Interface Builder Tab Order Typing - iphone

Question

I have noticed, in one of my views in an iPad app I am building the next button on the keyboard goes through all the UITextFields from left to right down the screen.
Is it possible somehow to make it go top to bottom then right, top to bottom?
So say I have to two long columns of text fields, I wan to go top to bottom not left to right, make sense?
Any help appreciated, thanks.

Answer 1

I don't think there is a way through IB, but you can do this way in code. You're not actually tabbing, you'd be using the return key.
Put this in your UITextField's delegate:
- (BOOL)textView:(UITextView *)textView shouldChangeTextInRange:(NSRange)range replacementText:(NSString *)text {
BOOL shouldChangeText = YES;
if ([text isEqualToString:#"\n"]) {
// Find the next entry field
BOOL isLastField = YES;
for (UIView *view in [self entryFields]) {
if (view.tag == (textView.tag + 1)) {
[view becomeFirstResponder];
isLastField = NO;
break;
}
}
if (isLastField) {
[textView resignFirstResponder];
}
shouldChangeText = NO;
}
return shouldChangeText;
}
Found here: http://iphoneincubator.com/blog/tag/uitextfield

Answer 2

You'll want to implement UITextFieldDelegate's - (BOOL)textFieldShouldReturn:(UITextField *)textField method. An example of how to use this method to control the order is in this question.

Answer 3

I would like to elaborate on #sprocket's answer addressing the same issue. Just because something works out of the box doesn't mean you should stop thinking about a better way -- or even the right way -- of doing something. As he noticed the behavior is undocumented but fits our needs most of the time.
This wasn't enough for me though. Think of a RTL language and tabs would still tab left-to-right, not to mention the behavior is entirely different from simulator to device (device doesn't focus the first input upon tab). Most importantly though, Apple's undocumented implementation seems to only consider views currently installed in the view hierarchy.
Think of a form in form of (no pun intended) a table view. Each cell holds a single control, hence not all form elements may be visible at the same time. Apple would just cycle back up once you reached the bottommost (on screen!) control, instead of scrolling further down. This behavior is most definitely not what we desire.
So here's what I've come up with. Your form should be managed by a view controller, and view controllers are part of the responder chain. So you're perfectly free to implement the following methods:
#pragma mark - Key Commands
- (NSArray *)keyCommands
{
static NSArray *commands;
static dispatch_once_t once;
dispatch_once(&once, ^{
UIKeyCommand *const forward = [UIKeyCommand keyCommandWithInput:#"\t" modifierFlags:0 action:#selector(tabForward:)];
UIKeyCommand *const backward = [UIKeyCommand keyCommandWithInput:#"\t" modifierFlags:UIKeyModifierShift action:#selector(tabBackward:)];
commands = #[forward, backward];
});
return commands;
}
- (void)tabForward:(UIKeyCommand *)command
{
NSArray *const controls = self.controls;
UIResponder *firstResponder = nil;
for (UIResponder *const responder in controls) {
if (firstResponder != nil && responder.canBecomeFirstResponder) {
[responder becomeFirstResponder]; return;
}
else if (responder.isFirstResponder) {
firstResponder = responder;
}
}
[controls.firstObject becomeFirstResponder];
}
- (void)tabBackward:(UIKeyCommand *)command
{
NSArray *const controls = self.controls;
UIResponder *firstResponder = nil;
for (UIResponder *const responder in controls.reverseObjectEnumerator) {
if (firstResponder != nil && responder.canBecomeFirstResponder) {
[responder becomeFirstResponder]; return;
}
else if (responder.isFirstResponder) {
firstResponder = responder;
}
}
[controls.lastObject becomeFirstResponder];
}
Additional logic for scrolling offscreen responders visible beforehand may apply.
Another advantage of this approach is that you don't need to subclass all kinds of controls you may want to display (like UITextFields) but can instead manage the logic at controller level, where, let's be honest, is the right place to do so.