Check for split keyboard

Question

As many of you know iOS 5 introduced a slick split keyboard for thumb-typing. Unfortunately, I have some UI that is dependent on the normal full-screen keyboard layout. One

Answer 1

This is the solution which works with iPad split keyboards (originally from the blog linked in Zeeshan's comment)

[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] 
  addObserverForName:UIKeyboardDidChangeFrameNotification
  object:nil
  queue:[NSOperationQueue mainQueue]
  usingBlock:^(NSNotification * notification)
 {
     CGRect keyboardEndFrame =
     [[notification.userInfo objectForKey:UIKeyboardFrameEndUserInfoKey] CGRectValue];

     CGRect screenRect = [[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds];

     if (CGRectIntersectsRect(keyboardEndFrame, screenRect))
     {
         // Keyboard is visible
     }
     else
     {
         // Keyboard is hidden
     }
}];

Answer 2

When the keyboard is docked, UIKeyboardWillShowNotification will be raised. If the keyboard is split or undocked, no keyboard notifications are raised.

If a keyboard is docked, UIKeyboardWillShowNotification will be raised, and the following will be true:

[[[notification userInfo] valueForKey:@"UIKeyboardFrameChangedByUserInteraction"] intValue] == 1

If a keyboard is undocked, UIKeyboardWillHideNotification will be raised, and the above statement will also be true.

Using this information has been adequate for me to code my user interface.

Note: this might be a violation of Apple's guidelines, I'm not sure.

Answer 3

The notifications that are posted when the keyboard appears or changes its position (UIKeyboardWillShowNotification, UIKeyboardWillChangeFrameNotification) contain a userInfo dictionary with the frame of the keyboard (UIKeyboardFrameEndUserInfoKey) that allows you to position your UI elements correctly, depending on the actual size and location of the keyboard.

Answer 4

UIKeyboardFrameChangedByUserInteraction key does not return 1 all the time when keyboard splits.

Below is the full user info dictionary key values on UIKeyboardDidShowNotification / UIKeyboardDidHideNotification.

2012-07-11 11:52:44.701 Project[3856:707] keyboardDidShow: {
    UIKeyboardBoundsUserInfoKey = "NSRect: {{0, 0}, {1024, 352}}";
    UIKeyboardCenterBeginUserInfoKey = "NSPoint: {512, 944}";
    UIKeyboardCenterEndUserInfoKey = "NSPoint: {512, 592}";
    UIKeyboardFrameBeginUserInfoKey = "NSRect: {{-352, 0}, {352, 1024}}";
    UIKeyboardFrameChangedByUserInteraction = 0;
    UIKeyboardFrameEndUserInfoKey = "NSRect: {{0, 0}, {352, 1024}}";
}

2012-07-11 11:52:45.675 Project[3856:707] keyboardDidHide: {
    UIKeyboardBoundsUserInfoKey = "NSRect: {{0, 0}, {1024, 352}}";
    UIKeyboardCenterBeginUserInfoKey = "NSPoint: {512, 592}";
    UIKeyboardCenterEndUserInfoKey = "NSPoint: {512, 944}";
    UIKeyboardFrameBeginUserInfoKey = "NSRect: {{0, 0}, {352, 1024}}";
    UIKeyboardFrameChangedByUserInteraction = 0;
    UIKeyboardFrameEndUserInfoKey = "NSRect: {{-352, 0}, {352, 1024}}";
}

Instead you can use UIKeyboardCenterBeginUserInfoKey or UIKeyboardCenterEndUserInfoKey keys to get notified when keyboard splits.

Hope this helps!