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 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, 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)
        }
    }
}}