How do you set the tab order in iOS?

Question

Is there a way (either in IB or code) to set the tab order between text fields in a view?

Note that I'm not talking about the next form field after the return (or "Next") button is pressed -- many bluetooth keyboards have a tab key, which seems to cycle through the fields in completely different order. In my particular case, this order doesn't correspond to the fields' position in the view or even the order in which the fields were added. Modifying the xib file by hand to change the NSNextKeyView doesn't seem to make a difference either.

Does anyone know how to change this order?

Answer 1

Register a UIKeyCommand to detect the tab key pressed. I did this in my current view controller.

    self.addKeyCommand(UIKeyCommand(input: "\t", modifierFlags: [], action: #selector(tabKeyPressed)))

Inside the key tabKeyPressed handler find your current active field then set your next responder. orderedTextFields is an array of UITextField in the tab order I want.

func tabKeyPressed(){
    let activeField = getActiveField()
    if(activeField == nil){
        return
    }
    let nextResponder = getNextTextField(activeField!)
    nextResponder?.becomeFirstResponder()
}

func getActiveField() -> UITextField? {
    for textField in orderedTextFields {
        if(textField.isFirstResponder()){
            return textField
        }
    }
    return nil
}

func getNextTextField(current: UITextField) -> UITextField? {
    let index = orderedTextField.indexOf(current)
    if(orderedTextField.count-1 <= index!){
        return nil
    }
    return orderedTextField[index! + 1]
}

Answer 2

The only way I've found to uniquely detect a Tab keystroke from a physical keyboard, is implementing the UIKeyInput protocol's insertText: method on a custom object that canBecomeFirstResponder.

- (void)insertText:(NSString *)text {
    NSLog(@"text is equal to tab character: %i", [text isEqualToString:@"\t"]);
}

I didn't get this to work while subclassing UITextField, unfortunately, as UITextField won't allow the insertText: protocol method to get called.

Might help you on the way, though..