Create tap-able “links” in the NSAttributedString

Question

I have been searching this for hours but I've failed. I probably don't even know what I should be looking for.

Many applications have text and in this text are web hyperlinks in rounded rect. When I click them UIWebView opens. What puzzles me is that they often have custom links, for example if words starts with # it is also clickable and the application responds by opening another view. How can I do that? Is it possible with UILabel or do I need UITextView or something else?

Answer 1

In general, if we want to have a clickable link in text displayed by UILabel, we would need to resolve two independent tasks:

1. Changing the appearance of a portion of the text to look like a link
2. Detecting and handling touches on the link (opening an URL is a particular case)

The first one is easy. Starting from iOS 6 UILabel supports display of attributed strings. All you need to do is to create and configure an instance of NSMutableAttributedString:

NSMutableAttributedString *attributedString = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] initWithString:@"String with a link" attributes:nil];
NSRange linkRange = NSMakeRange(14, 4); // for the word "link" in the string above

NSDictionary *linkAttributes = @{ NSForegroundColorAttributeName : [UIColor colorWithRed:0.05 green:0.4 blue:0.65 alpha:1.0],
                                  NSUnderlineStyleAttributeName : @(NSUnderlineStyleSingle) };
[attributedString setAttributes:linkAttributes range:linkRange];

// Assign attributedText to UILabel
label.attributedText = attributedString;

That's it! The code above makes UILabel to display String with a link

Now we should detect touches on this link. The idea is to catch all taps within UILabel and figure out whether the location of the tap was close enough to the link. To catch touches we can add tap gesture recognizer to the label. Make sure to enable userInteraction for the label, it's turned off by default:

label.userInteractionEnabled = YES;
[label addGestureRecognizer:[[UITapGestureRecognizer alloc] initWithTarget:self action:@selector(handleTapOnLabel:)]]; 

Now the most sophisticated stuff: finding out whether the tap was on where the link is displayed and not on any other portion of the label. If we had single-lined UILabel, this task could be solved relatively easy by hardcoding the area bounds where the link is displayed, but let's solve this problem more elegantly and for general case - multiline UILabel without preliminary knowledge about the link layout.

One of the approaches is to use capabilities of Text Kit API introduced in iOS 7:

// Create instances of NSLayoutManager, NSTextContainer and NSTextStorage
NSLayoutManager *layoutManager = [[NSLayoutManager alloc] init];
NSTextContainer *textContainer = [[NSTextContainer alloc] initWithSize:CGSizeZero];
NSTextStorage *textStorage = [[NSTextStorage alloc] initWithAttributedString:attributedString];

// Configure layoutManager and textStorage
[layoutManager addTextContainer:textContainer];
[textStorage addLayoutManager:layoutManager];

// Configure textContainer
textContainer.lineFragmentPadding = 0.0;
textContainer.lineBreakMode = label.lineBreakMode;
textContainer.maximumNumberOfLines = label.numberOfLines;

Save created and configured instances of NSLayoutManager, NSTextContainer and NSTextStorage in properties in your class (most likely UIViewController's descendant) - we'll need them in other methods.

Now, each time the label changes its frame, update textContainer's size:

- (void)viewDidLayoutSubviews
{
    [super viewDidLayoutSubviews];
    self.textContainer.size = self.label.bounds.size;
}

And finally, detect whether the tap was exactly on the link:

- (void)handleTapOnLabel:(UITapGestureRecognizer *)tapGesture
{
    CGPoint locationOfTouchInLabel = [tapGesture locationInView:tapGesture.view];
    CGSize labelSize = tapGesture.view.bounds.size;
    CGRect textBoundingBox = [self.layoutManager usedRectForTextContainer:self.textContainer];
    CGPoint textContainerOffset = CGPointMake((labelSize.width - textBoundingBox.size.width) * 0.5 - textBoundingBox.origin.x,
                                              (labelSize.height - textBoundingBox.size.height) * 0.5 - textBoundingBox.origin.y);
    CGPoint locationOfTouchInTextContainer = CGPointMake(locationOfTouchInLabel.x - textContainerOffset.x,
                                                         locationOfTouchInLabel.y - textContainerOffset.y);
    NSInteger indexOfCharacter = [self.layoutManager characterIndexForPoint:locationOfTouchInTextContainer
                                                            inTextContainer:self.textContainer
                                   fractionOfDistanceBetweenInsertionPoints:nil];
    NSRange linkRange = NSMakeRange(14, 4); // it's better to save the range somewhere when it was originally used for marking link in attributed string
    if (NSLocationInRange(indexOfCharacter, linkRange)) {
        // Open an URL, or handle the tap on the link in any other way
        [[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:[NSURL URLWithString:@"https://stackoverflow.com/"]];
    }
}

Answer 2

(My answer builds on @NAlexN's excellent answer. I won't duplicate his detailed explanation of each step here.)

I found it most convenient and straightforward to add support for tap-able UILabel text as a category to UITapGestureRecognizer. (You don't have to use UITextView's data detectors, as some answers suggest.)

Add the following method to your UITapGestureRecognizer category:

/**
 Returns YES if the tap gesture was within the specified range of the attributed text of the label.
 */
- (BOOL)didTapAttributedTextInLabel:(UILabel *)label inRange:(NSRange)targetRange {
    NSParameterAssert(label != nil);

    CGSize labelSize = label.bounds.size;
    // create instances of NSLayoutManager, NSTextContainer and NSTextStorage
    NSLayoutManager *layoutManager = [[NSLayoutManager alloc] init];
    NSTextContainer *textContainer = [[NSTextContainer alloc] initWithSize:CGSizeZero];
    NSTextStorage *textStorage = [[NSTextStorage alloc] initWithAttributedString:label.attributedText];

    // configure layoutManager and textStorage
    [layoutManager addTextContainer:textContainer];
    [textStorage addLayoutManager:layoutManager];

    // configure textContainer for the label
    textContainer.lineFragmentPadding = 0.0;
    textContainer.lineBreakMode = label.lineBreakMode;
    textContainer.maximumNumberOfLines = label.numberOfLines;
    textContainer.size = labelSize;

    // find the tapped character location and compare it to the specified range
    CGPoint locationOfTouchInLabel = [self locationInView:label];
    CGRect textBoundingBox = [layoutManager usedRectForTextContainer:textContainer];
    CGPoint textContainerOffset = CGPointMake((labelSize.width - textBoundingBox.size.width) * 0.5 - textBoundingBox.origin.x,
                                              (labelSize.height - textBoundingBox.size.height) * 0.5 - textBoundingBox.origin.y);
    CGPoint locationOfTouchInTextContainer = CGPointMake(locationOfTouchInLabel.x - textContainerOffset.x,
                                                         locationOfTouchInLabel.y - textContainerOffset.y);
    NSInteger indexOfCharacter = [layoutManager characterIndexForPoint:locationOfTouchInTextContainer
                                                            inTextContainer:textContainer
                                   fractionOfDistanceBetweenInsertionPoints:nil];
    if (NSLocationInRange(indexOfCharacter, targetRange)) {
        return YES;
    } else {
        return NO;
    }
}

Example Code

// (in your view controller)    
// create your label, gesture recognizer, attributed text, and get the range of the "link" in your label
myLabel.userInteractionEnabled = YES;
[myLabel addGestureRecognizer:
   [[UITapGestureRecognizer alloc] initWithTarget:self 
                                           action:@selector(handleTapOnLabel:)]]; 

// create your attributed text and keep an ivar of your "link" text range
NSAttributedString *plainText;
NSAttributedString *linkText;
plainText = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] initWithString:@"Add label links with UITapGestureRecognizer"
                                                   attributes:nil];
linkText = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] initWithString:@" Learn more..."
                                                  attributes:@{
                                                      NSForegroundColorAttributeName:[UIColor blueColor]
                                                  }];
NSMutableAttributedString *attrText = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] init];
[attrText appendAttributedString:plainText];
[attrText appendAttributedString:linkText];

// ivar -- keep track of the target range so you can compare in the callback
targetRange = NSMakeRange(plainText.length, linkText.length);

Gesture Callback

// handle the gesture recognizer callback and call the category method
- (void)handleTapOnLabel:(UITapGestureRecognizer *)tapGesture {
    BOOL didTapLink = [tapGesture didTapAttributedTextInLabel:myLabel
                                            inRange:targetRange];
    NSLog(@"didTapLink: %d", didTapLink);

}

Answer 3

based on Charles Gamble answer, this what I used (I removed some lines that confused me and gave me wrong indexed) :

- (BOOL)didTapAttributedTextInLabel:(UILabel *)label inRange:(NSRange)targetRange TapGesture:(UIGestureRecognizer*) gesture{
    NSParameterAssert(label != nil);

    // create instances of NSLayoutManager, NSTextContainer and NSTextStorage
    NSLayoutManager *layoutManager = [[NSLayoutManager alloc] init];
    NSTextStorage *textStorage = [[NSTextStorage alloc] initWithAttributedString:label.attributedText];

    // configure layoutManager and textStorage
    [textStorage addLayoutManager:layoutManager];

    // configure textContainer for the label
    NSTextContainer *textContainer = [[NSTextContainer alloc] initWithSize:CGSizeMake(label.frame.size.width, label.frame.size.height)];

    textContainer.lineFragmentPadding = 0.0;
    textContainer.lineBreakMode = label.lineBreakMode;
    textContainer.maximumNumberOfLines = label.numberOfLines;

    // find the tapped character location and compare it to the specified range
    CGPoint locationOfTouchInLabel = [gesture locationInView:label];
    [layoutManager addTextContainer:textContainer]; //(move here, not sure it that matter that calling this line after textContainer is set

    NSInteger indexOfCharacter = [layoutManager characterIndexForPoint:locationOfTouchInLabel
                                                           inTextContainer:textContainer
                                  fractionOfDistanceBetweenInsertionPoints:nil];
    if (NSLocationInRange(indexOfCharacter, targetRange)) {
        return YES;
    } else {
        return NO;
    }
}

Answer 4

Here is my answer based on @Luca Davanzo's answer, override the touchesBegan event instead of a tap gesture:

import UIKit

public protocol TapableLabelDelegate: NSObjectProtocol {
   func tapableLabel(_ label: TapableLabel, didTapUrl url: String, atRange range: NSRange)
}

public class TapableLabel: UILabel {

private var links: [String: NSRange] = [:]
private(set) var layoutManager = NSLayoutManager()
private(set) var textContainer = NSTextContainer(size: CGSize.zero)
private(set) var textStorage = NSTextStorage() {
    didSet {
        textStorage.addLayoutManager(layoutManager)
    }
}

public weak var delegate: TapableLabelDelegate?

public override var attributedText: NSAttributedString? {
    didSet {
        if let attributedText = attributedText {
            textStorage = NSTextStorage(attributedString: attributedText)
        } else {
            textStorage = NSTextStorage()
            links = [:]
        }
    }
}

public override var lineBreakMode: NSLineBreakMode {
    didSet {
        textContainer.lineBreakMode = lineBreakMode
    }
}

public override var numberOfLines: Int {
    didSet {
        textContainer.maximumNumberOfLines = numberOfLines
    }
}


public override init(frame: CGRect) {
    super.init(frame: frame)
    setup()
}

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

public override func layoutSubviews() {
    super.layoutSubviews()
    textContainer.size = bounds.size
}


/// addLinks
///
/// - Parameters:
///   - text: text of link
///   - url: link url string
public func addLink(_ text: String, withURL url: String) {
    guard let theText = attributedText?.string as? NSString else {
        return
    }

    let range = theText.range(of: text)

    guard range.location !=  NSNotFound else {
        return
    }

    links[url] = range
}

private func setup() {
    isUserInteractionEnabled = true
    layoutManager.addTextContainer(textContainer)
    textContainer.lineFragmentPadding = 0
    textContainer.lineBreakMode = lineBreakMode
    textContainer.maximumNumberOfLines  = numberOfLines
}

public override func touchesBegan(_ touches: Set<UITouch>, with event: UIEvent?) {
    guard let locationOfTouch = touches.first?.location(in: self) else {
        return
    }

    textContainer.size = bounds.size
    let indexOfCharacter = layoutManager.glyphIndex(for: locationOfTouch, in: textContainer)

    for (urlString, range) in links {
        if NSLocationInRange(indexOfCharacter, range), let url = URL(string: urlString) {
            delegate?.tapableLabel(self, didTapUrl: urlString, atRange: range)
        }
    }
}}

Answer 5

TAGS #Swift2.0

I take inspiration on - excellent - @NAlexN's answer and I decide to write by myself a wrapper of UILabel.
I also tried TTTAttributedLabel but I can't make it works.

Hope you can appreciate this code, any suggestions are welcome!

import Foundation

@objc protocol TappableLabelDelegate {
    optional func tappableLabel(tabbableLabel: TappableLabel, didTapUrl: NSURL, atRange: NSRange)
}

/// Represent a label with attributed text inside.
/// We can add a correspondence between a range of the attributed string an a link (URL)
/// By default, link will be open on the external browser @see 'openLinkOnExternalBrowser'

class TappableLabel: UILabel {

    // MARK: - Public properties -

    var links: NSMutableDictionary = [:]
    var openLinkOnExternalBrowser = true
    var delegate: TappableLabelDelegate?

    // MARK: - Constructors -

    override func awakeFromNib() {
        super.awakeFromNib()
        self.enableInteraction()
    }

    override init(frame: CGRect) {
        super.init(frame: frame)
        self.enableInteraction()
    }

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

    private func enableInteraction() {
        self.userInteractionEnabled = true
        self.addGestureRecognizer(UITapGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: Selector("didTapOnLabel:")))
    }

    // MARK: - Public methods -

    /**
    Add correspondence between a range and a link.

    - parameter url:   url.
    - parameter range: range on which couple url.
    */
    func addLink(url url: String, atRange range: NSRange) {
        self.links[url] = range
    }

    // MARK: - Public properties -

    /**
    Action rised on user interaction on label.

    - parameter tapGesture: gesture.
    */
    func didTapOnLabel(tapGesture: UITapGestureRecognizer) {
        let labelSize = self.bounds.size;

        let layoutManager = NSLayoutManager()
        let textContainer = NSTextContainer(size: CGSizeZero)
        let textStorage = NSTextStorage(attributedString: self.attributedText!)

        // configure textContainer for the label
        textContainer.lineFragmentPadding = 0
        textContainer.lineBreakMode = self.lineBreakMode
        textContainer.maximumNumberOfLines = self.numberOfLines
        textContainer.size = labelSize;

        // configure layoutManager and textStorage
        layoutManager.addTextContainer(textContainer)
        textStorage.addLayoutManager(layoutManager)

        // find the tapped character location and compare it to the specified range
        let locationOfTouchInLabel = tapGesture.locationInView(self)

        let textBoundingBox = layoutManager.usedRectForTextContainer(textContainer)
        let textContainerOffset = CGPointMake((labelSize.width - textBoundingBox.size.width) * 0.5 - textBoundingBox.origin.x,
            (labelSize.height - textBoundingBox.size.height) * 0.5 - textBoundingBox.origin.y)
        let locationOfTouchInTextContainer = CGPointMake(locationOfTouchInLabel.x - textContainerOffset.x,
            locationOfTouchInLabel.y - textContainerOffset.y)
        let indexOfCharacter = layoutManager.characterIndexForPoint(locationOfTouchInTextContainer,
            inTextContainer:textContainer,
            fractionOfDistanceBetweenInsertionPoints: nil)

        for (url, value) in self.links {
            if let range = value as? NSRange {
                if NSLocationInRange(indexOfCharacter, range) {
                    let url = NSURL(string: url as! String)!
                    if self.openLinkOnExternalBrowser {
                        UIApplication.sharedApplication().openURL(url)
                    }
                    self.delegate?.tappableLabel?(self, didTapUrl: url, atRange: range)
                }
            }
        }
    }

}

Answer 6

Old question but if anyone can use a UITextView instead of a UILabel, then it is easy. Standard URLs, phone numbers etc will be automatically detected (and be clickable).

However, if you need custom detection, that is, if you want to be able to call any custom method after a user clicks on a particular word, you need to use NSAttributedStrings with an NSLinkAttributeName attribute that will point to a custom URL scheme(as opposed to having the http url scheme by default). Ray Wenderlich has it covered here

Quoting the code from the aforementioned link:

NSMutableAttributedString *attributedString = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] initWithString:@"This is an example by @marcelofabri_"];
[attributedString addAttribute:NSLinkAttributeName
                     value:@"username://marcelofabri_"
                     range:[[attributedString string] rangeOfString:@"@marcelofabri_"]];

NSDictionary *linkAttributes = @{NSForegroundColorAttributeName: [UIColor greenColor],
                             NSUnderlineColorAttributeName: [UIColor lightGrayColor],
                             NSUnderlineStyleAttributeName: @(NSUnderlinePatternSolid)};

// assume that textView is a UITextView previously created (either by code or Interface Builder)
textView.linkTextAttributes = linkAttributes; // customizes the appearance of links
textView.attributedText = attributedString;
textView.delegate = self;

To detect those link clicks, implement this:

- (BOOL)textView:(UITextView *)textView shouldInteractWithURL:(NSURL *)URL inRange:(NSRange)characterRange {
    if ([[URL scheme] isEqualToString:@"username"]) {
        NSString *username = [URL host]; 
        // do something with this username
        // ...
        return NO;
    }
    return YES; // let the system open this URL
}

PS: Make sure your UITextView is selectable.