Subclassing UITextfield in Swift - ios

Question

I am currently initializing quite a few properties in my view controller, but it just feels very, very messy. I have been creating UITextField like:
lazy var passwordTextField: UITextField = {
let textField = UITextField()
let paddingView = UIView(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 10, height: 30))
textField.leftView = paddingView
textField.leftViewMode = .always
textField.placeholder = "Password"
textField.isSecureTextEntry = true
textField.autocorrectionType = .no
textField.autocapitalizationType = UITextAutocapitalizationType.none
textField.attributedPlaceholder = NSAttributedString(string: "Password", attributes: [NSAttributedString.Key.foregroundColor: UIColor.lightGray])
textField.tintColor = UIColor.white
textField.borderStyle = .none
textField.layer.borderColor = UIColor.white.cgColor
textField.layer.borderWidth = 0.7
textField.delegate = self
textField.textColor = UIColor.white
return textField
}()
I have about 5 of these per UIViewController. I would like to create a UITextField class that is basically a factory that pumps out custom UITextFields. How might I accomplish this?

Answer 1

Subclassing any item is quite easy. Just do something like
class MyTextField: UITextField {
override init(frame: CGRect) {
super.init(frame: frame)
textFieldSetup()
}
required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
super.init(coder: aDecoder)
textFieldSetup()
}
private func textFieldSetup() {
let paddingView = UIView(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 10, height: 30))
leftView = paddingView
leftViewMode = .always
...
...
//Add the common properties here that you want replicated for every instance
...
...
layer.borderColor = UIColor.white.cgColor
layer.borderWidth = 0.7
textColor = UIColor.white
}
}
Then, you can create an instance of MyTextField instead of UITextField
var passwordTextField: MyTextField!

Answer 2

You can subclass UITextField like,
class CustomTextField: UITextField {
required init(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
super.init(coder: aDecoder)!
self.customInit()
}
override init(frame: CGRect) {
super.init(frame: frame)
self.customInit()
}
func customInit(){
let paddingView = UIView(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 10, height: 30))
self.leftView = paddingView
self.leftViewMode = .always
self.placeholder = "Password"
self.isSecureTextEntry = true
self.autocorrectionType = .no
self.autocapitalizationType = .none
self.attributedPlaceholder = NSAttributedString(string: "Password", attributes: [NSAttributedString.Key.foregroundColor: UIColor.lightGray])
self.tintColor = .white
self.borderStyle = .none
self.layer.borderColor = UIColor.white.cgColor
self.layer.borderWidth = 0.7
self.textColor = .white
}
}
To use the custom label or text field,
class ViewController: UIViewController {
#IBOutlet weak var myCustomTextField: CustomTextField!
}

Answer 3

You can create extension for textfield like,
extension UITextField {
func setLeftPaddingPoints(_ amount:CGFloat){
let paddingView = UIView(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: amount, height: self.frame.size.height))
self.leftView = paddingView
self.leftViewMode = .always
}
func setRightPaddingPoints(_ amount:CGFloat) {
let paddingView = UIView(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: amount, height: self.frame.size.height))
self.rightView = paddingView
self.rightViewMode = .always
}
}