePickerToolbar;
self.TextFieldEndDt.delegate = self;
self.TextFieldEndDt.inputView = self.datePickerEnd;
self.TextFieldEndDt.inputAccessoryView = self.datePickerToolbar;
}

Answer 1

Keyboard is showing because a user has tapped a text field, not because they selected a cell. That's why allowsSelection doesn't affect it.
Move the UITextFieldDelegate handling to your UITableViewController. Then you can easily decide whether to show a date picker or not:
if date picker is hidden, show it and remember a cell which textfield is on
if date picker is already visible, check whether text field belongs to the same cell and either update date picker or do nothing (by overriding textFieldShouldBeginEditing(_:) and returning false)

Answer 2

I moved the UITextFieldDelegate up to the TableViewController and included following code there:
-(bool) textFieldShouldBeginEditing:(UITextField *)textField {
if (self.TableViewDiary.allowsSelection) {
return true;
} else {
CGPoint buttonPosition = [textField convertPoint:CGPointZero toView:self.TableViewDiary];
NSIndexPath *indexPath = [self.TableViewDiary indexPathForRowAtPoint:buttonPosition];
ActivityDiaryCell *cell = [self.TableViewDiary cellForRowAtIndexPath:indexPath];
if ([cell.TextFieldStartDt isFirstResponder] || [cell.TextFieldEndDt isFirstResponder]) {
return true;
}
}
return false;
}
- (void)textFieldDidBeginEditing:(UITextField *)textField
{
CGPoint buttonPosition = [textField convertPoint:CGPointZero toView:self.TableViewDiary];
NSIndexPath *indexPath = [self.TableViewDiary indexPathForRowAtPoint:buttonPosition];
ActivityDiaryCell *cell = [self.TableViewDiary cellForRowAtIndexPath:indexPath];
[cell setSelected:YES animated:NO];
}
- (void)textFieldDidEndEditing:(UITextField *)textField
{
CGPoint buttonPosition = [textField convertPoint:CGPointZero toView:self.TableViewDiary];
NSIndexPath *indexPath = [self.TableViewDiary indexPathForRowAtPoint:buttonPosition];
ActivityDiaryCell *cell = [self.TableViewDiary cellForRowAtIndexPath:indexPath];
[cell setSelected:NO animated:YES];
}