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

TAGS #Swift2.0

I take inspiration on - excellent - @NAlexN's answer and I decide to write by myself a wrapper of UILabel.
I also tried TTTAttributedLabel but I can't make it works.

Hope you can appreciate this code, any suggestions are welcome!

import Foundation

@objc protocol TappableLabelDelegate {
    optional func tappableLabel(tabbableLabel: TappableLabel, didTapUrl: NSURL, atRange: NSRange)
}

/// Represent a label with attributed text inside.
/// We can add a correspondence between a range of the attributed string an a link (URL)
/// By default, link will be open on the external browser @see 'openLinkOnExternalBrowser'

class TappableLabel: UILabel {

    // MARK: - Public properties -

    var links: NSMutableDictionary = [:]
    var openLinkOnExternalBrowser = true
    var delegate: TappableLabelDelegate?

    // MARK: - Constructors -

    override func awakeFromNib() {
        super.awakeFromNib()
        self.enableInteraction()
    }

    override init(frame: CGRect) {
        super.init(frame: frame)
        self.enableInteraction()
    }

    required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
        super.init(coder: aDecoder)
    }

    private func enableInteraction() {
        self.userInteractionEnabled = true
        self.addGestureRecognizer(UITapGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: Selector("didTapOnLabel:")))
    }

    // MARK: - Public methods -

    /**
    Add correspondence between a range and a link.

    - parameter url:   url.
    - parameter range: range on which couple url.
    */
    func addLink(url url: String, atRange range: NSRange) {
        self.links[url] = range
    }

    // MARK: - Public properties -

    /**
    Action rised on user interaction on label.

    - parameter tapGesture: gesture.
    */
    func didTapOnLabel(tapGesture: UITapGestureRecognizer) {
        let labelSize = self.bounds.size;

        let layoutManager = NSLayoutManager()
        let textContainer = NSTextContainer(size: CGSizeZero)
        let textStorage = NSTextStorage(attributedString: self.attributedText!)

        // configure textContainer for the label
        textContainer.lineFragmentPadding = 0
        textContainer.lineBreakMode = self.lineBreakMode
        textContainer.maximumNumberOfLines = self.numberOfLines
        textContainer.size = labelSize;

        // configure layoutManager and textStorage
        layoutManager.addTextContainer(textContainer)
        textStorage.addLayoutManager(layoutManager)

        // find the tapped character location and compare it to the specified range
        let locationOfTouchInLabel = tapGesture.locationInView(self)

        let textBoundingBox = layoutManager.usedRectForTextContainer(textContainer)
        let textContainerOffset = CGPointMake((labelSize.width - textBoundingBox.size.width) * 0.5 - textBoundingBox.origin.x,
            (labelSize.height - textBoundingBox.size.height) * 0.5 - textBoundingBox.origin.y)
        let locationOfTouchInTextContainer = CGPointMake(locationOfTouchInLabel.x - textContainerOffset.x,
            locationOfTouchInLabel.y - textContainerOffset.y)
        let indexOfCharacter = layoutManager.characterIndexForPoint(locationOfTouchInTextContainer,
            inTextContainer:textContainer,
            fractionOfDistanceBetweenInsertionPoints: nil)

        for (url, value) in self.links {
            if let range = value as? NSRange {
                if NSLocationInRange(indexOfCharacter, range) {
                    let url = NSURL(string: url as! String)!
                    if self.openLinkOnExternalBrowser {
                        UIApplication.sharedApplication().openURL(url)
                    }
                    self.delegate?.tappableLabel?(self, didTapUrl: url, atRange: range)
                }
            }
        }
    }

}