How can I make a UITextField move up when the keyb

Question

With the iOS SDK:

I have a UIView with UITextFields that bring up a keyboard. I need it to be able to:

1. Allow scrolling of the contents of the UIScrollView to see the other text fields once the keyboard is brought up

2. Automatically "jump" (by scrolling up) or shortening

I know that I need a UIScrollView. I've tried changing the class of my UIView to a UIScrollView but I'm still unable to scroll the textboxes up or down.

Do I need both a UIView and a UIScrollView? Does one go inside the other?

What needs to be implemented in order to automatically scroll to the active text field?

Ideally as much of the setup of the components as possible will be done in Interface Builder. I'd like to only write code for what needs it.

Note: the UIView (or UIScrollView) that I'm working with is brought up by a tabbar (UITabBar), which needs to function as normal.

---

Edit: I am adding the scroll bar just for when the keyboard comes up. Even though it's not needed, I feel like it provides a better interface because then the user can scroll and change textboxes, for example.

I've got it working where I change the frame size of the UIScrollView when the keyboard goes up and down. I'm simply using:

-(void)textFieldDidBeginEditing:(UITextField *)textField { 
    //Keyboard becomes visible
    scrollView.frame = CGRectMake(scrollView.frame.origin.x, 
                     scrollView.frame.origin.y, 
scrollView.frame.size.width,
scrollView.frame.size.height - 215 + 50);   //resize
}

-(void)textFieldDidEndEditing:(UITextField *)textField {
   //keyboard will hide
    scrollView.frame = CGRectMake(scrollView.frame.origin.x, 
       scrollView.frame.origin.y, 
     scrollView.frame.size.width,
      scrollView.frame.size.height + 215 - 50); //resize
}

However, this doesn't automatically "move up" or center the lower text fields in the visible area, which is what I would really like.

Answer 1

Note: this answer assumes your textField is in a scrollView.

I prefer to deal with this using scrollContentInset and scrollContentOffset instead of messing with the frames of my view.

First let's listen for the keyboard notifications

//call this from viewWillAppear
-(void)addKeyboardNotifications
{
    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self
                                             selector:@selector(keyboardWillShow:)
                                                 name:UIKeyboardWillShowNotification
                                               object:nil];

    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self
                                             selector:@selector(keyboardWillHide:)
                                                 name:UIKeyboardWillHideNotification
                                               object:nil];
}
//call this from viewWillDisappear
-(void)removeKeyboardNotifications{
    [[NSNotificationCenter default
    Center] removeObserver:self name:UIKeyboardWillShowNotification object:nil];
    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] removeObserver:self name:UIKeyboardWillHideNotification object:nil];
}

Next step is to keep a property that represents the current first responder (UITextfield/ UITextVIew that currently has the keyboard).

We use the delegate methods to set this property. If you're using another component, you will need something similar.

Note that for textfield we set it in didBeginEditing and for textView in shouldBeginEditing. This is because textViewDidBeginEditing gets called after UIKeyboardWillShowNotification for some reason.

-(BOOL)textViewShouldBeginEditing:(UITextView * )textView{
    self.currentFirstResponder = textView;
    return YES;
}

-(void)textFieldDidBeginEditing:(UITextField *)textField{
    self.currentFirstResponder = textField;
}

Finally, here's the magic

- (void)keyboardWillShow:(NSNotification*)aNotification{
    NSDictionary* info = [aNotification userInfo];
    CGRect kbFrame = [[info objectForKey:UIKeyboardFrameEndUserInfoKey] CGRectValue];


    /*if currentFirstResponder is overlayed by the keyboard, move it so it bottom ends where the keyboard begins*/
    if(self.currentFirstResponder){

        //keyboard origin in currentFirstResponderFrame
        CGPoint keyboardOrigin = [self.currentFirstResponder convertPoint:kbFrame.origin fromView:nil];

        float spaceBetweenFirstResponderAndKeyboard = abs(self.currentFirstResponder.frame.size.height-keyboardOrigin.y);

        //only scroll the scrollview if keyboard overlays the first responder
        if(spaceBetweenFirstResponderAndKeyboard>0){
            //if i call setContentOffset:animate:YES it behaves differently, not sure why
            [UIView animateWithDuration:0.25 animations:^{
                [self.scrollView setContentOffset:CGPointMake(0,self.scrollView.contentOffset.y+spaceBetweenFirstResponderAndKeyboard)];
            }];
        }
    }

    //set bottom inset to the keyboard height so you can still scroll the whole content

    UIEdgeInsets contentInsets = UIEdgeInsetsMake(0.0, 0.0, kbFrame.size.height, 0.0);
    _scrollView.contentInset = contentInsets;
    _scrollView.scrollIndicatorInsets = contentInsets;

}

- (void)keyboardWillHide:(NSNotification*)aNotification{
    UIEdgeInsets contentInsets = UIEdgeInsetsZero;
    _scrollView.contentInset = contentInsets;
    _scrollView.scrollIndicatorInsets = contentInsets;
}

Answer 2

Easiest solution found

- (void)textFieldDidBeginEditing:(UITextField *)textField
{
    [self animateTextField: textField up: YES];
}


- (void)textFieldDidEndEditing:(UITextField *)textField
{
    [self animateTextField: textField up: NO];
}

- (void) animateTextField: (UITextField*) textField up: (BOOL) up
{
    const int movementDistance = 80; // tweak as needed
    const float movementDuration = 0.3f; // tweak as needed

    int movement = (up ? -movementDistance : movementDistance);

    [UIView beginAnimations: @"anim" context: nil];
    [UIView setAnimationBeginsFromCurrentState: YES];
    [UIView setAnimationDuration: movementDuration];
    self.view.frame = CGRectOffset(self.view.frame, 0, movement);
    [UIView commitAnimations];
}

Answer 3

There so many solutions, but I've spend some hours before it start works. So, I put this code here (just paste to the project, any modifications needn't):

@interface RegistrationViewController : UIViewController <UITextFieldDelegate>{
    UITextField* activeField;
    UIScrollView *scrollView;
}
@end

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad];

    scrollView = [[UIScrollView alloc] initWithFrame:self.view.frame];

    //scrool view must be under main view - swap it
    UIView* natView = self.view;
    [self setView:scrollView];
    [self.view addSubview:natView];

    CGSize scrollViewContentSize = self.view.frame.size;
    [scrollView setContentSize:scrollViewContentSize];

    [self registerForKeyboardNotifications];
}

- (void)viewDidUnload {
    activeField = nil;
    scrollView = nil;
    [self unregisterForKeyboardNotifications];
    [super viewDidUnload];
}

- (void)registerForKeyboardNotifications
{
    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self
                                             selector:@selector(keyboardWillShown:)
                                                 name:UIKeyboardWillShowNotification object:nil];

    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self
                                             selector:@selector(keyboardWillBeHidden:)
                                                 name:UIKeyboardWillHideNotification object:nil];

}

-(void)unregisterForKeyboardNotifications
{
    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] removeObserver:self
                                                    name:UIKeyboardWillShowNotification
                                                  object:nil];
    // unregister for keyboard notifications while not visible.
    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] removeObserver:self
                                                    name:UIKeyboardWillHideNotification
                                                  object:nil];
}

- (void)keyboardWillShown:(NSNotification*)aNotification
{
    NSDictionary* info = [aNotification userInfo];
    CGSize kbSize = [[info objectForKey:UIKeyboardFrameBeginUserInfoKey] CGRectValue].size;

    CGRect frame = self.view.frame;
    frame.size.height -= kbSize.height;
    CGPoint fOrigin = activeField.frame.origin;
    fOrigin.y -= scrollView.contentOffset.y;
    fOrigin.y += activeField.frame.size.height;
    if (!CGRectContainsPoint(frame, fOrigin) ) {
        CGPoint scrollPoint = CGPointMake(0.0, activeField.frame.origin.y + activeField.frame.size.height - frame.size.height);
        [scrollView setContentOffset:scrollPoint animated:YES];
    }
}

- (void)keyboardWillBeHidden:(NSNotification*)aNotification
{
     [scrollView setContentOffset:CGPointZero animated:YES];
}

- (void)textFieldDidBeginEditing:(UITextField *)textField
{
    activeField = textField;
}

- (void)textFieldDidEndEditing:(UITextField *)textField
{
    activeField = nil;
}

-(BOOL) textFieldShouldReturn:(UITextField *)textField
{
    [textField resignFirstResponder];
    return YES;
}

P.S: I hope the code help somebody make desired effect quickly. (Xcode 4.5)

Answer 4

When UITextField is in a UITableViewCell scrolling should be setup automatically.

If it is not it is probably because of incorrect code/setup of the tableview.

For example when i reloaded my long table with one UITextField at the bottom as follows,

-(void) viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
   [self.tableview reloadData];
}

then my textfield at the bottom was obscured by the keyboard which appeared when I clicked inside the textfield.

To fix this I had to do this -

-(void) viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
    //add the following line to fix issue
    [super viewWillAppear:animated];
    [self.tableview reloadData];
}

Answer 5

I've put together a universal, drop-in UIScrollView, UITableView and even UICollectionView subclass that takes care of moving all text fields within it out of the way of the keyboard.

When the keyboard is about to appear, the subclass will find the subview that's about to be edited, and adjust its frame and content offset to make sure that view is visible, with an animation to match the keyboard pop-up. When the keyboard disappears, it restores its prior size.

It should work with basically any setup, either a UITableView-based interface, or one consisting of views placed manually.

Here' tis: solution for moving text fields out of the way of the keyboard

Answer 6

RPDP's code successfully moves the text field out of the way of the keyboard. But when you scroll to the top after using and dismissing the keyboard, the top has been scrolled up out of the view. This is true for the Simulator and the device. To read the content at the top of that view, one has to reload the view.

Isn't his following code supposed to bring the view back down?

else
{
    // revert back to the normal state.
    rect.origin.y += kOFFSET_FOR_KEYBOARD;
    rect.size.height -= kOFFSET_FOR_KEYBOARD;
}