Implementing a Sticky Input Field in iOS

https://medium.com/@meiwin/a-stickler-for-details-implementing-sticky-input-fields-in-ios-f88553d36dab

by ayrkm • 11 years ago

58 18 11 years ago

jtreanor• 11 years ago

Interesting work, thanks for sharing.

  The input field is subview of the keyboard’s window. This is likely undesirable, especially for chat applications.

I am curious as to why this is undesirable. It makes sense to me that something docked to the keyboard would be in the same window.

ayrkm9• 11 years ago

It's because the input field will always appear at window level above the level of key window. So, if you need to show overlay in key window, the input field will appear above the overlay. Example for such overlay could be a loading indicator.

tasteup• 11 years ago

I love this. I've actually been using https://github.com/AlexLittlejohn/ALTextInputBar, but this is a well written explanation and solution to the problem.

ayrkm9• 11 years ago

Thanks, glad you find it useful.

aaronbrethorst• 11 years ago

Or you can use Slack's open sourced version: https://github.com/slackhq/slacktextviewcontroller

ayrkm9• 11 years ago

hi Aaron, I did briefly look at SlackTextViewController. But decided not to use it because the project contains many features that we do not need. Furthermore, it doesn't support usage on iPad.

sandofsky5• 11 years ago

There's no mention in the article that since iOS 7, there's been a "UIScrollViewKeyboardDismissMode", which allows "interactive" dismissal. It isn't perfect, but the last time I investigated, too many solutions out there involved touching private APIs.

ayrkm9• 11 years ago

I could've more explicit.

Interactive dismissal only made possible with UIScrollViewKeyboardDismissModeInteractive introduced since iOS 7.

This article described solution for interactive dismissal with `sticky` input field atop the keyboard.

sandofsky5• 11 years ago

In 2015, most apps shouldn't support anything below iOS 7.

Create a constraint that attaches the input field to the bottom of the scrollview.

One tradeoff is that dismissal doesn't start until your touch enters the real keyboard area. I'll take it, since it's safer than using KVO to observe private APIs.

andkon• 11 years ago

This is such a great writeup, thank you for digging into it. Have you tried this out with iOS 9? I know JSQMessagesVC, which does a really solid interactive dismissal, has some problems with that.

ayrkm9• 11 years ago

Hi, it works in iOS 9. The Pie for iPad screenshot in the post is running in iOS 9.

Implementing a Sticky Input Field in iOS

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