Does UILabel have any value to make it selectable? - ios

Question

Does UILabel have any value that can be set in order to make it selectable?
I have a label that I want to be selectable, (long press and a copy btn shows up) kinda like in Safari.

Answer 1

Self-contained Solution (Swift 5)
You can adapt the solution from #BJHSolutions and NSHipster to make the following self-contained SelectableLabel:
import UIKit
/// Label that allows selection with long-press gesture, e.g. for copy-paste.
class SelectableLabel: UILabel {
override func awakeFromNib() {
super.awakeFromNib()
isUserInteractionEnabled = true
addGestureRecognizer(
UILongPressGestureRecognizer(
target: self,
action: #selector(handleLongPress(_:))
)
)
}
override var canBecomeFirstResponder: Bool {
return true
}
override func canPerformAction(_ action: Selector, withSender sender: Any?) -> Bool {
return action == #selector(copy(_:))
}
// MARK: - UIResponderStandardEditActions
override func copy(_ sender: Any?) {
UIPasteboard.general.string = text
}
// MARK: - Long-press Handler
#objc func handleLongPress(_ recognizer: UIGestureRecognizer) {
if recognizer.state == .began,
let recognizerView = recognizer.view,
let recognizerSuperview = recognizerView.superview {
recognizerView.becomeFirstResponder()
UIMenuController.shared.setTargetRect(recognizerView.frame, in: recognizerSuperview)
UIMenuController.shared.setMenuVisible(true, animated:true)
}
}
}

Answer 2

Yes, you need to implement a UIMenuController from a long press gesture applied to your UILabel. There is an excellent article about this on NSHipster, but the gist of the article is the following.
Create a subclass of UILabel and implement the following methods:
override func canBecomeFirstResponder() -> Bool {
return true
}
override func canPerformAction(action: Selector, withSender sender: AnyObject?) -> Bool {
return (action == "copy:")
}
// MARK: - UIResponderStandardEditActions
override func copy(sender: AnyObject?) {
UIPasteboard.generalPasteboard().string = text
}
Then in your view controller, you can add a long press gesture to your label:
let gestureRecognizer = UILongPressGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: "handleLongPressGesture:")
label.addGestureRecognizer(gestureRecognizer)
and handle the long press with this method:
func handleLongPressGesture(recognizer: UIGestureRecognizer) {
if let recognizerView = recognizer.view,
recognizerSuperView = recognizerView.superview
{
let menuController = UIMenuController.sharedMenuController()
menuController.setTargetRect(recognizerView.frame, inView: recognizerSuperView)
menuController.setMenuVisible(true, animated:true)
recognizerView.becomeFirstResponder()
}}
NOTE: This code is taken directly from the NSHipster article, I am just including it here for SO compliance.

Answer 3

UILabel inherits from UIView so you can just add a long press gesture recognizer to the label. Note that you have to change isUserInteractionEnabled to true, because it defaults to false for labels.
import UIKit
class ViewController: UIViewController {
let label = UILabel()
override func viewDidLoad() {
view.addSubview(label)
label.text = "hello"
label.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
label.centerXAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.centerXAnchor).isActive = true
label.centerYAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.centerYAnchor).isActive = true
let longPressGestureRecognizer = UILongPressGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: #selector(longPressLabel(longPressGestureRecognizer:)))
label.addGestureRecognizer(longPressGestureRecognizer)
label.isUserInteractionEnabled = true
}
#objc private func longPressLabel (longPressGestureRecognizer: UILongPressGestureRecognizer) {
if longPressGestureRecognizer.state == .began {
print("long press began")
} else if longPressGestureRecognizer.state == .ended {
print("long press ended")
}
}
}

Answer 4

I've implemented a UILabel subclass that provides all of the functionality needed. Note that if you're using this with interface builder, you'll need to adjust the init methods.
/// A label that can be copied.
class CopyableLabel: UILabel
{
// MARK: - Initialisation
/// Creates a new label.
init()
{
super.init(frame: .zero)
let gestureRecognizer = UILongPressGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: #selector(handleLongPressGesture(_:)))
self.addGestureRecognizer(gestureRecognizer)
self.isUserInteractionEnabled = true
}
required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder)
{
fatalError("init(coder:) has not been implemented")
}
// MARK: - Responder chain
override var canBecomeFirstResponder: Bool
{
return true
}
// MARK: - Actions
/// Method called when a long press is triggered.
func handleLongPressGesture(_ gestuerRecognizer: UILongPressGestureRecognizer)
{
guard let superview = self.superview else { return }
let menuController = UIMenuController.shared
menuController.setTargetRect(self.frame, in: superview)
menuController.setMenuVisible(true, animated:true)
self.becomeFirstResponder()
}
override func copy(_ sender: Any?)
{
UIPasteboard.general.string = self.text
}
}