How to write a Custom UItextField Class

Question

In my app, i need to use a lot of textfields and i don't really want that every viewcontroller class contains the delegates of textfields which could be messy, I just want to create a generic class where it takes care of the delegate of textfields and returns me a text field where i can add it as a subview where ever i need. I want to make it as a library and call the class whenever i need a textfield FOR example

CustomTexTField *textField = [[CustomTextField alloc] initWithFrame:Frame];
// returns  a textField whose delegate will be set to CustomTextField //
// all i should do is just adding it as a subView //
[self.view addSubView:textField];

Is this possible??. Thanks in advance!!

Answer 1

You can achieve this with better approach using blocks:

class MyTextField: UITextField, UITextFieldDelegate {


//MARK:- PROPERTIES

var shouldPreventAllActions:Bool = false

var canCut:Bool = true
var canCopy:Bool = true
var canPaste:Bool = true
var canSelect:Bool = true
var canSelectAll:Bool = true

var blockTextFieldShouldChangeCharactersInRangeWithReplacementString:((_ textField: UITextField, _ range: NSRange, _ string: String) -> Bool)?
var blockTextFieldShouldReturn:((_ textField: UITextField) -> Bool)?
var blockTextFieldShouldClear:((_ textField: UITextField) -> Bool)?
//MARK:-
var blockTextFieldShouldBeginEditing:((_ textField: UITextField) -> Bool)?
var blockTextFieldShouldEndEditing:((_ textField: UITextField) -> Bool)?
//MARK:-
var blockTextFieldDidBeginEditing:((_ textField: UITextField) -> Void)?
var blockTextFieldDidEndEditing:((_ textField: UITextField) -> Void)?
var blockTextFieldDidEndEditingWithReason:((_ textField: UITextField, _ reason: UITextFieldDidEndEditingReason) -> Void)?


//MARK:- INIT
override init(frame: CGRect) {
    super.init(frame: frame)
}

required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
    super.init(coder: aDecoder)
}

override func awakeFromNib() {
    super.awakeFromNib()
    commonInit()
}

private func commonInit(){
    // common initialization code..
}

override func canPerformAction(_ action: Selector, withSender sender: Any?) -> Bool {

    if(self.shouldPreventAllActions){
        return false
    }

    switch action {
    case #selector(UIResponderStandardEditActions.cut(_:)):
        return self.canCut ? super.canPerformAction(action, withSender: sender) : self.canCut
    case #selector(UIResponderStandardEditActions.copy(_:)):
        return self.canCopy ? super.canPerformAction(action, withSender: sender) : self.canCopy
    case #selector(UIResponderStandardEditActions.paste(_:)):
        return self.canPaste ? super.canPerformAction(action, withSender: sender) : self.canPaste
    case #selector(UIResponderStandardEditActions.select(_:)):
        return self.canSelect ? super.canPerformAction(action, withSender: sender) : self.canSelect
    case #selector(UIResponderStandardEditActions.selectAll(_:)):
        return self.canSelectAll ? super.canPerformAction(action, withSender: sender) : self.canSelectAll
    default:
        return super.canPerformAction(action, withSender: sender)
    }
}

//MARK:- DELEGATE

func textField(_ textField: UITextField, shouldChangeCharactersIn range: NSRange, replacementString string: String) -> Bool {

    if(self.blockTextFieldShouldChangeCharactersInRangeWithReplacementString != nil){
        return self.blockTextFieldShouldChangeCharactersInRangeWithReplacementString!(textField,range,string)
    }else{
        return true
    }
}
func textFieldShouldReturn(_ textField: UITextField) -> Bool {

    if(self.blockTextFieldShouldReturn != nil){
        return self.blockTextFieldShouldReturn!(textField)
    }else{
        return true
    }
}
func textFieldShouldClear(_ textField: UITextField) -> Bool {

    if(self.blockTextFieldShouldClear != nil){
        return self.blockTextFieldShouldClear!(textField)
    }else{
        return true
    }
}


//MARK:-
func textFieldShouldBeginEditing(_ textField: UITextField) -> Bool {

    if(self.blockTextFieldShouldBeginEditing != nil){
        return self.blockTextFieldShouldBeginEditing!(textField)
    }else{
        return true
    }
}
func textFieldShouldEndEditing(_ textField: UITextField) -> Bool {

    if(self.blockTextFieldShouldEndEditing != nil){
        return self.blockTextFieldShouldEndEditing!(textField)
    }else{
        return true
    }
}

//MARK:-
func textFieldDidBeginEditing(_ textField: UITextField) {

    if(self.blockTextFieldDidBeginEditing != nil){
        self.blockTextFieldDidBeginEditing!(textField)
    }
}
func textFieldDidEndEditing(_ textField: UITextField) {

    if(self.blockTextFieldDidEndEditing != nil){
        self.blockTextFieldDidEndEditing!(textField)
    }
}
func textFieldDidEndEditing(_ textField: UITextField, reason: UITextFieldDidEndEditingReason) {

    if(self.blockTextFieldDidEndEditingWithReason != nil){
        self.blockTextFieldDidEndEditingWithReason!(textField,reason)
    }
}

}

Answer 2

This helped me

@interface CustomTextField : UITextField <UITextFieldDelegate> 

- (id)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame {
    if (self = [super initWithFrame:frame]) {
        self.delegate = self;
    }
return self;
}

added delegate to the customTextField class and it worked for me.

Thanks!!

Answer 3

As Midhun Answered you need to create a custom TextField class and also set delegate in that class. Like this

.h FIle

@interface CustomTextField : UITextField<UITextFieldDelegate>
@end

.m File

@implementation CustomTextField
- (id)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame
{
    self = [super initWithFrame:frame];
    if (self) {
        // Initialization code
        self.delegate = self;
    }
return self;
}
- (BOOL)textFieldShouldBeginEditing:(UITextField *)textField{
    return YES;
}
- (void)textFieldDidBeginEditing:(UITextField *)textField{
}
- (BOOL)textFieldShouldEndEditing:(UITextField *)textField{
    return YES;
}
- (void)textFieldDidEndEditing:(UITextField *)textField{
}
- (BOOL)textField:(UITextField *)textField shouldChangeCharactersInRange:(NSRange)range replacementString:(NSString *)string{
    return YES;
}
- (BOOL)textFieldShouldClear:(UITextField *)textField{
    return YES;
}
- (BOOL)textFieldShouldReturn:(UITextField *)textField{
    return YES;
}
@end

Answer 4

Create a subclass of UITextField and use it.

@interface CustomTexTField : UITextField
@end

@implementation CustomTexTField

//Add the stuffs here

@end

wherever you need the text field you can use:

CustomTexTField *textField = [[CustomTextField alloc] initWithFrame:customFrame];
[self.view addSubView:textField];