UITextView with hyperlink text

Question

With a non-editable UITextView, I would like to embed text like this in iOS9+:

Just click here to register

I can create a function and manipulate the text but is there a simpler way?

I see that I can use NSTextCheckingTypeLink so getting the text clickable without the 'click here' part is straightforward in Interface Builder:

Just http://example.com to register

I'm using Xcode 8 and Swift 3 if that's relevant.

Answer 1

The same solution for Swift 3 using extensions :

A. Add extension -

extension UITextView {
    func hyperLink(originalText: String, hyperLink: String, urlString: String) {
        let style = NSMutableParagraphStyle()
        style.alignment = .center
        let attributedOriginalText = NSMutableAttributedString(string: originalText)
        let linkRange = attributedOriginalText.mutableString.range(of: hyperLink)
        let fullRange = NSMakeRange(0, attributedOriginalText.length)
        attributedOriginalText.addAttribute(NSLinkAttributeName, value: urlString, range: linkRange)
        attributedOriginalText.addAttribute(NSParagraphStyleAttributeName, value: style, range: fullRange)
        attributedOriginalText.addAttribute(NSFontAttributeName, value: UIFont.systemFont(ofSize: 10), range: fullRange)
        self.linkTextAttributes = [
            NSForegroundColorAttributeName: UIConfig.primaryColour,
            NSUnderlineStyleAttributeName: NSUnderlineStyle.styleSingle.rawValue,
        ]
        self.attributedText = attributedOriginalText
    }
}

B. Add link url - let linkUrl = "https://www.my_website.com"

C. Implement UITextViewDelegate in your ViewController like this -

 class MyViewController: UIViewController, UITextViewDelegate { 
 }

D. Add delegate method to handle tap events -

func textView(_ textView: UITextView, shouldInteractWith URL: URL, in characterRange: NSRange) -> Bool {
    if (URL.absoluteString == linkUrl) {
        UIApplication.shared.openURL(URL)
    }
    return false
    }
}

E. And finally, things to make sure for your UITextView under attribute inspector -

1. Behaviour - Editable is turned OFF & Selectable is turned ON.
2. Data Detectors - Link is turned ON.

Usage -

textView.hyperLink(originalText: "To find out more please visit our website", hyperLink: "website", urlString: linkUrl)

Cheers & happy coding!

Answer 2

You could use this simple method to add a hyperlink to any set of characters starting with tag

func addLink(forString string : NSMutableAttributedString
        ,baseURL : String
        ,tag : String){
        let array = string.string.replacingOccurrences(of: "\n", with: " ").components(separatedBy: " ")
        let filterArray = array.filter { (string) -> Bool in
            return string.contains(tag)
        }
        for element in filterArray {
            let removedHashtag = element.replacingOccurrences(of: tag, with: "")
            let url = baseURL + removedHashtag
            let range = NSString.init(string: (string.string)).range(of: element)
            string.addAttributes([NSAttributedStringKey.link : url.replacingOccurrences(of: " ", with: "")], range: range)
        }
    }

Answer 3

Set isEditable = false or the text view will go into text-editing mode when user taps on it.

Swift 4 and later

let attributedString = NSMutableAttributedString(string: "Just click here to register")
let url = URL(string: "https://www.apple.com")!

// Set the 'click here' substring to be the link
attributedString.setAttributes([.link: url], range: NSMakeRange(5, 10))

self.textView.attributedText = attributedString
self.textView.isUserInteractionEnabled = true
self.textView.isEditable = false

// Set how links should appear: blue and underlined
self.textView.linkTextAttributes = [
    .foregroundColor: UIColor.blue,
    .underlineStyle: NSUnderlineStyle.single.rawValue
]

Answer 4

I wanted to do the same thing and ended up just using a UIButton with the title "click here" surrounded by UILabels "just " and " to register", and then:

@IBAction func btnJustClickHereLink(_ sender: UIButton) {
    if let url = URL(string: "http://example.com") {
        UIApplication.shared.openURL(url)
    }
}

Answer 5

The same solution for Swift 4 using extensions:

extension UITextView {


    func hyperLink(originalText: String, hyperLink: String, urlString: String) {

            let style = NSMutableParagraphStyle()
            style.alignment = .left

            let attributedOriginalText = NSMutableAttributedString(string: originalText)
            let linkRange = attributedOriginalText.mutableString.range(of: hyperLink)
            let fullRange = NSMakeRange(0, attributedOriginalText.length)
            attributedOriginalText.addAttribute(NSAttributedStringKey.link, value: urlString, range: linkRange)
            attributedOriginalText.addAttribute(NSAttributedStringKey.paragraphStyle, value: style, range: fullRange)
            attributedOriginalText.addAttribute(NSAttributedStringKey.foregroundColor, value: UIColor.blue, range: fullRange)
            attributedOriginalText.addAttribute(NSAttributedStringKey.font, value: UIFont.systemFont(ofSize: 10), range: fullRange)

            self.linkTextAttributes = [
               kCTForegroundColorAttributeName: UIColor.blue,
               kCTUnderlineStyleAttributeName: NSUnderlineStyle.styleSingle.rawValue,
            ] as [String : Any]


            self.attributedText = attributedOriginalText
        }

}