UITextView with hyperlink text

Question

With a non-editable UITextView, I would like to embed text like this in iOS9+:

Just click here to register

I can create a functi

Answer 1

If you want to use multiple hyperlinks you can use this alternative for Swift 5

extension UITextView {

  func addHyperLinksToText(originalText: String, hyperLinks: [String: String]) {
    let style = NSMutableParagraphStyle()
    style.alignment = .left
    let attributedOriginalText = NSMutableAttributedString(string: originalText)
    for (hyperLink, urlString) in hyperLinks {
        let linkRange = attributedOriginalText.mutableString.range(of: hyperLink)
        let fullRange = NSRange(location: 0, length: attributedOriginalText.length)
        attributedOriginalText.addAttribute(NSAttributedString.Key.link, value: urlString, range: linkRange)
        attributedOriginalText.addAttribute(NSAttributedString.Key.paragraphStyle, value: style, range: fullRange)
        attributedOriginalText.addAttribute(NSAttributedString.Key.font, value: YourFont, range: fullRange)
    }

    self.linkTextAttributes = [
        NSAttributedString.Key.foregroundColor: YourColor,
        NSAttributedString.Key.underlineStyle: NSUnderlineStyle.single.rawValue,
    ]
    self.attributedText = attributedOriginalText
  }
}

Usage:

yourTextView. addHyperLinksToText(originalText: "Testing hyperlinks here and there", hyperLinks: ["here": "someUrl1", "there": "someUrl2"])

Answer 2

Using Swift >= 4:

let descriptionText = NSMutableAttributedString(string:"To learn more, check out our ", attributes: [:])

let linkText = NSMutableAttributedString(string: "Privacy Policy and Terms of Use", attributes: [NSAttributedString.Key.link: URL(string: example.com)!])

descriptionText.append(linkText)

Answer 3

Swift 5 This is based on Tejas' answer as a few items in both classes were deprecated.

extension UITextView {


func hyperLink(originalText: String, hyperLink: String, urlString: String) {

    let style = NSMutableParagraphStyle()
    style.alignment = .left

    let attributedOriginalText = NSMutableAttributedString(string: originalText)
    let linkRange = attributedOriginalText.mutableString.range(of: hyperLink)
    let fullRange = NSMakeRange(0, attributedOriginalText.length)
    attributedOriginalText.addAttribute(NSAttributedString.Key.link, value: urlString, range: linkRange)
    attributedOriginalText.addAttribute(NSAttributedString.Key.paragraphStyle, value: style, range: fullRange)
    attributedOriginalText.addAttribute(NSAttributedString.Key.foregroundColor, value: UIColor.blue, range: fullRange)
    attributedOriginalText.addAttribute(NSAttributedString.Key.font, value: UIFont.systemFont(ofSize: 10), range: fullRange)

    self.linkTextAttributes = [
        kCTForegroundColorAttributeName: UIColor.blue,
        kCTUnderlineStyleAttributeName: NSUnderlineStyle.single.rawValue,
        ] as [NSAttributedString.Key : Any]

    self.attributedText = attributedOriginalText
}

Don't forget to add UITextViewDelegate to your view controller and set your let linkUrl = "https://example.com"

func textView(_ textView: UITextView, shouldInteractWith URL: URL, in characterRange: NSRange) -> Bool {
    if (URL.absoluteString == linkUrl) {
        UIApplication.shared.open(URL) { (Bool) in

        }
    }
    return false
}

Usage stays the same:

textView.hyperLink(originalText: "To find out more please visit our website", hyperLink: "website", urlString: linkUrl)

Answer 4

The same solution for Swift 3 using extensions :

A. Add extension -

extension UITextView {
    func hyperLink(originalText: String, hyperLink: String, urlString: String) {
        let style = NSMutableParagraphStyle()
        style.alignment = .center
        let attributedOriginalText = NSMutableAttributedString(string: originalText)
        let linkRange = attributedOriginalText.mutableString.range(of: hyperLink)
        let fullRange = NSMakeRange(0, attributedOriginalText.length)
        attributedOriginalText.addAttribute(NSLinkAttributeName, value: urlString, range: linkRange)
        attributedOriginalText.addAttribute(NSParagraphStyleAttributeName, value: style, range: fullRange)
        attributedOriginalText.addAttribute(NSFontAttributeName, value: UIFont.systemFont(ofSize: 10), range: fullRange)
        self.linkTextAttributes = [
            NSForegroundColorAttributeName: UIConfig.primaryColour,
            NSUnderlineStyleAttributeName: NSUnderlineStyle.styleSingle.rawValue,
        ]
        self.attributedText = attributedOriginalText
    }
}

B. Add link url - let linkUrl = "https://www.my_website.com"

C. Implement UITextViewDelegate in your ViewController like this -

 class MyViewController: UIViewController, UITextViewDelegate { 
 }

D. Add delegate method to handle tap events -

func textView(_ textView: UITextView, shouldInteractWith URL: URL, in characterRange: NSRange) -> Bool {
    if (URL.absoluteString == linkUrl) {
        UIApplication.shared.openURL(URL)
    }
    return false
    }
}

E. And finally, things to make sure for your UITextView under attribute inspector -

1. Behaviour - Editable is turned OFF & Selectable is turned ON.
2. Data Detectors - Link is turned ON.

Usage -

textView.hyperLink(originalText: "To find out more please visit our website", hyperLink: "website", urlString: linkUrl)

Cheers & happy coding!