iOS get Keyboard Window - ios

Question

So in iOS 7 I always got the Keyboard Window like this:
- (UIView *)keyboardView
{
UIWindow* tempWindow;
//Because we cant get access to the UIKeyboard throught the SDK we will just use UIView.
//UIKeyboard is a subclass of UIView anyways
UIView* keyboard;
NSLog(#"windows %d", [[[UIApplication sharedApplication]windows]count]);
//Check each window in our application
for(int c = 0; c < [[[UIApplication sharedApplication] windows] count]; c ++)
{
//Get a reference of the current window
tempWindow = [[[UIApplication sharedApplication] windows] objectAtIndex:c];
//Get a reference of the current view
for(int i = 0; i < [tempWindow.subviews count]; i++)
{
keyboard = [tempWindow.subviews objectAtIndex:i];
NSLog(#"view: %#, on index: %d, class: %#", [keyboard description], i, [[tempWindow.subviews objectAtIndex:i] class]);
if([[keyboard description] hasPrefix:#"(lessThen)UIKeyboard"] == YES)
{
//If we get to this point, then our UIView "keyboard" is referencing our keyboard.
return keyboard;
}
}
for(UIView* potentialKeyboard in tempWindow.subviews)
// if the real keyboard-view is found, remember it.
if ([[[UIDevice currentDevice] systemVersion] floatValue] >= 8.0) {
if([[potentialKeyboard description] hasPrefix:#"<UILayoutContainerView"] == YES)
keyboard = potentialKeyboard;
}
else if ([[[UIDevice currentDevice] systemVersion] floatValue] >= 3.2) {
if([[potentialKeyboard description] hasPrefix:#"<UIPeripheralHost"] == YES)
keyboard = potentialKeyboard;
}
else {
if([[potentialKeyboard description] hasPrefix:#"<UIKeyboard"] == YES)
keyboard = potentialKeyboard;
}
}
NSLog(#"view: %#, on index: %d", [keyboard description]);
return keyboard;
}
But in the iOS 8 beta 1 & 2 the window/view that is returned is the main App window. Any idea what is the the problem in my code? On my test device with iOS 7 it works great...

Answer 1

I also had this problem and found the solution.
Below is the code which will work for iOS 8.0 and also for below versions.
I have tested it on iOS 7 and 8.0 (Xcode Version 6.0.1)
- (void)addButtonToKeyboard
{
// create custom button
self.doneButton = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeCustom];
self.doneButton.frame = CGRectMake(0, 163+44, 106, 53);
self.doneButton.adjustsImageWhenHighlighted = NO;
[self.doneButton setTag:67123];
[self.doneButton setImage:[UIImage imageNamed:#"doneup1.png"] forState:UIControlStateNormal];
[self.doneButton setImage:[UIImage imageNamed:#"donedown1.png"] forState:UIControlStateHighlighted];
[self.doneButton addTarget:self action:#selector(doneButton:) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];
// locate keyboard view
int windowCount = [[[UIApplication sharedApplication] windows] count];
if (windowCount < 2) {
return;
}
UIWindow* tempWindow = [[[UIApplication sharedApplication] windows] objectAtIndex:1];
UIView* keyboard;
for(int i = 0 ; i < [tempWindow.subviews count] ; i++)
{
keyboard = [tempWindow.subviews objectAtIndex:i];
// keyboard found, add the button
if([[keyboard description] hasPrefix:#"<UIPeripheralHost"] == YES){
UIButton* searchbtn = (UIButton*)[keyboard viewWithTag:67123];
if (searchbtn == nil)//to avoid adding again and again as per my requirement (previous and next button on keyboard)
[keyboard addSubview:self.doneButton];
}//This code will work on iOS 8.0
else if([[keyboard description] hasPrefix:#"<UIInputSetContainerView"] == YES){
for(int i = 0 ; i < [keyboard.subviews count] ; i++)
{
UIView* hostkeyboard = [keyboard.subviews objectAtIndex:i];
if([[hostkeyboard description] hasPrefix:#"<UIInputSetHost"] == YES){
UIButton* donebtn = (UIButton*)[hostkeyboard viewWithTag:67123];
if (donebtn == nil)//to avoid adding again and again as per my requirement (previous and next button on keyboard)
[hostkeyboard addSubview:self.doneButton];
}
}
}
}
}
>
-(void) removedSearchButtonFromKeypad{
int windowCount = [[[UIApplication sharedApplication] windows] count];
if (windowCount < 2) {
return;
}
UIWindow* tempWindow = [[[UIApplication sharedApplication] windows] objectAtIndex:1];
for(int i = 0 ; i < [tempWindow.subviews count] ; i++)
{
UIView* keyboard = [tempWindow.subviews objectAtIndex:i];
if([[keyboard description] hasPrefix:#"<UIPeripheralHost"] == YES){
[self removeButton:keyboard];
}else if([[keyboard description] hasPrefix:#"<UIInputSetContainerView"] == YES){
for(int i = 0 ; i < [keyboard.subviews count] ; i++)
{
UIView* hostkeyboard = [keyboard.subviews objectAtIndex:i];
if([[hostkeyboard description] hasPrefix:#"<UIInputSetHost"] == YES){
[self removeButton:hostkeyboard];
}
}
}
}
}
-(void) removeButton:(UIView*)keypadView{
UIButton* donebtn = (UIButton*)[keypadView viewWithTag:67123];
if(donebtn){
[donebtn removeFromSuperview];
donebtn = nil;
}
}
Hope this helps.

Answer 2

What i use to get the window for the keyboard is
- (void)findKeyboardWindow
{
for (UIWindow *window in [[UIApplication sharedApplication] windows])
{
if ([NSStringFromClass([window class]) isEqualToString:#"UITextEffectsWindow"])
{
_keyboardWindow = window;
break;
}
}
}
From my logs on iOS8 this contains one view
UIInputSetContainerView: 0x190d4430; frame = (0 0; 320 568); autoresize = W+H; layer = CALayer: 0x190d4630
Which contains another view
UIInputSetHostView: 0x190d4820; frame = (0 352; 320 216); layer = CALayer: 0x190d49c0
Since those dimensions are 216.0f height i guess that is the keyboard.
Was this what you where looking for?

Answer 3

On iOS 13, we can get keyboard window like this:
let windows = UIApplication.shared.windows
if let keyboardWindow = windows.first(where: { NSStringFromClass($0.classForCoder) == "UIRemoteKeyboardWindow" }) {
return
}

Answer 4

In the first iOS 8 beta, the system keyboard is the UIInputSetHostView subview of the UIInputSetContainerView subview of one of the application windows.