How to display clickable links in UITextView

Question

I am trying to display an attributed string in a UITextview with clickable links. I\'ve created a simple test project to see where I\'m going wrong and still can\'t figure i

Answer 1

Swift 3 iOS 10: Here's Clickable extended UITextView that detect websites inside the textview automatically as long as the link start with www. for example: www.exmaple.com if it exist anywhere in the text will be clickable. Here's the class:

import Foundation
import UIKit




public class ClickableTextView:UITextView{



    var tap:UITapGestureRecognizer!
    override public init(frame: CGRect, textContainer: NSTextContainer?) {
        super.init(frame: frame, textContainer: textContainer)
        print("init")
        setup()
    }
    required public init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
        super.init(coder: aDecoder)
        setup()
    }


    func setup(){

        // Add tap gesture recognizer to Text View
        tap = UITapGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: #selector(self.myMethodToHandleTap(sender:)))
        //        tap.delegate = self
        self.addGestureRecognizer(tap)
    }

    func myMethodToHandleTap(sender: UITapGestureRecognizer){

        let myTextView = sender.view as! UITextView
        let layoutManager = myTextView.layoutManager

        // location of tap in myTextView coordinates and taking the inset into account
        var location = sender.location(in: myTextView)
        location.x -= myTextView.textContainerInset.left;
        location.y -= myTextView.textContainerInset.top;


        // character index at tap location
        let characterIndex = layoutManager.characterIndex(for: location, in: myTextView.textContainer, fractionOfDistanceBetweenInsertionPoints: nil)

        // if index is valid then do something.
        if characterIndex < myTextView.textStorage.length {

            let orgString = myTextView.attributedText.string


            //Find the WWW
            var didFind = false
            var count:Int = characterIndex
            while(count > 2 && didFind == false){

                let myRange = NSRange(location: count-1, length: 2)
                let substring = (orgString as NSString).substring(with: myRange)

//                print(substring,count)

                if substring == " w" || (substring  == "w." && count == 3){
                    didFind = true
//                    print("Did find",count)

                    var count2 = count
                    while(count2 < orgString.characters.count){

                        let myRange = NSRange(location: count2 - 1, length: 2)
                        let substring = (orgString as NSString).substring(with: myRange)

//                        print("Did 2",count2,substring)
                        count2 += 1


                        //If it was at the end of textView
                        if count2  == orgString.characters.count {

                            let length = orgString.characters.count - count
                            let myRange = NSRange(location: count, length: length)

                            let substring = (orgString as NSString).substring(with: myRange)

                            openLink(link: substring)
                            print("It's a Link",substring)
                            return
                        }

                        //If it's in the middle

                        if substring.hasSuffix(" "){

                            let length =  count2 - count
                            let myRange = NSRange(location: count, length: length)

                            let substring = (orgString as NSString).substring(with: myRange)

                            openLink(link: substring)
                            print("It's a Link",substring)

                            return
                        }

                    }

                    return
                }


                if substring.hasPrefix(" "){

                    print("Not a link")
                    return
                }

                count -= 1

            }


        }


    }


    func openLink(link:String){

        if let checkURL = URL(string: "http://\(link.replacingOccurrences(of: " ", with: ""))") {
            if UIApplication.shared.canOpenURL(checkURL) {
                UIApplication.shared.open(checkURL, options: [:], completionHandler: nil)

                print("url successfully opened")
            }
        } else {
            print("invalid url")
        }
    }


    public override func didMoveToWindow() {
        if self.window == nil{
            self.removeGestureRecognizer(tap)
            print("ClickableTextView View removed from")
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

For swift3.0

  override func viewDidLoad() {
     super.viewDidLoad()

  let linkAttributes = [
        NSLinkAttributeName: NSURL(string: "http://stalwartitsolution.co.in/luminutri_flow/terms-condition")!
        ] as [String : Any]
  let attributedString = NSMutableAttributedString(string: "Please tick box to confirm you agree to our Terms & Conditions, Privacy Policy, Disclaimer. ")

  attributedString.setAttributes(linkAttributes, range: NSMakeRange(44, 18))

  attributedString.addAttribute(NSUnderlineStyleAttributeName, value: NSNumber(value: 1), range: NSMakeRange(44, 18))

  textview.delegate = self
  textview.attributedText = attributedString
  textview.linkTextAttributes = [NSForegroundColorAttributeName: UIColor.red]
  textview.textColor = UIColor.white
  }


  func textView(_ textView: UITextView, shouldInteractWith URL: URL, in characterRange: NSRange, interaction: UITextItemInteraction) -> Bool {
    return true
   }

Answer 3

Just select the UITextView in your storyboard and go to "Show Attributes inspector" and select selectable and links. As the image below shows. Make sure Editable is unchecked.