How to use custom emoji view from iPhone default keyboard? - iphone

Question

I am developing an iPhone application that allows user to draw emoticons and use it while comments with text (like iPhone allows user to use their emoji by enabling emoji keyboard from the settings). I want to use my own made emoticons. I store all emoticons in collection view. How can I enable that view from iPhone default keyboard, so that I can use my own custom emoticons with text?

Answer 1

When using a custom keyboard in your app, just use the inputView attribute of a UITextField.
You can do this in the following fashion:
#interface SCAViewController ()
#property (weak, nonatomic) IBOutlet UITextField *textField;
#property ( nonatomic) UIView *labelView;
#end
#implementation SCAViewController
- (void)viewDidLoad
{
[super viewDidLoad];
// Do any additional setup after loading the view, typically from a nib.
// here we set the keyboard to become the first responder
// this is optional...
//[_textField becomeFirstResponder];
// creating the custom label keyboard
_labelView = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 568, 320, 568/3)];
UILabel *label = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(10, 10, 100, 100)];
label.text = #"Label View!";
[_labelView addSubview:label];
_labelView.backgroundColor = [UIColor blueColor];
_textField.inputView = _labelView;
}
Now for the explanation:
The reason that the _labelView is set to those current dimensions is because i wanted a close match to the default keyboard. You can always change them to whatever you're needing.
I did a label being added onto the view, but since you're doing emojis, i'd create a method that will load the image into the textField by using buttons.
It would be list like the following:
create action method for button
create button
set background image of button
add button onto custom view
set inputView to the custom view
you can create the action method like so
// create the method for the button
- (IBAction) loadOntoKeyboard {
// load the image/text/whatever else into the textfield
}
you can create a button to add onto your custom view like
// creating custom button
UIButton *emoji1 = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeCustom];
// creating frame for button.
// x - the location of the button in x coordinate plane
// y - same as x, but on y plane
// width - width of button
// height - height of button
emoji1.frame = CGRectMake(x, y, width, height);
// just setting background image here
[emoji1 setBackgroundImage:[UIImage imageNamed:#"emoji_image…"] forState:UIControlStateNormal];
// don't forget to add target of button
[emoji1 addTarget:self action:#selector(loadOntoKeyboard) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];
// adding button onto view
[customView addSubview:emoji1];
// setting the inputView to the custom view where you added the buttons
textFieldVariable.inputView = customView;
Hopefully this all makes sense to you, and I hope that I helped you understand in a clear manner on how to implement the custom keyboard actions :)
Hope this helps!