UITextField not to respond touches, but respond clear button - ios

Question

I have UITextField, i need to make it not to respond touches, because it is located on the UITableViewCell, and when user touches the textField, didSelectRowAtIndexPath is not getting called.
This textField has also clear button, i need to detect user taping on the clear button only, not in the rest textField area.
I tried, textField.userInteractionEnabled = NO. In this case clear button doesn't work of course, the same is with textField.enabled = NO;
UITextField *textField = [[UITextField alloc] initWithFrame:someFrame];
textField.textAlignment = NSTextAlignmentLeft;
textField.clearButtonMode = UITextFieldViewModeAlways;
textField.delegate = self;
Help, please.
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

In that case one work around can be used. You have to make a view that mask the textfield's text area but not clear button like this
We suppose that
someFrame = (20,50,100,44)
And textfield button around 20*20
So our view will be
UIView *maskView = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame: CGRectMake (20,50,80,44)];
maskView.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
Add this view after your textfield added. And it will mask textfield's that area which used for text and leave button area as it is.
Remember, this is not tested and just a work around. So any other method is there than I recommend to you to use that. And change value according to your need.

Answer 2

Are you loading a cell from the nib or else. I have just tried to make my own custom cell like below
Assigning tag ( it is 9 in my sample ) for the uitextfield
In viewForCellAtIndex :
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
UITableViewCell *cell ;
cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:#"purchaseNibCell"];
if (cell == nil) {
[[NSBundle mainBundle] loadNibNamed:#"PurchaseNibCell" owner:self options:nil];
cell = self.purchaseCell;
self.purchaseCell = nil;
}
UITextField *text = (UITextField*)[cell viewWithTag:9];
text.enabled = NO; <------ if you have not done in the xib file.
cell.backgroundView = [[CustomCellBackground alloc] init];
UIImageView *accessoryView = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:[UIImage imageNamed:#"accessory.png"]];
cell.accessoryView = accessoryView;
return cell;
}
hope it helps