How to intercept long press on UITextView without disabling context menu? - iphone

Question

I want to intercept long press on UITextview, but don't want to disable the context menu option at the same time.
If I use gesture recognizer on textview, it will disable context menu so I am using the method like below now.
- (BOOL)canPerformAction:(SEL)action withSender:(id)sender {
//fire my method here
}
But, it only fires the method when context menu shows up after the user long press some words. So when the user long press a blank space, then only the magnifying glass shows up, I can't fire the method at the time.
Does anyone have better ideas? Thanks!
//////The Problem Solved//////
Thanks to #danh and #Beppe, I made it even with tap gesture on UITextView. I wanted to show the font bar on textview by long press.
#First, I subclassed the UITextview.
#interface LisgoTextView : UITextView {
BOOL pressing_;
}
#property (nonatomic) BOOL pressing;
#end
#interface LisgoTextView (private)
- (void)longPress:(UIEvent *)event;
#end
#implementation LisgoTextView
#synthesize pressing = pressing_;
//--------------------------------------------------------------//
#pragma mark -- Long Press Detection --
//--------------------------------------------------------------//
- (void)longPress:(UIEvent *)event {
if (pressing_) {
//post notification to show font edit bar
NSNotification *fontEditBarNotification = [NSNotification notificationWithName:#"fontEditBarNotification"
object:nil userInfo:nil];
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] postNotification:fontEditBarNotification];
}
}
- (void)touchesBegan:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event {
[super touchesBegan:touches withEvent:event];
[self performSelector:#selector(longPress:) withObject:event afterDelay:0.7];
pressing_ = YES;
}
- (void)touchesEnded:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event {
[super touchesEnded:touches withEvent:event];
pressing_ = NO;
}
- (void)touchesMoved:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event {
[super touchesMoved:touches withEvent:event];
pressing_ = NO;
}
#I used the delay to solve the conflict with tap gesture I implemented on UITextView.
- (void)tapGestureOnTextView:(UITapGestureRecognizer *)sender {
//cancel here if long press was fired first
if (cancelTapGesture_) {
return;
}
//don't fire show font bar
cancelShowFontBar_ = YES;
[self performSelector:#selector(enableShowFontBar) withObject:nil afterDelay:1.0];
//method here
}
- (void)showFontEditBar {
//cancel here if tap gesture was fired first
if (cancelShowFontBar_) {
return;
}
if (fontEditBarExists_ == NO) {
//method here
//don't fire tap gesture
cancelTapGesture_ = YES;
[self performSelector:#selector(enableTapGesture) withObject:nil afterDelay:1.0];
}
}
- (void)enableTapGesture {
cancelTapGesture_ = NO;
}
- (void)enableShowFontBar {
cancelShowFontBar_ = NO;
}

Answer 1

I usually avoid subclassing unless the docs explicitly suggest, this worked for me. Long press and context menu. Whoops - Answer just loaded by #Beppe. Great minds think alike :-)
#interface TextViewSubclass ()
#property(assign,nonatomic) BOOL pressing;
#end
#implementation TextViewSubclass
#synthesize pressing=_pressing;
- (void)longPress:(UIEvent *)event {
NSLog(#"long press");
}
- (void)touchesBegan:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event {
[super touchesBegan:touches withEvent:event];
self.pressing = YES;
[self performSelector:#selector(longPress:) withObject:event afterDelay:2.0];
}
- (void)touchesEnded:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event {
[super touchesEnded:touches withEvent:event];
[NSObject cancelPreviousPerformRequestsWithTarget:self];
self.pressing = NO;
}
#end

Answer 2

This worked for me. I just wanted to control what happens when the user taps or long presses a link
- (BOOL)textView:(UITextView *)textView shouldInteractWithURL:(NSURL *)URL inRange:(NSRange)characterRange
{
// check for long press event
BOOL isLongPress = YES;
for (UIGestureRecognizer *recognizer in self.commentTextView.gestureRecognizers) {
if ([recognizer isKindOfClass:[UILongPressGestureRecognizer class]]){
if (recognizer.state == UIGestureRecognizerStateFailed) {
isLongPress = NO;
}
}
}
if (isLongPress) {
// user long pressed a link, do something
} else {
// user tapped on a link, do something
}
// return NO cause you dont want the normal behavior to occur
return NO;
}

Answer 3

Adaptation of Lucas Chwe's answer to work on iOS 9 (and 8). See comment in his answer.
The gist: invert the logic by starting with "no long press", then switch to "long press detected" if at least one UILongPressGestureRecognizer is in Began state.
BOOL isLongPress = NO;
for (UIGestureRecognizer *recognizer in textView.gestureRecognizers) {
if ([recognizer isKindOfClass:[UILongPressGestureRecognizer class]]) {
if (recognizer.state == UIGestureRecognizerStateBegan) {
isLongPress = YES;
}
}
}
Still a bit hackish, but working for iOS 8 and 9 now.

Answer 4

This is a little tricky, but it works for me.
I add a subclass of UIButton on top of my UITextView, check for long touches and pass them to UITextView this way:
- (void)touchesBegan:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event {
[super touchesBegan:touches withEvent:event];
isLongTouchDetected = NO;
[self performSelector:#selector(longTouchDetected) withObject:nil afterDelay:1.0];
}
- (void)touchesEnded:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event {
if (isLongTouchDetected == YES) {
[super touchesCancelled:touches withEvent:event];
} else {
[super touchesEnded:touches withEvent:event];
[NSObject cancelPreviousPerformRequestsWithTarget:self selector:#selector(longTouchDetected) object:nil];
}
}
- (void)longTouchDetected {
isLongTouchDetected = YES;
// pass long touch to UITextView
}

Answer 5

For SWIFT [Easiest Way]
extension UITextField {
override public func canPerformAction(action: Selector, withSender sender: AnyObject?) -> Bool {
if action == "paste:" {
return false
}
return super.canPerformAction(action, withSender: sender)
}
override public func addGestureRecognizer(gestureRecognizer: UIGestureRecognizer) {
if gestureRecognizer.isKindOfClass(UILongPressGestureRecognizer) {
gestureRecognizer.enabled = false
}
super.addGestureRecognizer(gestureRecognizer)
return
}
}
Above code has also function for disable "PASTE" option in content menu.

Answer 6

Could you use the textViewDidChangeSelection method of the UITextViewDelegate protocol?