avoid view when opening keyboard from a UITextView inside a UITableView with custom cell

Question

I have a UIViewController that contains a UITableView with custom cells, inside the cell are UILabels, a couple of uneditable UITextView and one editable UITextView. Now, when I tap on one of the UITextView that is near the bottom or the bottom part of the table, the UITextView is covered by the keyboard. I've tried http://cocoawithlove.com/2008/10/sliding-uitextfields-around-to-avoid.html which works great for textfield/textview but not working on the table with custom cell. Any help or suggestions how to go about this?

Answer 1

When your table view contains data entry fields like a UITextField or a UITextView and the table view is long enough to cover the screen, you will have a problem accessing data entry fields that are hidden by the keyboard.
To overcome this problem two solutions are:

1. The easiest and recommended way is to use a UITableViewController instead of UIViewController, which automatic make sure keypad won't hide the editable field (If possible use this approach to avoid U.I. adjustment inconvenience)

2. If you use a UIViewController and a UITableView as its subview. You can scroll your UI’s frame by observing the UIKeyboardWillShowNotification and UIKeyboardWillHideNotification

   - (void)registerForKeyboardNotifications 
   {
           [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self
                                                    selector:@selector(keyboardWillShow:)
                                                        name:UIKeyboardWillShowNotification object:nil]; //Posted immediately prior to the display of the keyboard
   
           [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self
                                                    selector:@selector(keyboardWillHide:)
                                                        name:UIKeyboardWillHideNotification object:nil]; //Posted immediately prior to the dismissal of the keyboard.
   }
   
   
   - (void)keyboardWillShow:(NSNotification *)aNotification 
   {  
       CGRect keyboardBounds = [[[aNotification userInfo] objectForKey:UIKeyboardFrameBeginUserInfoKey] CGRectValue];
   
       [UIView beginAnimations:nil context:nil];
       [UIView setAnimationBeginsFromCurrentState:YES];
   
       self.tableView.contentInset = UIEdgeInsetsMake(0, 0, keyboardBounds.size.height, 0); //when keyboard is up, that time just bring your text filed above the keyboard
       self.tableView.scrollIndicatorInsets = UIEdgeInsetsMake(0, 0, keyboardBounds.size.height, 0);
   
       [self.tableView scrollToRowAtIndexPath:[self findIndexPathToScroll]
                             atScrollPosition:UITableViewScrollPositionTop
                                     animated:YES]; //findIndexPathToScroll implementation not shown
       [UIView commitAnimations];
   }
   
   - (void)keyboardWillHide:(NSNotification *)aNotification 
   {
       [UIView beginAnimations:nil context:nil];
       [UIView setAnimationBeginsFromCurrentState:YES];
       self.tableView.contentInset = UIEdgeInsetsZero; //Once keyboard is hidden then bring back your table into your original position.
       self.tableView.scrollIndicatorInsets = UIEdgeInsetsZero;
       [UIView commitAnimations];
   }
   

   • registerForKeyboardNotifications - call this method when you load the UITableView, ie: viewDidLoad

   • findIndexPathToScroll - (Implementation not shown) Its your business logic to prepare IndexPath where table view should scroll

   • removeObserver 'UIKeyboardWillShowNotification' and 'UIKeyboardWillHideNotification' both in dealloc and viewDidUnload

Answer 2

I fixed the issue. Please see my solution below:

1. First declare a global varibale called "activeFileld"
@property(nonatomic,strong)id activeFiled;

2. Create a method called "registerForKeyboardNotifications"
- (void)registerForKeyboardNotifications 
{
        [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self
                                                 selector:@selector(keyboardWillShow:)
                                                     name:UIKeyboardWillShowNotification object:nil]; //Posted immediately prior to the display of the keyboard

        [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self
                                                 selector:@selector(keyboardWillHide:)
                                                     name:UIKeyboardWillHideNotification object:nil]; //Posted immediately prior to the dismissal of the keyboard.
}

3. Called the above method in viewWillAppear:

-(void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated{

  [super viewWillAppear:animated];
  //Register kryboard Notification
   [self registerForKeyboardNotifications];
}
4. Call the Delegate method for UitextFieldd Or UitextView

- (void)textFieldDidBeginEditing:(UITextField *)sender {

        self.activeField = sender;
}
- (void)textFieldDidEndEditing:(UITextField *)sender{
        self.activeField = nil;
}

- (void)textViewDidBeginEditing:(UITextView *)textView
{
    // save the text view that is being edited
    _notes = textView.text;

}
- (void)textViewDidEndEditing:(UITextView *)textView
{
    // release the selected text view as we don't need it anymore
    _activeField = nil;
}

5.

- (void)keyboardWillShow:(NSNotification *)notification
{

    if([_activeField isKindOfClass:[UITextField class]]) {

        NSDictionary* info = [notification userInfo];
        NSLog(@"Dictionary %@",info);
        CGRect kbRect = [[info objectForKey:UIKeyboardFrameBeginUserInfoKey] CGRectValue];
        kbRect = [self.view convertRect:kbRect fromView:nil];

        UIEdgeInsets contentInsets = UIEdgeInsetsMake(0.0, 0.0, kbRect.size.height, 0.0);
        self.tableView.contentInset = contentInsets;
        self.tableView.scrollIndicatorInsets = contentInsets;

        CGRect aRect = self.view.frame;
        aRect.size.height -= kbRect.size.height;

        UITextField *textField = (UITextField*)_activeField;
        if (!CGRectContainsPoint(aRect, textField.frame.origin) ) {
            [self.tableView scrollRectToVisible:textField.frame animated:YES];
        }
    }else if([_activeField isKindOfClass:[UITextView class]]) {

        NSDictionary* info = [notification userInfo];
        NSLog(@"Dictionary %@",info);
        CGRect kbRect = [[info objectForKey:UIKeyboardFrameBeginUserInfoKey] CGRectValue];
        kbRect = [self.view convertRect:kbRect fromView:nil];

        UIEdgeInsets contentInsets = UIEdgeInsetsMake(0.0, 0.0, kbRect.size.height, 0.0);
        self.tableView.contentInset = contentInsets;
        self.tableView.scrollIndicatorInsets = contentInsets;

        CGRect aRect = self.view.frame;
        aRect.size.height += kbRect.size.height;

        UITextView *activeTextView = (UITextView*)_activeField;
        if (!CGRectContainsPoint(aRect, textField.superview.superview.frame.origin) ) {
            [self.tableView scrollRectToVisible:activeTextView.superview.superview.frame animated:YES];

       }


   }





}

// Called when the UIKeyboardWillHideNotification is received
- (void)keyboardWillHide:(NSNotification *)aNotification
{
    UIEdgeInsets contentInsets = UIEdgeInsetsZero;
    self.tableView.contentInset = contentInsets;
    self.tableView.scrollIndicatorInsets = contentInsets;
}

Answer 3

Two solutions:

Preferred: use a UITableViewController instead of a UIViewController as that one will automatically make sure that your keypad won't hide the editable field.

Hacky: How to make a UITextField move up when keyboard is present?

Answer 4

A simple solution. Implement the heightForFooter method, and let it return a value of (say) 100, and when you select the a cell in UITableView, they will simply slide up by that height, and the keyboard will not cover the view.

Answer 5

I've always used a two fold solution for this.

1. Resize table so it now fits in the smaller area.
2. Scroll to the cell we want visible. (we needed to re-size the table for this or you'd still wind up being unable to get to the last couple of cells in the table.)

To do this, I register keyboard show/hide events and act accordingly when they get called.

- (void)keyboardWillShow:(NSNotification *)note {
    [self updateForKeyboardShowHide:note appearing:YES];
}
- (void)keyboardWillHide:(NSNotification *)note {
    [self updateForKeyboardShowHide:note appearing:NO];
}

- (void)updateForKeyboardShowHide:(NSNotification *)note appearing:(BOOL)isAppearing {
    // ignore notifications if our view isn't attached to the window
    if (self.view.window == nil)
        return;

    CGFloat directionalModifier = isAppearing?-1:1;
    CGRect keyboardBounds = [[note.userInfo valueForKey:UIKeyboardFrameBeginUserInfoKey] CGRectValue];
    CGFloat animationDuration = [[note.userInfo valueForKey:UIKeyboardAnimationDurationUserInfoKey] floatValue];

    // figure out table re-size based on keyboard
    CGFloat keyboardHeight;
    UIInterfaceOrientation orientation = [[UIApplication sharedApplication] statusBarOrientation];
    if (UIInterfaceOrientationIsPortrait(orientation))
        keyboardHeight = keyboardBounds.size.height;
    else 
        keyboardHeight = keyboardBounds.size.width;

    [UIView animateWithDuration:animationDuration animations:^{
        // resize table
        CGRect newFrame = table.frame;
        newFrame.size.height += [self calculateKeyboardOffsetWithHeight:keyboardHeight] * directionalModifier;
        table.frame = newFrame;        
    }  completion:^(BOOL finished){
        // scroll to selected cell
        if (isAppearing) {
            NSIndexPath *indexPath = [NSIndexPath indexPathForRow:textFieldInEdit.tag inSection:0];
            [table scrollToRowAtIndexPath:indexPath atScrollPosition:UITableViewScrollPositionBottom animated:YES];
        }
    }];
}

- (CGFloat)calulateKeyboardOffsetWithHeight:(CGFloat)keyboardHeight {
    // This depends on the size and position of your table.
    //   If your table happen to go all the way to the bottom of
    // the screen, you'll needs to adjust it's size by the whole keyboard height.
    // You might as well ditch this method and inline the value.
    return keyboardHeight;

    //   My table did not go to the bottom of the screen and the position was
    // change dynamically so and there was long boring calculation I needed to
    // do to figure out how much my table needed to shrink/grow.
}