Create custom input for UITextField in Swift

Question

I'm programming a iOS app in Swift language and all I have to do is create a custom input for a textfield.

I created an additional View Controller with two buttons and what I want is this view controller (instead of the keyboard) to pop-up when I highlight my textfield.
Basically what I want is to create a small custom keyboard, but I just want it to be inside my app: I found lots of tutorials about creating custom keyboards, but it is not the same as having a simple View Controller that pops-up when text field is highlighted.

Can you suggest how to assign my view controller to textField.inputViewController in Swift?

Thanks

I'm also facing with same issue as you. Can you notify me if u figured out how to do it ? — letitbefornow, Nov 18 '15 at 14:06

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 22 '18 at 17:53

You can assign your own viewcontroller to inputViewcontroller:

Your viewController has to be a subclass of UIInputViewController for example:

class CustomInputViewController: UIInputViewController {
    @IBOutlet var insertTextButton: UIButton!

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        self.inputView?.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
        // Do any additional setup after loading the view.
    }

    override func didReceiveMemoryWarning() {
        super.didReceiveMemoryWarning()
        // Dispose of any resources that can be recreated.
    }

    @IBAction func insertText(_ button: UIButton){
        self.textDocumentProxy.insertText((button.titleLabel?.text)!);
    }
}

Here with only one button insertTextButton which I design in the xib-file.

In your main view controller you need a subclass of your textfield (or textview):

class textfield: UITextField {
    var _inputViewController : UIInputViewController?
    override public var inputViewController: UIInputViewController?{
        get { return _inputViewController }
        set { _inputViewController = newValue }
    }
}

which you assign to your textfield.

Now you can assign your own inputViewcontroller to your textfield, for example:

class ViewController: UIViewController {

    private var customInputViewController = CustomInputViewController(nibName: "CustomInputViewController",
                                                                      bundle: nil)
    @IBOutlet var textField: textfield!
    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        self.textField.inputViewController = customInputViewController
        // Do any additional setup after loading the view, typically from a nib.
    }

    override func didReceiveMemoryWarning() {
        super.didReceiveMemoryWarning()
        // Dispose of any resources that can be recreated.
    }


}

I used the xib-file with the name CustomInputViewController.xib to design the keyboard

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 29 '14 at 17:33

As far as I know, you cannot use a view controller. You need to make your own view and assign it to the inputView field. Make sure the view has a delegate so it knows which field to use:

MyInputView keyboard = ...
field.inputView = keyboard
keyboard.delegate = field

Create custom input for UITextField in Swift

2 Answers2