How to make a iPhone keyboard not visible as it rises?

Question

When my iPhone app starts up, the main screen has a keyboard. Currently the keyboard rises as soon as the rest of the interface is displayed and this is visually distracting.

How can I have the view display with the keyboard already up?

Since I am already faking some of the rest of the screen during startup so that the user sees what they last were doing, I thought that I could fake the keyboard as well. But if the motion is there when the real keyboard appears, I've lost the effect. The keyboard is, as far as I know, on a separate window, not just a separate view, so I can't overlay it with my own image.

Is there a way to either overlay the keyboard withy my own image as it appears, or not show the keyboard until it is all the way up, or make its animation instant?

Answer 1

In viewWillAppear:, ensure the view is loaded (via self.view) and set the first responder to the correct field. This will display the keyboard fully when the view is actually displayed instead of animating it in.

For example:

- (void) viewWillAppear: (BOOL) animated {
  [super viewWillAppear:animated];

  NSString *storedID = [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] stringForKey:@"storedID"];
  if ([storedID length] > 0) {
    idField.text = storedEmail;
    [passwordField becomeFirstResponder];
  } else {
    [idField becomeFirstResponder];
  }
}

Answer 2

Not an answer, but here is some code.

I set the font for my UITextView in viewDidLoad. The view is instantiated by the NIB and the outlet is correctly set up.

-(void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated;
{
[super viewWillAppear:animated];

// Start with the text from the currently edited message
NSString *startString = self.messageManager.editingMessage.text;
// start string processing omitted
self.editingMessageEditingView.text = startString;

if([self showingMessageList]) {
 [self.editingMessageEditingView resignFirstResponder];
} else {
#if DEFAULT_SCREEN==1
 [[self.tools.items objectAtIndex:kPVToolBarItemDelete] setEnabled:NO];
 [[self.tools.items objectAtIndex:kPVToolBarItemSendLater] setEnabled:NO];
#else
 [self.editingMessageEditingView becomeFirstResponder];
#endif
}

Answer 3

My original answer has the keyboard animate in along with the view controller if it's an animated transition (i.e. pushing a view controller or presenting a modal controller with animated: YES). However, the keyboard still animates in if the new view controller is displayed without an animated transition, so it doesn't solve your problem.

Here's another approach that worked in my testing. Try disabling animations while you're displaying the controller + keyboard.

[UIWindow beginAnimations: nil context: NULL];
[UIWindow setAnimationsEnabled: NO];

RestoredController *controller = [[[RestoredController alloc] init] autorelease];
[self.navigationController pushViewController: controller animated: NO];

[UIWindow commitAnimations];

You'll still need to make field the first responder in viewWillAppear: or viewDidAppear: