UITextView custom action for tap on number - ios

Question

I have a UITextView in my app which is used to display some string with numbers. These numbers can be phone numbers or other numbers specific to the app. If user taps the phone number they should be asked if they want to make a call (This is done by default). However, if the user taps on the other number which is not a phone number but is specific to the app, the action should be custom e.g. it should call a method in the view controller with the number as an argument.
I had a quick search but couldn't find any easy solution.
Any idea how this could be done? Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

I was able to solve this by implementing 'UITextViewDelegate'.
- (BOOL)textView:(UITextView *)textView shouldInteractWithURL:(NSURL *)URL inRange:(NSRange)characterRange
{
DLog(#"URL is %#", URL.absoluteString)
NSString *host = [URL host];
NSNumber *adIdInLink = nil;
NSRange range = NSMakeRange(0, 3);
NSString *subString = [URL.absoluteString substringWithRange:range];
if ([subString isEqualToString:#"tel"] && !host) {
// this is a number - do whatever you want
NSString *stringWithAdId = [URL.absoluteString substringFromIndex:4];
if ([HJUtilities isValidAdId:stringWithAdId]) {
// this is the ad Id a custom number used in my app
adIdInLink = [NSNumber numberWithInteger:[stringWithAdId integerValue]];
}
else {
// this was a phone number - let the default behaviour
return YES;
}
}
}

Answer 2

Add a UITapGestureRecognizer to the UITextView with its delegate set to the parent UIViewController:
UITapGestureRecognizer *recognizer = [[UITapGestureRecognizer alloc] initWithTarget:self
action:#selector(handleTap:)];
[myTextView addGestureRecognizer:recognizer];
The add a handler method to your UIViewController:
- (void)handleTap:(UITapGestureRecognizer *)sender{
UITextView *textView = (UITextView*)sender;
NSString *number = textView.text;
}
eta: You need to add UIGestureRecognizerDelegate as a protocol to your UIViewController too:
#interface MyViewController : UIViewController <UIGestureRecognizerDelegate>
update:
How about using the UITextViewDelegate method textViewDidChangeSelection instead?
Inspect the selectedRange property of the textview to check its contents.