swift: The HTML data converted to NSAttributed string doesn't make the links clickable in label

Question

I have a text in HTML format. I am using the property of NSAttributed string to parse it. It pareses the text nicely and displays on the label. However, the parsing of the ancho

Answer 1

From your line:

simpleTextLabel.attributedText = text.htmlToAttributedString

We can assume that simpleTextLabel is a UILabel.

It's basic behavior from a UILabel to not be "interactable". You can add a tap gesture on it, but it transform it as a UIButton.

There are some tricks to make it possible with a UILabel, find where exactly it has been tapped, check if there is a link, etc. Looking for "UILabel Clickable": Create tap-able "links" in the NSAttributedString of a UILabel? etc. There are even a few third party libs.

I (in my humble opinion) consider it as a "hack".

There is a good WWDC 2018 Session: TextKit Best Practices. At 2:34, it explains that if you need to interact with a shown text, prefers UITextView over UILabel.

There is a UITextViewDelegate method just for that: textView(_:shouldInteractWith:in:interaction:)

Note that there a small differences in the rendering of a UITextView and a UILabel. If you superpose them, they won't have the same "start point", the layout is a little different. However, with small changes, it can be the same (for instance: How can I make a UITextView layout text the same as a UILabel?).

Note also that according to the small modifications of a UITextView into a UILabel visual rendering, the user won't notice the difference (and that's in fact what matters, beside that using native methods of the UITextView/UITextViewDelegate make it easily understandable afterwards by another developer, or in a few months if you need to do a small modification).