Get UITableView to scroll to the selected UITextField and Avoid Being Hidden by Keyboard

Question

I have a UITextField in a table view on a UIViewController (not a UITableViewController). If the table view is on a UITableViewC

Answer 1

In my case my UITableview was inside another UIView and that UIvie was in the main UIScrollview. So I used more general solution for those kind of problems. I simply found the Y coordinate of my cell in the specific UIScrollView and then scrolled to correct point:

-(void)textFieldDidBeginEditing:(UITextField *)textField{
float kbHeight = 216;//Hard Coded and will not support lanscape mode
UITableViewCell *cell = (UITableViewCell *)[textField superview];
float scrollToHeight = [self FindCordinate:cell];
[(UIScrollView *)self.view setContentOffset:CGPointMake(0, scrollToHeight - kbHeight + cell.frame.size.height) animated:YES];
}

-(float)FindCordinate:(UIView *)cell{
float Ycordinate = 0.0;
while ([cell superview] != self.view) {
    Ycordinate += cell.frame.origin.y;
    cell = [cell superview];
}
Ycordinate += cell.frame.origin.y;
return Ycordinate;
}

Answer 2

For the sake of anyone else running into this issue, I'm posting the necessary methods here:

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)aTableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {

    NSString *identifier = [NSString stringWithFormat: @"%d:%d", [indexPath indexAtPosition: 0], [indexPath indexAtPosition:1]];

    UITableViewCell *cell = [aTableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:identifier];

    if (cell == nil) {

        cell = [[[UITableViewCell alloc]  initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:identifier] autorelease];

        UITextField *theTextField = [[UITextField alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(180, 10, 130, 25)];

        theTextField.keyboardType = UIKeyboardTypeDefault;
        theTextField.returnKeyType = UIReturnKeyDone;
        theTextField.clearsOnBeginEditing = NO;
        theTextField.textAlignment = UITextAlignmentLeft;

        // (The tag by indexPath.row is the critical part to identifying the appropriate
        // row in textFieldDidBeginEditing and textFieldShouldEndEditing below:)

        theTextField.tag=indexPath.row;

        theTextField.delegate = self;

        theTextField.clearButtonMode = UITextFieldViewModeWhileEditing;
        [theTextField setEnabled: YES];

        [cell addSubview:theTextField];

        [theTextField release];

    }

    return cell;
}

-(void) textFieldDidBeginEditing:(UITextField *)textField {

    int z = textField.tag;                                              

    if (z > 4) {

        // Only deal with the table row if the row index is 5 
        // or greater since the first five rows are already 
        // visible above the keyboard   

        // resize the UITableView to fit above the keyboard

        self.wordsTableView.frame = CGRectMake(0.0,44.0,320.0,200.0);       

        // adjust the contentInset

        wordsTableView.contentInset = UIEdgeInsetsMake(0, 0, 0, 10);        

        // Scroll to the current text field

        [wordsTableView scrollToRowAtIndexPath:[NSIndexPath indexPathForRow:z inSection:0] atScrollPosition:UITableViewScrollPositionBottom animated:YES];

    }
}


- (BOOL)textFieldShouldEndEditing:(UITextField *)textField {

    // Determine which row is being edited

    int z = textField.tag;  

    if (z > 4) {

        // resize the UITableView to the original size

        self.wordsTableView.frame = CGRectMake(0.0,44.0,320.0,416.0);       

        // Undo the contentInset
        wordsTableView.contentInset = UIEdgeInsetsMake(0, 0, 0, 0);         

    }

    return YES;

}

- (BOOL)textFieldShouldReturn:(UITextField *)textField {

    // Dismisses the keyboard when the "Done" button is clicked

    [textField resignFirstResponder];

    return YES;                                 

}

Answer 3

You can try adding a UITableViewController to the UIViewController instead of just a table view. This way you can call UITableViewController's viewWillAppear and everything will appear to work.

Example:

- (void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated {
    [super viewWillAppear:animated];
    [tableViewController viewWillAppear:animated];
}

Answer 4

Swift

@objc private func keyboardWillShow(_ notification: Notification) {
    guard let userinfo = notification.userInfo else {
        return
    }

    guard
        let duration = (userinfo[UIResponder.keyboardAnimationDurationUserInfoKey] as? NSNumber)?.doubleValue,
        let endFrame = (userinfo[UIResponder.keyboardFrameEndUserInfoKey] as? NSValue)?.cgRectValue,
        let curveOption = userinfo[UIResponder.keyboardAnimationCurveUserInfoKey] as? UInt else {
            return
    }
    
    UIView.animate(withDuration: duration, delay: 0, options: [.beginFromCurrentState, .init(rawValue: curveOption)], animations: {
        let edgeInsets = UIEdgeInsets(top: 0, left: 0, bottom: endFrame.height, right: 0)
        self.scrollView.contentInset = edgeInsets
        self.scrollView.scrollIndicatorInsets = edgeInsets
    })
}

@objc private func keyboardWillHide(_ notification: Notification) {
    guard let userinfo = notification.userInfo else {
        return
    }

    guard
        let duration = (userinfo[UIResponder.keyboardAnimationDurationUserInfoKey] as? NSNumber)?.doubleValue,
        let curveOption = userinfo[UIResponder.keyboardAnimationCurveUserInfoKey] as? UInt else {
            return
    }
    
    UIView.animate(withDuration: duration, delay: 0, options: [.beginFromCurrentState, .init(rawValue: curveOption)], animations: {
        let edgeInsets = UIEdgeInsets.zero
        self.scrollView.contentInset = edgeInsets
        self.scrollView.scrollIndicatorInsets = edgeInsets
    })
}


override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()
    
    // ...

    subscribeToKeyboardNotifications()
}

deinit {
    unsubscribeFromKeyboardNotifications()
}

private func subscribeToKeyboardNotifications() {
    NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(self, selector: #selector(keyboardWillShow), name: UIWindow.keyboardWillShowNotification, object: nil)
    NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(self, selector: #selector(keyboardWillHide), name: UIWindow.keyboardWillHideNotification, object: nil)
}

private func unsubscribeFromKeyboardNotifications() {
    NotificationCenter.default.removeObserver(self, name: UIWindow.keyboardWillShowNotification, object: nil)
    NotificationCenter.default.removeObserver(self, name: UIWindow.keyboardWillHideNotification, object: nil)
}

Objective C

- (void)keyboardWillShow:(NSNotification *)sender
{
    CGFloat height = [[sender.userInfo objectForKey:UIKeyboardFrameEndUserInfoKey] CGRectValue].size.height;
    NSTimeInterval duration = [[sender.userInfo objectForKey:UIKeyboardAnimationDurationUserInfoKey] doubleValue];
    UIViewAnimationOptions curveOption = [[sender.userInfo objectForKey:UIKeyboardAnimationCurveUserInfoKey] unsignedIntegerValue] << 16;
    
    [UIView animateWithDuration:duration delay:0 options:UIViewAnimationOptionBeginFromCurrentState|curveOption animations:^{
        UIEdgeInsets edgeInsets = UIEdgeInsetsMake(0, 0, height, 0);
        tableView.contentInset = edgeInsets;
        tableView.scrollIndicatorInsets = edgeInsets;
    } completion:nil];
}

- (void)keyboardWillHide:(NSNotification *)sender
{
    NSTimeInterval duration = [[sender.userInfo objectForKey:UIKeyboardAnimationDurationUserInfoKey] doubleValue];
    UIViewAnimationOptions curveOption = [[sender.userInfo objectForKey:UIKeyboardAnimationCurveUserInfoKey] unsignedIntegerValue] << 16;

    [UIView animateWithDuration:duration delay:0 options:UIViewAnimationOptionBeginFromCurrentState|curveOption animations:^{
        UIEdgeInsets edgeInsets = UIEdgeInsetsZero;
        tableView.contentInset = edgeInsets;
        tableView.scrollIndicatorInsets = edgeInsets;
    } completion:nil];
}

And in - (void)viewDidLoad

[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self selector:@selector(keyboardWillShow:) name:UIKeyboardWillShowNotification object:nil];
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self selector:@selector(keyboardWillHide:) name:UIKeyboardWillHideNotification object:nil];

Then

- (void)dealloc
{
    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] removeObserver:self];
}

Answer 5

Apple has an official post explaining how to do this naturally as they do in the UITableViewController. My Stackoverflow answer has this explained along with a swift version.

https://stackoverflow.com/a/31869898/1032179

Answer 6

You need to resize the tableView itself so that it does not go under the keyboard.

-(void) textFieldDidBeginEditing:(UITextField *)textField {

// SUPPOSEDLY Scroll to the current text field
self.worldsTableView.frame = CGRectMake(//make the tableView smaller; to only be in the area above the keyboard);
CGRect textFieldRect = [textField frame];
[self.wordsTableView scrollRectToVisible:textFieldRect animated:YES];

}

Alternatively, you can use a keyboard notification; this works slightly better because you have more information, and is more consistent in terms of knowing when the keyboard is coming up:

//ViewDidLoad
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self selector:@selector(keyboardWillShow:) name:UIKeyboardWillShowNotification object:nil];
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self selector:@selector(keyboardWillHide:) name:UIKeyboardWillHideNotification object:nil];

And then implement:

- (void)keyboardWillShow:(NSNotification *)notification {

}
- (void)keyboardWillHide:(NSNotification *)notification {

}