How to move UITextView correction suggestion above text

Question

I\'m using a UITextView to roughly replicate the SMS text box above the keyboard. I\'m using a UITextView instead of a field so that it can expand with multiple lines.

Answer 1

By doing the search for the UIAutocorrectInlinePrompt in an overridden or swizzled layoutSubViews it is possible to alter the layout of the correction so that it appears above. You can do this without calling any private APIs by looking for the subs views of particular classes positioned in a way you'd expect them. This example works out which view is which, checks to see that the correction is not already above the text and moves the correction above, and draws it on the window so that it is not bounded by the UITextView itself. Obviously if apple change the underlying implementation then this will fail to move correction. Add this to your overriden or swizzled layoutSubViews implementation.

- (void) moveSpellingCorrection {
 for (UIView *view in self.subviews)
 {
  if ([[[view class] description] isEqualToString:@"UIAutocorrectInlinePrompt"])
  {
   UIView *correctionShadowView = nil; // [view correctionShadowView];

   for (UIView *subview in view.subviews)
   {
    if ([[[subview class] description] isEqualToString:@"UIAutocorrectShadowView"])
    {
     correctionShadowView = subview;
     break;
    }
   }

   if (correctionShadowView)
   {
    UIView *typedTextView = nil; //[view typedTextView];
    UIView *correctionView = nil; //[view correctionView];

    for (UIView *subview in view.subviews)
    {
     if ([[[subview class] description] isEqualToString:@"UIAutocorrectTextView"])
     {
      if (CGRectContainsRect(correctionShadowView.frame,subview.frame))
      {
       correctionView = subview;
      }
      else
      { 
       typedTextView = subview;
      }
     }

    }
    if (correctionView && typedTextView)
    {

     CGRect textRect = [typedTextView frame];
     CGRect correctionRect = [correctionView frame];
     if (textRect.origin.y < correctionRect.origin.y)
     {
      CGAffineTransform moveUp = CGAffineTransformMakeTranslation(0,-50.0);
      [correctionView setTransform: moveUp];
      [correctionShadowView setTransform: moveUp];

      CGRect windowPos = [self convertRect: view.frame toView: nil ];
      [view removeFromSuperview];
      [self.window addSubview: view];
      view.frame = windowPos;
     }

    }
   }

  }

 }
}