Multi-line TextField (similar to SMS) and / or 'Done' button in UITextView

Question

Hi all,

I've been researching this for a few days now, and would appreciate a little help. Is there any way to generate a multi-line UITextField like Apple use in the SMS application? The useful thing about this control is that it has the 'sunk' appearance that makes it clear that it is a text entry box, but at the same time, it expands on each new-line character.

Failing that, if I'm forced to use a UITextView, can anyone advise how best to dismiss the keyboard ? Both the 'Done' and the 'Go' buttons just appear to generate newline characters ('\n'). This seems wrong to me - surely at least one of these should generate a different character, so that I can still allow for newline characters, but also dismiss my keyboard on a specific key press.

Am I missing something simple here ?

Thanks in advance :)

Answer 1

Facebook has released an open-source package called Three20 that has a multi-line text field. You can use this pretty easily for an expanding text field.

As for the "Done" button, you can set your view controller as a UITextFieldDelegate. Then use this method:

 - (BOOL)textFieldShouldReturn:(UITextField *)textField {
     // Do whatever you want for your done button
      return YES;
 }

In the case of Three20, use this method of TTTextEditorDelegate:

 - (BOOL)textFieldShouldReturn:(TTTextEditor *)textField {
     // Do whatever you want for your done button
      return YES;
 }

Answer 2

Well, I had a similar problem, and what I ended up using is actually create a disabled UITextField as the background and a UITextView above it to get the input... It sucks that iPhone API cannot have this by default. Also note that this does not auto-expand, but you can do this if you want by handling the textViewDidChange:

As for handling the return key, try implementing the following method from the UITextViewDelegate:

- (void)textViewDidChange:(UITextView *)inTextView {
    NSString *text = inTextView.text;

    if ([text length] > 0 && [text characterAtIndex:[text length] -1] == '\n') {
        inTextView.text = [text substringToIndex:[text length] -1]; // remove last return from text view
        [inTextView resignFirstResponder]; // hide keyboard
    }
}

Answer 3

Hey, little late but:

- (void)textEditorDidBeginEditing:(TTTextEditor *)textEditor {

And

- (void)textEditorDidEndEditing:(TTTextEditor *)textEditor {

might be what you're looking for. Enjoy!

Answer 4

Maybe you can build upon a class I wrote? It's the same as tttexteditor, without the ugly glitches: http://www.hanspinckaers.com/multi-line-uitextview-similar-to-sms

Answer 5

Sorry, a lot later but heres a REALLY GOOD TUTORIAL on exactly that:

http://www.hanspinckaers.com/multi-line-uitextview-similar-to-sms