Set text(with emojis, special chars, links) in UILabel, and link should be clickable

Question

In one of my application, there is API called and get data from server. In that there is text - which contains emojis, special characters, URLs, etc.

Not In my UITableViewCell, I have Simple UILabel and set text to label. Till now everything is working fine.

But now I want that URLs in UILabel should be tappable, so when we click on URL and it should be open in Safari.

Note : As text is coming from server, so I don't know position of URL and there will be multiple URL as well.

What to do for that ? I have searched but didn't find solution.

Check this SO question, it may help you https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1256887/create-tap-able-links-in-the-nsattributedstring-of-a-uilabel — Mani, Oct 08 '18 at 06:14
check [TTTAttributedLabel](https://github.com/TTTAttributedLabel/TTTAttributedLabel) — ChintaN -Maddy- Ramani, Oct 08 '18 at 06:18
you can also try YYText ( https://github.com/ibireme/YYText ) — Vatsal Shukla, Oct 08 '18 at 06:34
@Mani I have checked, but I can't get the potion of URL in my case and there may be multiple URL as well. — VRAwesome, Oct 08 '18 at 06:34
As from above UI, my best suggestion is `use UITextView` to do this job with less coding. You need to do some workaround to show it as a label. — Mani, Oct 08 '18 at 06:40
In `UITextView`, wil it work automatic or need to do something ? — VRAwesome, Oct 08 '18 at 06:45
Use a `UITextView`, cf https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2018/221/ (look at 2:30). For link tap: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2543967/how-to-intercept-click-on-link-in-uitextview You might have to change a little the UI of the `UITextView` to look like more like a `UILabel` but that should do it. — Larme, Oct 08 '18 at 07:44

Mike Critchley · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-08T09:43:25.507

I needed this kind of linked text for another project last month. I created a custom UITableViewCell with a UITextView object in the cell, subclassed to a custom UITextView subclass. I just made a quick demo project and put it up on git for you now. Feel free to use it.

github.com/fareast555/MPC_LinkedTextView

The basic secret sauce for using text links is the NSLinkAttributeName attribute in the mutable text, and telling the system to handle links.

- (void)updateTextViewWithFullText:(NSString *)fullText linkTriggerText:(NSString *)triggerText linkURLString:(NSString *)urlString
{
     //Create a mutable string based on the full text
     NSMutableAttributedString *mutableString = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc]initWithString:fullText attributes:nil];

     //Add the link attribute across the range of the target text
     [mutableString addAttribute:NSLinkAttributeName value:urlString range:[fullText rangeOfString:triggerText]];

     //Add any other font or color bling as needed
     [mutableString addAttribute:NSFontAttributeName value:[UIFont systemFontOfSize:18 weight:UIFontWeightMedium] range:NSMakeRange(0, [fullText length])];

     //Set the mutable text to the textfield
     [self setAttributedText: mutableString];
}

#pragma mark - UITextViewDelegate

- (BOOL)textView:(UITextView *)textView shouldInteractWithURL:(NSURL *)URL inRange:(NSRange)characterRange interaction:(UITextItemInteraction)interaction
{
    return YES;
}

- (BOOL)textViewShouldBeginEditing:(UITextView *)textView
{
    return NO;
}

And for textviews, you'll find it easier to use auto layout if you turn off scrolling.

#pragma mark - Configure
- (void)_configureTextView
{
    self.delegate = self;
    [self setEditable:NO];
    [self setSelectable:YES];
    [self setScrollEnabled:NO];
    [self setUserInteractionEnabled:YES];
    [self setDataDetectorTypes:UIDataDetectorTypeLink];
    self.scrollIndicatorInsets = UIEdgeInsetsZero;
}

Set text(with emojis, special chars, links) in UILabel, and link should be clickable

1 Answers1