[ios] Placeholder in UITextView


Simulating Native Placeholders


A common gripe is that iOS doesn't provide a native placeholder feature for textviews. The UITextView extension below attempts to address that concern by offering the convenience one would expect from a native feature, requiring only one line of code to add a placeholder to a textview instance.

The downside of this solution is, because it daisy chains delegate calls, it is vulnerable to (unlikely) changes to the UITextViewDelegate protocol in an iOS update. Specifically, if iOS adds new protocol methods and you implement any of them in the delegate for a text view with a placeholder, those methods won't be called unless you've also updated the extension to forward those calls.

Alternatively, the Inline Placeholder answer is a rock-solid and about as simple as can be.


Usage examples:


   • If the text view gaining the placeholder doesn't use a UITextViewDelegate:

    /* Swift 3 */

    class NoteViewController : UIViewController {
        @IBOutlet weak var noteView: UITextView!
        override func viewDidLoad() {
            noteView.addPlaceholder("Enter some text...",  color: UIColor.lightGray)
        }
    }

                                            -- OR --

   • If the text view gaining the placeholder does use a UITextViewDelegate:

    /* Swift 3 */

    class NoteViewController : UIViewController, UITextViewDelegate {
        @IBOutlet weak var noteView: UITextView!
        override func viewDidLoad() {
            noteView.addPlaceholder("Phone #", color: UIColor.lightGray, delegate: self)
        }
    }

Implementation (UITextView extension):


/* Swift 3 */

extension UITextView: UITextViewDelegate
{

    func addPlaceholder(_ placeholderText : String, 
                      color : UIColor? = UIColor.lightGray,
                      delegate : UITextViewDelegate? = nil) {

        self.delegate = self             // Make receiving textview instance a delegate
        let placeholder = UITextView()   // Need delegate storage ULabel doesn't provide
        placeholder.isUserInteractionEnabled = false  //... so we *simulate* UILabel
        self.addSubview(placeholder)     // Add to text view instance's view tree               
        placeholder.sizeToFit()          // Constrain to fit inside parent text view
        placeholder.tintColor = UIColor.clear // Unused in textviews. Can host our 'tag'
        placeholder.frame.origin = CGPoint(x: 5, y: 0) // Don't cover I-beam cursor
        placeholder.delegate = delegate  // Use as cache for caller's delegate 
        placeholder.font = UIFont.italicSystemFont(ofSize: (self.font?.pointSize)!)
        placeholder.text = placeholderText
        placeholder.textColor = color
    }

      
    func findPlaceholder() -> UITextView? { // find placeholder by its tag 
        for subview in self.subviews {
            if let textview = subview as? UITextView {
                if textview.tintColor == UIColor.clear { // sneaky tagging scheme
                    return textview
                }
            }
        }
        return nil
    }
     
    /* 
     * Safely daisychain to caller delegate methods as appropriate...
     */

    public func textViewDidChange(_ textView: UITextView) { // ?  need this delegate method
        if let placeholder = findPlaceholder() {
            placeholder.isHidden = !self.text.isEmpty // ? ... to do this
            placeholder.delegate?.textViewDidChange?(textView)
        } 
    }

    /* 
     * Since we're becoming a delegate on behalf of this placeholder-enabled
     * text view instance, we must forward *all* that protocol's activity expected
     * by the instance, not just the particular optional protocol method we need to
     * intercept, above.
     */

    public func textViewDidEndEditing(_ textView: UITextView) {
        if let placeholder = findPlaceholder() {
            placeholder.delegate?.textViewDidEndEditing?(textView)
        } 
    }

    public func textViewDidBeginEditing(_ textView: UITextView) {
        if let placeholder = findPlaceholder() {
            placeholder.delegate?.textViewDidBeginEditing?(textView)
        } 
    }

    public  func textViewDidChangeSelection(_ textView: UITextView) {
        if let placeholder = findPlaceholder() {
            placeholder.delegate?.textViewDidChangeSelection?(textView)
        } 
    }

    public func textViewShouldEndEditing(_ textView: UITextView) -> Bool {
        if let placeholder = findPlaceholder() {
            guard let retval = placeholder.delegate?.textViewShouldEndEditing?(textView) else {
                return true
            }
            return retval
        }
        return true
    }

    public func textViewShouldBeginEditing(_ textView: UITextView) -> Bool {
        if let placeholder = findPlaceholder() {
            guard let retval = placeholder.delegate?.textViewShouldBeginEditing?(textView) else {
                return true
            }
            return retval
        } 
        return true
    }

    public func textView(_ textView: UITextView, shouldChangeTextIn range: NSRange, replacementText text: String) -> Bool {
        if let placeholder = findPlaceholder() {
            guard let retval = placeholder.delegate?.textView?(textView, shouldChangeTextIn: range, replacementText: text) else {
                return true
            }
            return retval
        } 
        return true
    }

    public func textView(_ textView: UITextView, shouldInteractWith URL: URL, in characterRange: NSRange, interaction: UITextItemInteraction) -> Bool {
        if let placeholder = findPlaceholder() {
                guard let retval = placeholder.delegate?.textView?(textView, shouldInteractWith: URL, in: characterRange, interaction:
                    interaction) else {
                        return true
            }
            return retval
        }
        return true
    }

    public func textView(_ textView: UITextView, shouldInteractWith textAttachment: NSTextAttachment, in characterRange: NSRange, interaction: UITextItemInteraction) -> Bool {
        if let placeholder = findPlaceholder() {
            guard let retval = placeholder.delegate?.textView?(textView, shouldInteractWith: textAttachment, in: characterRange, interaction: interaction) else {
                return true
            }
            return retval
        }
        return true
    }
}

1. As an extension of an essential iOS class like UITextView, it's important to know that this code has no interaction with any textviews that don't activate a placeholder, e.g textview instances that haven't been initialized with a call addPlaceholder()

2. Placeholder-enabled text views transparently become a UITextViewDelegate to track character count, in order to control placeholder visibility. If a delegate is passed to addPlaceholder(), this code daisy-chains (i.e. forwards) delegate callbacks to that delegate.

3. The author is investigating ways to inspect the UITextViewDelegate protocol and proxy it automatically without having to hardcode each method. That would inoculate the code from method signature changes and new methods being added to the protocol.

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