How to disable copy paste option from UITextField

Question

I am making a registration alertview that has a UITextField in it where the user can enter their registration number. everything is pretty much their, however I would like to remove the copy paste function from the textfield programmatically since their is no InterfaceBuilder version of the textfield I have no idea how to do this..

here Is my UIalertview thus far...

- (void)pleaseRegisterDevice {

    UIAlertView *myAlertView = [[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:@"Please Register Device!" message:@"this gets covered" delegate:self cancelButtonTitle:nil otherButtonTitles:@"OK", nil];
    regTextField = [[UITextField alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(12.0, 45.0, 260.0, 25.0)];
    [regTextField setBackgroundColor:[UIColor whiteColor]];
    regTextField.textAlignment = UITextAlignmentCenter;
    [myAlertView addSubview:regTextField];
    [myAlertView show];
    [myAlertView release];

}

Answer 1

In iOS 9 we can hide the copy paste bar from keyboard

-(void) customMethod{

   yourTextField.inputAssistantItem.leadingBarButtonGroups = @[];
   yourTextField.inputAssistantItem.trailingBarButtonGroups = @[];

}

Answer 2

NOTE: In Swift, If you want your text field to disable all UIResponderStandardEditActions (cut, copy, paste, look up, share, select), use this is UITextFieldDelegate.

func textFieldShouldBeginEditing(_ textField: UITextField) -> Bool {
    textField.isUserInteractionEnabled = false
    return true
}

func textFieldDidEndEditing(_ textField: UITextField) {
    textField.isUserInteractionEnabled = true
}

Answer 3

This post has many nice solutions: How disable Copy, Cut, Select, Select All in UITextView

My favourite is to override canPerformAction:withSender::

- (BOOL)canPerformAction:(SEL)action withSender:(id)sender
{
    if (action == @selector(paste:))
        return NO;
    return [super canPerformAction:action withSender:sender];
}

Answer 4

Small update of this answer for iOS 10 and earlier (Swift 3):

open override func target(forAction action: Selector, withSender sender: Any?) -> Any? {
    guard isReadonly else {
        return super.target(forAction: action, withSender: sender)
    }

    if #available(iOS 10, *) {
        if action == #selector(UIResponderStandardEditActions.paste(_:)) {
            return nil
        }
    } else {
        if action == #selector(paste(_:)) {
            return nil
        }
    }

    return super.target(forAction: action, withSender: sender)
}

Answer 5

Storyboard users may want to look at this solution, as long as you are ok with subclassing.

I don't think that there is an easy way to achieve this through extensions or protocols.

Swift 3.1

import UIKit

@IBDesignable
class CustomTextField: UITextField {

    @IBInspectable var isPasteEnabled: Bool = true

    @IBInspectable var isSelectEnabled: Bool = true

    @IBInspectable var isSelectAllEnabled: Bool = true

    @IBInspectable var isCopyEnabled: Bool = true

    @IBInspectable var isCutEnabled: Bool = true

    @IBInspectable var isDeleteEnabled: Bool = true

    override func canPerformAction(_ action: Selector, withSender sender: Any?) -> Bool {
        switch action {
        case #selector(UIResponderStandardEditActions.paste(_:)) where !isPasteEnabled,
             #selector(UIResponderStandardEditActions.select(_:)) where !isSelectEnabled,
             #selector(UIResponderStandardEditActions.selectAll(_:)) where !isSelectAllEnabled,
             #selector(UIResponderStandardEditActions.copy(_:)) where !isCopyEnabled,
             #selector(UIResponderStandardEditActions.cut(_:)) where !isCutEnabled,
             #selector(UIResponderStandardEditActions.delete(_:)) where !isDeleteEnabled:
            return false
        default:
            //return true : this is not correct
            return super.canPerformAction(action, withSender: sender)
        }
    }
}

Gist link

Answer 6

Swift 3.0 version

class NoMenuTextField: UITextField {
    override func canPerformAction(action: Selector, withSender sender: AnyObject?) -> Bool {
        if (action == #selector(NSObject.paste(_:))) {
            return false
        }
        return super.canPerformAction(action, withSender: sender)
    }
}