UITextField secureTextEntry bullets with a custom

Question

I’m using a custom font in a UITextField, which has secureTextEntry turned on. When I’m typing in the cell, I see the bullets in my chosen font, but when the field loses focus, those bullets revert to the system standard font. If I tap the field again, they change back to my font, and so on.

Is there a way I can ensure that they continue to display the custom font’s bullets, even when the field is out of focus?

Answer 1

iOS is acting a bit strange when it comes to custom fonts. Try removing "Adjust to Fit" for that textfield. If that doesn't work, I'm guessing that what bothering you is the size increase of the font.

A simple solution for that would be:

- (void)textFieldDidBeginEditing:(UITextField *)textField
{
    if(textField.secureTextEntry)
    {
        [textField setFont:[UIFont fontWithName:@"Helvetica-Bold" size:10.0]];
    }
}

-(void)textFieldDidEndEditing:(UITextField *)textField
{
    if(textField.secureTextEntry)
    {
        [textField setFont:[UIFont fontWithName:@"Helvetica-Bold" size:10.0]];
    }
}

You'll need to play with the size a bit in order for it to look like there is no size change when loosing focus on the UITextField.

If you have a major spacing problem between characters like in the edited question, the simplest (and a bit ugly) solution would be to create a Bullet image that matches the above size & spacing and matches the amount of characters entered by the user that will appear when the user leaves the UITextField.

Answer 2

A subclass that works this issue around. Create an arbitrary UITextField, then set the secure property to YES (via KVC in IB).

Actually it implements a comment suggested by lukech. When textfield ends editing, it switches to an arbitrary textfield, then set a bulk of dots into, and some hack in text accessor to always get the actual text the field holds.

@interface SecureTextFieldWithCustomFont : UITextField
@property (nonatomic) BOOL secure;
@property (nonatomic, strong) NSString *actualText;
@end


@implementation SecureTextFieldWithCustomFont


-(void)awakeFromNib
{
    [super awakeFromNib];

    if (self.secureTextEntry)
    {
        // Listen for changes.
        [self addTarget:self action:@selector(editingDidBegin) forControlEvents:UIControlEventEditingDidBegin];
        [self addTarget:self action:@selector(editingDidChange) forControlEvents:UIControlEventEditingChanged];
        [self addTarget:self action:@selector(editingDidFinish) forControlEvents:UIControlEventEditingDidEnd];
    }
}

-(NSString*)text
{
    if (self.editing || self.secure == NO)
    { return [super text]; }

    else
    { return self.actualText; }
}

-(void)editingDidBegin
{
    self.secureTextEntry = YES;
    self.text = self.actualText;
}

-(void)editingDidChange
{ self.actualText = self.text; }

-(void)editingDidFinish
{
    self.secureTextEntry = NO;
    self.actualText = self.text;
    self.text = [self dotPlaceholder];
}

-(NSString*)dotPlaceholder
{
    int index = 0;
    NSMutableString *dots = @"".mutableCopy;
    while (index < self.text.length)
    { [dots appendString:@"•"]; index++; }
    return dots;
}


@end

May be augmented to work with non NIB instantiations, handling default values, etc, but you probably get the idea.

Answer 3

[passWordTextField resignFirstResponder];
passWordTextField.secureTextEntry = !passWordTextField.secureTextEntry;
[passWordTextField becomeFirstResponder];

This is the fastest way to solve this bug！