Create tap-able “links” in the NSAttributedString of a UILabel?

Question

I have been searching this for hours but I\'ve failed. I probably don\'t even know what I should be looking for.

Many applications have text and in this text are web

Answer 1

Here is a swift version of NAlexN's answer.

class TapabbleLabel: UILabel {

let layoutManager = NSLayoutManager()
let textContainer = NSTextContainer(size: CGSize.zero)
var textStorage = NSTextStorage() {
    didSet {
        textStorage.addLayoutManager(layoutManager)
    }
}

var onCharacterTapped: ((label: UILabel, characterIndex: Int) -> Void)?

let tapGesture = UITapGestureRecognizer()

override var attributedText: NSAttributedString? {
    didSet {
        if let attributedText = attributedText {
            textStorage = NSTextStorage(attributedString: attributedText)
        } else {
            textStorage = NSTextStorage()
        }
    }
}

override var lineBreakMode: NSLineBreakMode {
    didSet {
        textContainer.lineBreakMode = lineBreakMode
    }
}

override var numberOfLines: Int {
    didSet {
        textContainer.maximumNumberOfLines = numberOfLines
    }
}

/**
 Creates a new view with the passed coder.

 :param: aDecoder The a decoder

 :returns: the created new view.
 */
required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
    super.init(coder: aDecoder)
    setUp()
}

/**
 Creates a new view with the passed frame.

 :param: frame The frame

 :returns: the created new view.
 */
override init(frame: CGRect) {
    super.init(frame: frame)
    setUp()
}

/**
 Sets up the view.
 */
func setUp() {
    userInteractionEnabled = true
    layoutManager.addTextContainer(textContainer)
    textContainer.lineFragmentPadding = 0
    textContainer.lineBreakMode = lineBreakMode
    textContainer.maximumNumberOfLines = numberOfLines
    tapGesture.addTarget(self, action: #selector(TapabbleLabel.labelTapped(_:)))
    addGestureRecognizer(tapGesture)
}

override func layoutSubviews() {
    super.layoutSubviews()
    textContainer.size = bounds.size
}

func labelTapped(gesture: UITapGestureRecognizer) {
    guard gesture.state == .Ended else {
        return
    }

    let locationOfTouch = gesture.locationInView(gesture.view)
    let textBoundingBox = layoutManager.usedRectForTextContainer(textContainer)
    let textContainerOffset = CGPoint(x: (bounds.width - textBoundingBox.width) / 2 - textBoundingBox.minX,
                                      y: (bounds.height - textBoundingBox.height) / 2 - textBoundingBox.minY)        
    let locationOfTouchInTextContainer = CGPoint(x: locationOfTouch.x - textContainerOffset.x,
                                                 y: locationOfTouch.y - textContainerOffset.y)
    let indexOfCharacter = layoutManager.characterIndexForPoint(locationOfTouchInTextContainer,
                                                                inTextContainer: textContainer,
                                                                fractionOfDistanceBetweenInsertionPoints: nil)

    onCharacterTapped?(label: self, characterIndex: indexOfCharacter)
}
}

You can then create an instance of that class inside your viewDidLoad method like this:

let label = TapabbleLabel()
label.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
view.addSubview(label)
view.addConstraints(NSLayoutConstraint.constraintsWithVisualFormat("V:|-[view]-|",
                                               options: [], metrics: nil, views: ["view" : label]))
view.addConstraints(NSLayoutConstraint.constraintsWithVisualFormat("H:|-[view]-|",
                                               options: [], metrics: nil, views: ["view" : label]))

let attributedString = NSMutableAttributedString(string: "String with a link", attributes: nil)
let linkRange = NSMakeRange(14, 4); // for the word "link" in the string above

let linkAttributes: [String : AnyObject] = [
    NSForegroundColorAttributeName : UIColor.blueColor(), NSUnderlineStyleAttributeName : NSUnderlineStyle.StyleSingle.rawValue,
    NSLinkAttributeName: "http://www.apple.com"]
attributedString.setAttributes(linkAttributes, range:linkRange)

label.attributedText = attributedString

label.onCharacterTapped = { label, characterIndex in
    if let attribute = label.attributedText?.attribute(NSLinkAttributeName, atIndex: characterIndex, effectiveRange: nil) as? String,
        let url = NSURL(string: attribute) {
        UIApplication.sharedApplication().openURL(url)
    }
}

It's better to have a custom attribute to use when a character is tapped. Now, it's the NSLinkAttributeName, but could be anything and you can use that value to do other things other than opening a url, you can do any custom action.