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

I follow this version,

Swift 4:

import Foundation

class AELinkedClickableUILabel: UILabel {

    typealias YourCompletion = () -> Void

    var linkedRange: NSRange!
    var completion: YourCompletion?

    @objc func linkClicked(sender: UITapGestureRecognizer){

        if let completionBlock = completion {

            let textView = UITextView(frame: self.frame)
            textView.text = self.text
            textView.attributedText = self.attributedText
            let index = textView.layoutManager.characterIndex(for: sender.location(in: self),
                                                              in: textView.textContainer,
                                                              fractionOfDistanceBetweenInsertionPoints: nil)

            if linkedRange.lowerBound <= index && linkedRange.upperBound >= index {

                completionBlock()
            }
        }
    }

/**
 *  This method will be used to set an attributed text specifying the linked text with a
 *  handler when the link is clicked
 */
    public func setLinkedTextWithHandler(text:String, link: String, handler: @escaping ()->()) -> Bool {

        let attributextText = NSMutableAttributedString(string: text)
        let foundRange = attributextText.mutableString.range(of: link)

        if foundRange.location != NSNotFound {
            self.linkedRange = foundRange
            self.completion = handler
            attributextText.addAttribute(NSAttributedStringKey.link, value: text, range: foundRange)
            self.isUserInteractionEnabled = true
            self.addGestureRecognizer(UITapGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: #selector(linkClicked(sender:))))
            return true
        }
        return false
    }
}

Call Example:

button.setLinkedTextWithHandler(text: "This website (stackoverflow.com) is awesome", link: "stackoverflow.com") 
{
    // show popup or open to link
}

Answer 2

Drop-in solution as a category on UILabel (this assumes your UILabel uses an attributed string with some NSLinkAttributeName attributes in it):

@implementation UILabel (Support)

- (BOOL)openTappedLinkAtLocation:(CGPoint)location {
  CGSize labelSize = self.bounds.size;

  NSTextContainer* textContainer = [[NSTextContainer alloc] initWithSize:CGSizeZero];
  textContainer.lineFragmentPadding = 0.0;
  textContainer.lineBreakMode = self.lineBreakMode;
  textContainer.maximumNumberOfLines = self.numberOfLines;
  textContainer.size = labelSize;

  NSLayoutManager* layoutManager = [[NSLayoutManager alloc] init];
  [layoutManager addTextContainer:textContainer];

  NSTextStorage* textStorage = [[NSTextStorage alloc] initWithAttributedString:self.attributedText];
  [textStorage addAttribute:NSFontAttributeName value:self.font range:NSMakeRange(0, textStorage.length)];
  [textStorage addLayoutManager:layoutManager];

  CGRect textBoundingBox = [layoutManager usedRectForTextContainer:textContainer];
  CGPoint textContainerOffset = CGPointMake((labelSize.width - textBoundingBox.size.width) * 0.5 - textBoundingBox.origin.x,
                                            (labelSize.height - textBoundingBox.size.height) * 0.5 - textBoundingBox.origin.y);
  CGPoint locationOfTouchInTextContainer = CGPointMake(location.x - textContainerOffset.x, location.y - textContainerOffset.y);
  NSInteger indexOfCharacter = [layoutManager characterIndexForPoint:locationOfTouchInTextContainer inTextContainer:textContainer fractionOfDistanceBetweenInsertionPoints:nullptr];
  if (indexOfCharacter >= 0) {
    NSURL* url = [textStorage attribute:NSLinkAttributeName atIndex:indexOfCharacter effectiveRange:nullptr];
    if (url) {
      [[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:url];
      return YES;
    }
  }
  return NO;
}

@end

Answer 3

I had a hard time dealing with this... UILabel with links on it on attributed text... it is just a headache so I ended up using ZSWTappableLabel.

Answer 4

Here is my answer based on @Luca Davanzo's answer, override the touchesBegan event instead of a tap gesture:

import UIKit

public protocol TapableLabelDelegate: NSObjectProtocol {
   func tapableLabel(_ label: TapableLabel, didTapUrl url: String, atRange range: NSRange)
}

public class TapableLabel: UILabel {

private var links: [String: NSRange] = [:]
private(set) var layoutManager = NSLayoutManager()
private(set) var textContainer = NSTextContainer(size: CGSize.zero)
private(set) var textStorage = NSTextStorage() {
    didSet {
        textStorage.addLayoutManager(layoutManager)
    }
}

public weak var delegate: TapableLabelDelegate?

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

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

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


public override init(frame: CGRect) {
    super.init(frame: frame)
    setup()
}

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

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


/// addLinks
///
/// - Parameters:
///   - text: text of link
///   - url: link url string
public func addLink(_ text: String, withURL url: String) {
    guard let theText = attributedText?.string as? NSString else {
        return
    }

    let range = theText.range(of: text)

    guard range.location !=  NSNotFound else {
        return
    }

    links[url] = range
}

private func setup() {
    isUserInteractionEnabled = true
    layoutManager.addTextContainer(textContainer)
    textContainer.lineFragmentPadding = 0
    textContainer.lineBreakMode = lineBreakMode
    textContainer.maximumNumberOfLines  = numberOfLines
}

public override func touchesBegan(_ touches: Set<UITouch>, with event: UIEvent?) {
    guard let locationOfTouch = touches.first?.location(in: self) else {
        return
    }

    textContainer.size = bounds.size
    let indexOfCharacter = layoutManager.glyphIndex(for: locationOfTouch, in: textContainer)

    for (urlString, range) in links {
        if NSLocationInRange(indexOfCharacter, range), let url = URL(string: urlString) {
            delegate?.tapableLabel(self, didTapUrl: urlString, atRange: range)
        }
    }
}}

Answer 5

Translating @samwize's Extension to Swift 4:

extension UITapGestureRecognizer {
    func didTapAttributedTextInLabel(label: UILabel, inRange targetRange: NSRange) -> Bool {
        guard let attrString = label.attributedText else {
            return false
        }

        let layoutManager = NSLayoutManager()
        let textContainer = NSTextContainer(size: .zero)
        let textStorage = NSTextStorage(attributedString: attrString)

        layoutManager.addTextContainer(textContainer)
        textStorage.addLayoutManager(layoutManager)

        textContainer.lineFragmentPadding = 0
        textContainer.lineBreakMode = label.lineBreakMode
        textContainer.maximumNumberOfLines = label.numberOfLines
        let labelSize = label.bounds.size
        textContainer.size = labelSize

        let locationOfTouchInLabel = self.location(in: label)
        let textBoundingBox = layoutManager.usedRect(for: textContainer)
        let textContainerOffset = CGPoint(x: (labelSize.width - textBoundingBox.size.width) * 0.5 - textBoundingBox.origin.x, y: (labelSize.height - textBoundingBox.size.height) * 0.5 - textBoundingBox.origin.y)
        let locationOfTouchInTextContainer = CGPoint(x: locationOfTouchInLabel.x - textContainerOffset.x, y: locationOfTouchInLabel.y - textContainerOffset.y)
        let indexOfCharacter = layoutManager.characterIndex(for: locationOfTouchInTextContainer, in: textContainer, fractionOfDistanceBetweenInsertionPoints: nil)
        return NSLocationInRange(indexOfCharacter, targetRange)
    }
}

To set up the recognizer (once you colored the text and stuff):

lblTermsOfUse.isUserInteractionEnabled = true
lblTermsOfUse.addGestureRecognizer(UITapGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: #selector(handleTapOnLabel(_:))))

...then the gesture recognizer:

@objc func handleTapOnLabel(_ recognizer: UITapGestureRecognizer) {
    guard let text = lblAgreeToTerms.attributedText?.string else {
        return
    }

    if let range = text.range(of: NSLocalizedString("_onboarding_terms", comment: "terms")),
        recognizer.didTapAttributedTextInLabel(label: lblAgreeToTerms, inRange: NSRange(range, in: text)) {
        goToTermsAndConditions()
    } else if let range = text.range(of: NSLocalizedString("_onboarding_privacy", comment: "privacy")),
        recognizer.didTapAttributedTextInLabel(label: lblAgreeToTerms, inRange: NSRange(range, in: text)) {
        goToPrivacyPolicy()
    }
}

Answer 6

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)
                }
            }
        }
    }

}