Having a UITextField in a UITableViewCell

Question

Hi!

I'm trying to do that for a couple of days now, and after reading tons of messages of people trying to do that too, I'm still unable to have a fully working UITextField in some of my UITableViewCells, just like in this example: http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/4858/picture4za3.png

Either I have the form working but the text is not visible (although I set its color to blue), the keyboard goes on the field when I click on it and I haven't been able to correctly implement the keyboard events. I tried with a bunch of examples from Apple (mainly UICatalog, where there is a kinda similar control) but it's still not working correctly.

Can somebody help me (and all the people trying to realize this control) and post a simple implementation of a UITextField in a UITableViewCell, that works fine?

Thank you very much.

Answer 1

I said had it working. =) Anyway I used the EditableDetailView sample. I think the EditCell class might be the key. Did you try that sample?

Answer 2

This should not be difficult. When creating a cell for your table, add a UITextField object to the cell's content view

UITextField *txtField = [[UITextField alloc] initWithFrame....]
...
[cell.contentView addSubview:txtField]

Set the delegate of the UITextField as self (ie your viewcontroller) Give a tag to the text field so you can identify which textfield was edited in your delegate methods. The keyboard should pop up when the user taps the text field. I got it working like this. Hope it helps.

Answer 3

Here is how I have achieved this:

TextFormCell.h

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

#define CellTextFieldWidth 90.0
#define MarginBetweenControls 20.0

@interface TextFormCell : UITableViewCell {
 UITextField *textField;
}

@property (nonatomic, retain) UITextField *textField;

@end

TextFormCell.m

#import "TextFormCell.h"

@implementation TextFormCell

@synthesize textField;

- (id)initWithReuseIdentifier:(NSString *)reuseIdentifier {
    if (self = [super initWithReuseIdentifier:reuseIdentifier]) {
  // Adding the text field
  textField = [[UITextField alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectZero];
  textField.clearsOnBeginEditing = NO;
  textField.textAlignment = UITextAlignmentRight;
  textField.returnKeyType = UIReturnKeyDone;
  [self.contentView addSubview:textField];
    }
    return self;
}

- (void)dealloc {
 [textField release];
    [super dealloc];
}

#pragma mark -
#pragma mark Laying out subviews

- (void)layoutSubviews {
 CGRect rect = CGRectMake(self.contentView.bounds.size.width - PatMarginBetweenControls, 
        12.0, 
        -CellTextFieldWidth, 
        25.0);
 [textField setFrame:rect];
 CGRect rect2 = CGRectMake(MarginBetweenControls,
       12.0,
         self.contentView.bounds.size.width - CellTextFieldWidth - MarginBetweenControls,
         25.0);
 UILabel *theTextLabel = (UILabel *)[self textLabel];
 [theTextLabel setFrame:rect2];
}

It may seems a bit verbose, but it works!

Don't forget to set the delegate!

Answer 4

This a complex problem. I did post my solution in a similar post: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/350868/clicking-on-uitextfield-in-a-uitableviewcell/2030005#2030005

Answer 5

Try this out. Works like a charm for me. I used this code for a login screen once. I configured the table view to have two sections. You can of course get rid of the section conditionals.

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {

UITableViewCell *cell = [self.tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:kCellIdentifier];
if (cell == nil) {
    cell = [[[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault 
                                   reuseIdentifier:kCellIdentifier] autorelease];
    cell.accessoryType = UITableViewCellAccessoryNone;

    if ([indexPath section] == 0) {
        UITextField *playerTextField = [[UITextField alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(110, 10, 185, 30)];
        playerTextField.adjustsFontSizeToFitWidth = YES;
        playerTextField.textColor = [UIColor blackColor];
        if ([indexPath section] == 0) { // Email & Password Section
            if ([indexPath row] == 0) {
                playerTextField.placeholder = @"[email protected]";
                playerTextField.keyboardType = UIKeyboardTypeEmailAddress;
                playerTextField.returnKeyType = UIReturnKeyNext;
            }
            else {
                playerTextField.placeholder = @"Required";
                playerTextField.keyboardType = UIKeyboardTypeDefault;
                playerTextField.returnKeyType = UIReturnKeyDone;
                playerTextField.secureTextEntry = YES;
            }
        }           
        playerTextField.backgroundColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
        playerTextField.autocorrectionType = UITextAutocorrectionTypeNo; // no auto correction support
        playerTextField.autocapitalizationType = UITextAutocapitalizationTypeNone; // no auto capitalization support
        playerTextField.textAlignment = UITextAlignmentLeft;
        playerTextField.tag = 0;
        //playerTextField.delegate = self;

        playerTextField.clearButtonMode = UITextFieldViewModeNever; // no clear 'x' button to the right
        [playerTextField setEnabled: YES];

        [cell addSubview:playerTextField];

        [playerTextField release];
    }
}
if ([indexPath section] == 0) { // Email & Password Section
    if ([indexPath row] == 0) { // Email
        cell.textLabel.text = @"Email";
    }
    else {
        cell.textLabel.text = @"Passwort";
    }
}
else { // Login button section
    cell.textLabel.text = @"Log in";
}
return cell;    
}

Result looks like this: