Cannot set searchBar as firstResponder

Question

I have a searchBar I\'m setting in a tableviewcontroller. i\'ve referenced this similar question UISearchBar cannot become first responder after UITableView did re-appear bu

Answer 1

I battled with this for a while but got it working by:

• Initializing the searchController in viewDidLoad()
• Setting active = true in viewDidAppear()
  • This triggers didPresentSearchController() in the UISearchControllerDelegate extension.
• Setting searchBar.becomeFirstResponder() in didPresentSearchController()

Here's the full example, it uses Google Maps Autocomplete.

class myViewController: UIViewController {

    // MARK: Variables

    var resultsViewController: GMSAutocompleteResultsViewController?
    var searchController: UISearchController?
    var resultView: UITextView?

    // MARK: Outlets

    @IBOutlet var myView: UIView!

    // MARK: View Methods

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        resultsViewController = GMSAutocompleteResultsViewController()
        resultsViewController?.delegate = self

        searchController = UISearchController(searchResultsController: resultsViewController)
        searchController?.delegate = self
        searchController?.searchResultsUpdater = resultsViewController

        searchController?.searchBar.prompt = "Search for a Place"
        searchController?.searchBar.placeholder = "place name"
        searchController?.searchBar.text = ""
        searchController?.searchBar.sizeToFit()

        searchController?.searchBar.returnKeyType = .Next
        searchController?.searchBar.setShowsCancelButton(true, animated: false)

        myView.addSubview((searchController?.searchBar)!)
    }

    override func viewDidAppear(animated: Bool) {
        super.viewDidAppear(true)
        searchController?.active = true
    }

    // MARK: GMSAutocompleteResultsViewControllerDelegate Extension

    extension myViewController: GMSAutocompleteResultsViewControllerDelegate {

        func resultsController(resultsController: GMSAutocompleteResultsViewController,
                       didAutocompleteWithPlace place: GMSPlace) {
            searchController?.active = false
            // Do something with the selected place.
            print("Place name: ", place.name)
            print("Place address: ", place.formattedAddress)
            print("Place attributions: ", place.attributions)
        }

        func resultsController(resultsController: GMSAutocompleteResultsViewController,
                       didFailAutocompleteWithError error: NSError){
            // TODO: handle the error.
            print("Error: ", error.description)
        }

        // Turn the network activity indicator on and off again.
        func didRequestAutocompletePredictionsForResultsController(resultsController: GMSAutocompleteResultsViewController) {
            UIApplication.sharedApplication().networkActivityIndicatorVisible = true
        }

        func didUpdateAutocompletePredictionsForResultsController(resultsController: GMSAutocompleteResultsViewController) {
            UIApplication.sharedApplication().networkActivityIndicatorVisible = false
        }
    }

    extension myViewController: UISearchControllerDelegate {

        func didPresentSearchController(searchController: UISearchController) {
            self.searchController?.searchBar.becomeFirstResponder()
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

The solution with - (void)didPresentSearchController:(UISearchController *)searchController did not work, since this delegate method is called only when the user taps on the search bar...

However, this solution did work:

- (void) viewDidAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
    [super viewDidAppear:animated];
    [self performSelector:@selector(showKeyboard) withObject:nil afterDelay:0.1];
}

- (void) showKeyboard
{
    [self.searchController.searchBar becomeFirstResponder];
}

---

Swift 3

delay(0.1) { self.searchController.searchBar.becomeFirstResponder() }

func delay(_ delay: Double, closure: @escaping ()->()) {
    let when = DispatchTime.now() + delay
    DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter(deadline: when, execute: closure)
}

Answer 3

To me, there’s a quite big lag when using viewDidAppear. It can be better to use becomeFirstResponder asynchronously in viewDidLoad (tested with iOS 10, Swift 3):

override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()

    DispatchQueue.main.async {
        searchController.searchBar.becomeFirstResponder()
    }
}