I often want to put my own things in the same place the keyboard pops up, but for my own controls... such as putting a UIDatePicker there, or a custom UIPickerView, or whatever.
I came up with a clumsy way of getting this behavior by having a dummy UITextField and putting my custom view in its inputView property. Then when the user clicks on my item, I just trigger off the UITextField to display the view I've assigned to the inputView.
Then I got to wondering if there was a better less kludgey way to do this. I found this article Show UIPickerView like a keyboard, without UITextField where several people recommend the same thing I do.
My question is this. Is it common to (mis)use the UITextField in this manner?
Many times you will face a UITextfield that you would want to populate through a custom control other than the standrd keyboard. Thus the inputView method was declared and can be used.
What is recommended:
1- if the UItextfield is normal, use the keybard (don't change the input view)
2- if the value is numeric, show the numberpad in keyboard directly (textField.keyboardType = .numberPad)
3- if your textField is a date then you set the input view as a date picker.
4- sometimes you need a UITextField where you need to choose between stuff. Thus you develop your own custom UIPicker and set it as an input View.
5- If what you are tring to achieve don't fall in all the above then you can do your own inputView and assign it.
So in short don't be afraid, it is the normal thing to do!
Hope this helps!
Related
I need to create a custom keyboard for my app, but no sure the best way to do it without the user needing to add a keyboard in the settings. If I create a keyboard extension is it possible to set a UITextField's Keyboard Type to that custom keyboard? Or will I have to use a UIView to accomplish this?
For a custom keyboard that is specific to a single app, create a view and assign the view to UITextField.inputView:
textField.inputView = YourCustomKeyboard()
In my search I didn't find a way to tack on additional keys but there are examples of custom keyboards using inputView that are easy to adapt.
A custom decimal keyboard example
My hexadecimal keyboard version
You can add accessoryView to text view for you want to give a few extra buttons.
If you still looking for some more then please go through the below link.
https://www.cocoacontrols.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=keyboard
I would like to try and make the text field appear above the keyboard when in editing mode, as shown in this picture, which is in the app Clash of Clans:
Is this achievable through some code or doing stuff in the Interface Builder, or have Supercell (makers of Clash of Clans) done this themselves?
You should look into the inputAccessoryView.
As it says here:
This property is typically used to attach an accessory view to the system-supplied keyboard that is presented for UITextField and UITextView objects.
You add the inputAccessoryView to the individual UITextField and UITextView views you have on your page, meaning that you can have separate inputAccessoryViews for the various textfields if so desired.
So in your case you would need to create your own view containing a UITextField and that checkmark button you have on the right and then add that view as a inputAccessoryView to your textfields and then it should appear right above your keyboard.
Hope that is enough to get you started, now you at least know that you should search for inputAccessoryView to see what can be done :)
Is it possible to add a done or cancel key which dismisses a keyboard to all keyboards in an iOS app? There are several posts asking how to dismiss a keyboard via a cancel or done button, but the solutions are on a field by field basis.
Are there any solutions that add this functionality globally so the code wont need to be duplicated for each textfield/area in an application?
Like #silentBob says in his answer, the inputAccessoryView of a text field is the view that’s displayed immediately above the keyboard when the text field is the first responder. If you didn’t want to write an extension on UITextField to override the -inputAccessoryView method, you could also create a subclass of UITextField to do the same, which would make it easier to determine which method is going to be called. You could also have multiple subclasses of UITextField to customize which button(s) appear. If you have a text field in a storyboard, you can simply change the class to your custom subclass, so while you have to go through and make those changes, you don’t have to do it in code.
Yes, you can add an extension to UITextField class, which should add a UIToolbar with Done and Cancel actions as UITextField inputAccessoryView.
Well, In that case you have to customise the keyboard, built your own keyboard and do whatever you need to do with your key in the keyboard.
Im trying to copy the content in a UILabel but without hiding the keyboard, the problem is that when I show the menu of copy in the label the label becomes first responder and the keyboard resign, but I want to do that without hiding the keyboard, is there a way to do that?
It is not possible with UILabel.
You should use UITextField for that. Just disable editing.
AFAIK, you can't do that. But I think you can have a work around for that. Instead of not hiding the keyboard, why don't keep track the current active text field and then active it after user press copy. You can use UIPasteboardChangedNotification to know when user pressed copy. For example:
self.lastActiveTextField = aTextField
-(void)pasteBoardDidChange:(NSNotification*)notif
{
[self.lastActiveTextField becomeFirstResponder];
}
I think so u r looking something like this project.
UILabel with UIKeyInput protocol implementation
https://github.com/hackiftekhar/IQEditableLabel
I think, it is not possible, there can be only one first responder at any time. If the keyboard is shown because of another UI element, then when you try to copy the content from UILabel, the OS has to transfer first responder from other element to UILabel, as there is no need of keyboard for UILabel, the keyboard will hide automatically. So, you have to make changes to your elements to fix this problem or use third party UI elements who can fix your problem.
Every UIView component has a method called: canBecomeFirstResponder. He is read only, but you can subclass the UI object and override the getter:
- (BOOL)canBecomeFirstResponder {
return false;
}
I didn't do the test, but if the "become first responder" is the problem, that should solve it.
I have a custom inputView for a particular textfield, and it works well. However, I cannot discern how to dismiss the view and get the regular keyboard back. (I have a SWAP button right next to the TextField.) I tried setting the textfield's inputView to nil, but that did nothing.
I do not need a full custom keyboard, but I need more than an Accessory view above the keyboard, which is why I am trying this route. I need about 20 custom buttons in addition to the regular keyboard, and I do not like the idea of a huge Accessory view taking up so much space.
I also would rather not require the user to initially install a full custom keyboard before being able to use the app.
Thank you very much for any suggestions.
I think you will probably have to do this:
Call resignFirstResponder on the UITextField
After the animation finishes, set your inputView to nil
Call becomeFirstResponder on the text field
The keyboard animation duration is sent in the userInfo dictionary on the keyboard presentation notifications.
In addition to the accepted answer, you can use reloadInputViews() (and this is less likely to suffer any animation glitches resulting from the resignFirstResponder, becomeFirstResponder calls):
yourTextField.inputView = nil;
yourTextField.reloadInputViews();
Here's more info in the Apple's Docs.