The caret disappears or won't show up in UITextField - ios

I'm having trouble with the caret of UITextfields.
Whenever I tap on the textfield the caret doesn't show, but otherwise the textfield is working properly. The problem is similar to the problem described here (already tried the solution written there as well).
I noticed that whenever I load a viewcontroller and tap on a textfield (or programatically make it the first responder) it does show a caret, but as soon as I tap another textfield or make a textfield resign its first responder status no textfield will show its caret anymore (unless I go back and reload the viewcontroller again).
Got no clue as of why this is happening. I am using a custom font throughout the app. But I'm not sure if that's what making the caret disappear, as I've used custom fonts before with no problem whatsoever.
EDIT:
I think I've at least found why the problem occurs. It is related to me overriding the becomeFirstResponder and resignFirstResponder.
My code looks like:
extension UITextField {
open override func becomeFirstResponder() -> Bool {
let willBecomeResponder = super.becomeFirstResponder()
if willBecomeResponder {
backgroundColor = .red
layer.borderColor = .blue
}
return willBecomeResponder
}
open override func resignFirstResponder() -> Bool {
let willResignResponder = super.resignFirstResponder()
if willResignResponder {
backgroundColor = .blue
layer.borderColor = .red
}
return willResignResponder
}
}
Overriding those methods in the extension makes the caret disappear.
I'm thinking this most likely happens because UITextField itself does some...'caret-management' in it's own implementation of those methods.
More so because even return super.becomeFirstResponder() and no custom code in the overridden method makes the caret disappear.
My question therefore is; how can one solve this problem without making a custom UITextField subclass?
Calling super obviously just calls the UIResponder's implementation, but the docs specifically mention:
becomeFirstResponder()
You can override this method in your custom responders to update your object's state or perform some action such as highlighting the selection. If you override this method, you must call super at some point in your implementation.
So I need to call super I guess.

Alright I solved my problem by overriding isFirstResponder and altering the textfield based on the super.isFirstResponder there.
Looks like:
open override var isFirstResponder: Bool {
get {
let responder = super.isFirstResponder
backgroundColor = (responder) ? .red : .blue
layer.borderColor = (responder) ? .blue : .red
return responder
}
}
I did noticed a lot of calls being sent to isFirstResponder, so maybe this isn't the most efficient way (if altering the textfield is a heavy op).

Related

UITapGestureRecognizer on a text field not as expected

In my class I have 11 UITapGestureRecognizers in an array textViewRecognizer attached to 11 out of 100 UITextFields in an array boxArray. When a Textfield is tapped containing a UIGestureRecognizer it runs tappedTextView where I try to get the index of the first responder.
However, due to some weird ordering in how things are executed, the action function only gives me the first responder of the previous first responder to the one that was just tapped.
Also, I have to double tap to even select the text field I was going for! I need to use the tap function and not the text delegates so this has been a real headache.
I have...
#objc func tappedTextField(_ sender: UITapGestureRecognizer) {
for i in 0...99 {
if (boxArray[i]?.isFirstResponder)! {
if let index = boxArray.index(of: boxArray[i]) {
print(index)
break
}
}
}
}
in my viewDidLoad I have
for i in 0...10 {
textFieldTapRecognizer[i].addTarget(self, action: #selector(self.tappedTextField(_:)))
}
In my class I have
I want to set 11 out of 100 textFields to have this a tap recognizer depending on some conditions (I'm just going to use a regular for loop here)
for i in 0...10 {
boxArray[i]?.addGestureRecognizer(textFieldTapRecognizer[i])
}
Is there anyway I can get it to give me the actual first responder, after the tap was made?
Is there anyway to go around the double tap to select the text field that has a UITapGesture?
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Edited: properly named functions
It sounds like you want to remove the automatic editing behavior on a UITextView. You can grab more control over that with the textViewShouldBeginEditing(_ textView: UITextView) -> Bool UITextViewDelegate method, documented here.
If you return false for that method, this should avoid needing a double tap to get to your gesture recognizer. Depending on your use case, you can then "allow" the tap to go to the text view by returning true for the textView you want to be actually edited.
While I'm not 100% clear on the first responder part of your question, since the textView won't be grabbing first responder if it's not starting it's editing mode, this should address that concern I believe. Good luck!
I would add a Tag to my UITextView and set the UITextViewDelegate to my ViewController.
Then I would add the following Delegate method:
func textViewShouldBeginEditing(_ textView: UITextView) -> Bool {
print("Textview tag: ", textView.tag)
return false
}

How to hide keyboard in Swift app during UI testing

I just started with UI testing in Xcode 7 and hit this problem:
I need to enter text into a textfield and then click a button. Unfortunately this button is hidden behind the keyboard which appeared while entering text into the textfield. Xcode is trying to scroll to make it visible but my view isn't scrollable so it fails.
My current solution is this:
let textField = app.textFields["placeholder"]
textField.tap()
textField.typeText("my text")
app.childrenMatchingType(.Window).elementBoundByIndex(0).tap() // hide keyboard
app.buttons["hidden button"].tap()
I can do this because my ViewController is intercepting touches:
override func touchesBegan(touches: Set<UITouch>, withEvent event: UIEvent?) {
view.endEditing(false)
super.touchesBegan(touches, withEvent: event)
}
I am not really happy about my solution, is there any other way how to hide the keyboard during UI testing?
If you have set up your text fields to resign FirstResponder (either via textField.resignFirstResponder() or self.view.endEditing(true)) in the textFieldShouldReturn() delegate method, then
textField.typeText("\n")
will do it.
Swift 5 helper function
func dismissKeyboardIfPresent() {
if app.keyboards.element(boundBy: 0).exists {
if UIDevice.current.userInterfaceIdiom == .pad {
app.keyboards.buttons["Hide keyboard"].tap()
} else {
app.toolbars.buttons["Done"].tap()
}
}
}
Based on a question to Joe's blog, I have an issue in which after a few runs on simulator the keyboards fails to hide using this piece of code:
XCUIApplication().keyboard.buttons["Hide keyboard"]
So, I changed it to: (thanks Joe)
XCUIApplication().keyboard.buttons["Hide keyboard"]
let firstKey = XCUIApplication().keys.elementBoundByIndex(0)
if firstKey.exists {
app.typeText("\n")
}
What I try to do here is detecting if the keyboard stills open after tap the hide button, if it is up, I type a "\n", which in my case closes the keyboard too.
This also happens to be tricky, because sometimes the simulator lost the focus of the keyboard typing and this might make the test fail, but in my experience the failure rate is lower than the other approaches I've taken.
I hope this can help.
I always use this to programmatically hide the keyboard in Swift UITesting:
XCUIApplication().keyboards.buttons["Hide keyboard"].tap()
XCUIApplication().toolbars.buttons["Done"].tap()
With Swift 4.2, you can accomplish this now with the following snippet:
let app = XCUIApplication()
if app.keys.element(boundBy: 0).exists {
app.typeText("\n")
}
The answer to your question lies not in your test code but in your app code. If a user cannot enter text using the on-screen software keyboard and then tap on the button, you should either make the test dismiss the keyboard (as a user would have to, in order to tap on the button) or make the view scrollable.
Just make sure that the keyboard is turned off in the simulator before running the tests.
Hardware->Keyboard->Connect Hardware Keyboard.
Then enter your text using the paste board
textField.tap()
UIPasteboard.generalPasteboard().string = "Some text"
textField.doubleTap()
app.menuItems["paste"].tap()
I prefer to search for multiple elements that are possibly visible to tap, or continue, or whatever you want to call it. And choose the right one.
class ElementTapHelper {
///Possible elements to search for.
var elements:[XCUIElement] = []
///Possible keyboard element.
var keyboardElement:XCUIElement?
init(elements:[XCUIElement], keyboardElement:XCUIElement? = nil) {
self.elements = elements
self.keyboardElement = keyboardElement
}
func tap() {
let keyboard = XCUIApplication().keyboards.firstMatch
if let key = keyboardElement, keyboard.exists {
let frame = keyboard.frame
if frame != CGRect.zero {
key.forceTap()
return
}
}
for el in elements {
if el.exists && el.isHittable {
el.forceTap()
return
}
}
}
}
extension XCUIElement {
///If the element isn't hittable, try and use coordinate instead.
func forceTap() {
if self.isHittable {
self.tap()
return
}
//if element isn't reporting hittable, grab it's coordinate and tap it.
coordinate(withNormalizedOffset: CGVector(dx:0, dy:0)).tap()
}
}
It works well for me. This is how I would usually use it:
let next1 = XCUIApplication().buttons["Next"]
let keyboardNext = XCUIApplication().keyboards.firstMatch.buttons["Next"]
ElementTapHelper(elements: [next1], keyboardElement: keyboardNext).tap()
Nice thing about this is you can provide multiple elements that could be tapped, and it searches for keyboard element first.
Another benefit of this is if you are testing on real devices the keyboard opens by default. So why not just press the keyboard button?
I only use this helper when there are multiple buttons that do the same thing, and some may be hidden etc.
If you are using IQKeyboardManager you can easily do this:
app.toolbars.buttons["Done"].tap()
This way you capture the "Done" button in the keyboard toolbar and hide the keyboard. It also works for different localizations.

Swift2 override of highlighted/selected doesn't work

I'm creating a custom UIButton class and i'm trying to override the highlighted/selected methods but they aren't called. After a bit of searching i found that this code should be working:
override var highlighted: Bool {
didSet {
if highlighted {
self.backgroundColor = UIColor.whiteColor()
} else {
self.backgroundColor = UIColor.blackColor()
}
}
}
I did the same for selected. I also tried using willSet but no luck. I'm using swift2.0. Could that make the difference? Anyone knows why it isn't called?
You're going about this all wrong. No need to subclass. Just call setBackgroundImage:forState: with a black image for one state and a white image for the other.
Issue fixed. Due to the fact that i'm wokrking on an SDK shared library, I had to define the Module of my view controller and the Module of my button class. Once I did those, everything was working fluently.

What's the simplest way to receive tap events on a disabled UIButton?

I have a UIButton on a form, and want to put it in a disabled state when the form is incomplete. However, I still want to be able to detect if a user attempts to press the button even in its disabled state so that the interface can let the user know that certain required fields on the form are not filled-in yet (and perhaps scroll to that field and point it out, etc.).
There doesn't seem to be any straightforward way to do this. I tried simply attaching a UITapGestureRecognizer to the UIButton but it doesn't respond when the button is in a disabled state.
I'd like to avoid subclassing UIButton if possible, unless it's the only way.
Create a fallback button. Put it behind the main button. Set its background and text colors to [UIColor clearColor] to ensure it won't show up. (You can't just set its alpha to 0 because that makes it ignore touches.) In Interface Builder, the fallback button should be above the main button in the list of subviews, like this:
Give it the same frame as the main button. If you're using autolayout, select both the main and fallback buttons and create constraints to keep all four edges equal.
When the main button is disabled, touches will pass through to the fallback button. When the main button is enabled, it will catch all the touches and the fallback button won't receive any.
Connect the fallback button to an action so you can detect when it's tapped.
Based on #rob idea, I sub-class a UIButton, and add a transparent button before someone addSubview on this button.
This custom UIButton will save many time about adjusting the UI components on the storyboard.
Update 2018/08
It works well, and add some enhanced detail to this sub-class. I have used it for 2 years.
class TTButton : UIButton {
// MARK: -
private lazy var fakeButton : UIButton! = self.initFakeButton()
private func initFakeButton() -> UIButton {
let btn = UIButton(frame: self.frame)
btn.backgroundColor = UIColor.clearColor()
btn.addTarget(self, action: #selector(self.handleDisabledTouchEvent), forControlEvents: UIControlEvents.TouchUpInside)
return btn
}
// Respect this property for `fakeButton` and `self` buttons
override var isUserInteractionEnabled: Bool {
didSet {
self.fakeButton.isUserInteractionEnabled = isUserInteractionEnabled
}
}
override func layoutSubviews() {
super.layoutSubviews()
// NOTE: `fakeButton` and `self` has the same `superView`.
self.fakeButton.frame = self.frame
}
override func willMoveToSuperview(newSuperview: UIView?) {
//1. newSuperView add `fakeButton` first.
if (newSuperview != nil) {
newSuperview!.addSubview(self.fakeButton)
} else {
self.fakeButton.removeFromSuperview()
}
//2. Then, newSuperView add `self` second.
super.willMoveToSuperview(newSuperview)
}
#objc private func handleDisabledTouchEvent() {
//NSLog("handle disabled touch event. Enabled: \(self.enabled)")
self.sendActionsForControlEvents(.TouchUpInside)
}
}
You have a great misunderstanding of user experience.
If a button is disabled, it is meant to be non-interactable.
You can not click on a disabled button, that is why it is disabled.
If you want to warn users about something when that button is clicked (e.g. form not filled correctly or completely), you need to make that button enabled. And just warn users when they click on it, instead of proceeding further with app logic.
Or you can keep that button disabled until form criteria are met, but show what is wrong with the form using another way, like putting exclamation marks near text fields, changing text field colors to red, or something like that...
But never try to add gesture recognizers, or hidden fallback buttons to a disabled button.
Check those and let me know if you see a disabled button:
https://airbnb.com/signup_login
https://spotify.com/us/signup/
https://netflix.com/signup/regform
https://reddit.com/register/
https://twitter.com/signup
https://facebook.com/r.php
https://appleid.apple.com/account
https://accounts.google.com/SignUp
https://login.yahoo.com/account/create
https://signup.live.com/signup
All the proceed buttons on these websites are always enabled, and you get feedback about what is wrong when you try to continue.
And here is really good answer: https://ux.stackexchange.com/a/76306
Long story short: disabled UI elements meant to be not-interactable.
Trying to make them interactable while they are disabled is the same to making them enabled in the first place.
So, for your question's case, it is just a styling issue. Just try styling your button, instead of making it disabled/enabled.

IOS Dismiss/Show keyboard without Resigning First Responder

My application is used with a barcode scanner connected via Bluetooth. When the scanner is connected you can double tap a button on the scanner to dismiss/show the on screen keyboard. 90% of the time the user will want the keyboard to be hidden as they will be scanning a barcode to input data. There are a few exceptions that I know of ahead of time that the keyboard will need to be enabled, I would like to save them the effort of pressing the scanner button to bring up the keyboard and instead force the keyboard to show up.
The scanner does not use resignfirstresponder to dismiss the keyboard, this is evident because the cursor is still visible and scanning a barcode will input data into the current text field.
Does anyone know how to dismiss/show the on screen keyboard without using resignfirstresponder?
For reference I am using this scanner http://ww1.socketmobile.com/products/bluetooth-scanners/how-to-buy/details.aspx?sku=CX2864-1336
To end editing completely in the view you can use the following
[self.view endEditing:YES];
This will remove the keyboard for you in the view.
For anyone still struggling with this, you can achieve this in Swift by making the inputView of the textfield equals UIView()
That is:
yourtextfield.inputview = UIView()
I ran into this today and have found a solution. The trick is to use a secondary text field that is off-screen or hidden with a custom empty inputView set and make that field become the first responder. That field captures text from the hardware scanner while the software keyboard hides.
However I got this working using a very similar approach and instead making the view controller itself the first responder as the scanning input view.
Example:
class SearchViewController: UIViewController, UIKeyInput {
let searchField = UITextField()
let softwareKeyboardHider = UIView()
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
view.addSubview(searchField)
inputAssistantItem.leadingBarButtonGroups = []
inputAssistantItem.trailingBarButtonGroups = []
}
override var canBecomeFirstResponder: Bool {
return true
}
override var inputView: UIView? {
return softwareKeyboardHider
}
var hasText: Bool {
return searchField.hasText
}
func insertText(_ text: String) {
searchField.insertText(text)
}
func deleteBackward() {
searchField.deleteBackward()
}
}
Now, when you want to hide the software keyboard make SearchViewController the first responder.
To show the software keyboard make SearchViewController.searchField the first responder.

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