R – How to set a “hidden” attribute for text inside NSAttributedString

cocoansattributedstringobjective-c

I have a Cocoa app with an NSTextView control which holds its text in an NSAttributedString (actually I believe it's a NSMutableAttributedString). I can easily set and modify different text attributes (such as font, underline, etc.) on different character ranges inside that string.

However, I want to set a part of the text as hidden (similar to the effect of the CSS attribute display: none). When an external event occurs (say a button clicked), I want to unhide or hide that specific range of characters.

Is there anyway to do this with NSAttributedString?

Best Solution

Another possibility would be to use a custom attribute on the text you want to hide, and then write your own method in a category on NSAttributedString that creates a new attributed string that excludes the text marked as hidden.

- (NSAttributedString *)attributedStringWithoutHiddenText {
    NSMutableAttributedString *result = [[[NSMutableString alloc] init] autorelease];
    NSRange fullRange = NSMakeRange(0, [self length]);
    NSRange range = NSZeroRange;
    while (NSMaxRange(range) < [self length]) {
        NSDictionary *attributes = [self attributesAtIndex:range.location longestEffectiveRange:&range inRange:fullRange];
        if ([[attributes objectForKey:MyHiddenTextAttribute] boolValue])
            continue;

        NSAttributedString *substring = [[NSAttributedString alloc] initWithString:[[self string] substringWithRange:range] attributes:attributes];
        [result appendAttributedString:substring];
        [substring release];
    }
    return result;
}

Caveat: I totally just wrote this off the top of my head, and it's not guaranteed to compile, work, light your hard drive on fire, not kick your dog, etc.

This would generate a string that's appropriate for drawing, but you would still need the original string for accessing any of the hidden text. Depending on the size of your strings, this could be a big memory overhead.

Swift

Install via CocoaPods or Carthage: https://github.com/ashleymills/Reachability.swift

Test reachability via closures

let reachability = Reachability()!

reachability.whenReachable = { reachability in
    if reachability.connection == .wifi {
        print("Reachable via WiFi")
    } else {
        print("Reachable via Cellular")
    }
}

reachability.whenUnreachable = { _ in
    print("Not reachable")
}

do {
    try reachability.startNotifier()
} catch {
    print("Unable to start notifier")
}

Objective-C

Add SystemConfiguration framework to the project but don't worry about including it anywhere
Add Tony Million's version of Reachability.h and Reachability.m to the project (found here: https://github.com/tonymillion/Reachability)

Update the interface section

#import "Reachability.h"

// Add this to the interface in the .m file of your view controller
@interface MyViewController ()
{
    Reachability *internetReachableFoo;
}
@end

Then implement this method in the .m file of your view controller which you can call

// Checks if we have an internet connection or not
- (void)testInternetConnection
{
    internetReachableFoo = [Reachability reachabilityWithHostname:@"www.google.com"];

    // Internet is reachable
    internetReachableFoo.reachableBlock = ^(Reachability*reach)
    {
        // Update the UI on the main thread
        dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
            NSLog(@"Yayyy, we have the interwebs!");
        });
    };

    // Internet is not reachable
    internetReachableFoo.unreachableBlock = ^(Reachability*reach)
    {
        // Update the UI on the main thread
        dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
            NSLog(@"Someone broke the internet :(");
        });
    };

    [internetReachableFoo startNotifier];
}

Important Note: The Reachability class is one of the most used classes in projects so you might run into naming conflicts with other projects. If this happens, you'll have to rename one of the pairs of Reachability.h and Reachability.m files to something else to resolve the issue.

Note: The domain you use doesn't matter. It's just testing for a gateway to any domain.

Ios – How to make a UITextField move up when the keyboard is present – on starting to edit

You will only need a ScrollView if the contents you have now do not fit in the iPhone screen. (If you are adding the ScrollView as the superview of the components just to make the TextField scroll up when keyboard comes up, then it's not needed.)
The standard way to prevent the TextFields from being covered by the keyboard is to move the view up/down whenever the keyboard is shown.

Here is some sample code:

#define kOFFSET_FOR_KEYBOARD 80.0

-(void)keyboardWillShow {
    // Animate the current view out of the way
    if (self.view.frame.origin.y >= 0)
    {
        [self setViewMovedUp:YES];
    }
    else if (self.view.frame.origin.y < 0)
    {
        [self setViewMovedUp:NO];
    }
}

-(void)keyboardWillHide {
    if (self.view.frame.origin.y >= 0)
    {
        [self setViewMovedUp:YES];
    }
    else if (self.view.frame.origin.y < 0)
    {
        [self setViewMovedUp:NO];
    }
}

-(void)textFieldDidBeginEditing:(UITextField *)sender
{
    if ([sender isEqual:mailTf])
    {
        //move the main view, so that the keyboard does not hide it.
        if  (self.view.frame.origin.y >= 0)
        {
            [self setViewMovedUp:YES];
        }
    }
}

//method to move the view up/down whenever the keyboard is shown/dismissed
-(void)setViewMovedUp:(BOOL)movedUp
{
    [UIView beginAnimations:nil context:NULL];
    [UIView setAnimationDuration:0.3]; // if you want to slide up the view

    CGRect rect = self.view.frame;
    if (movedUp)
    {
        // 1. move the view's origin up so that the text field that will be hidden come above the keyboard 
        // 2. increase the size of the view so that the area behind the keyboard is covered up.
        rect.origin.y -= kOFFSET_FOR_KEYBOARD;
        rect.size.height += kOFFSET_FOR_KEYBOARD;
    }
    else
    {
        // revert back to the normal state.
        rect.origin.y += kOFFSET_FOR_KEYBOARD;
        rect.size.height -= kOFFSET_FOR_KEYBOARD;
    }
    self.view.frame = rect;

    [UIView commitAnimations];
}


- (void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
    [super viewWillAppear:animated];
    // register for keyboard notifications
    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self
                                         selector:@selector(keyboardWillShow)
                                             name:UIKeyboardWillShowNotification
                                           object:nil];

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

- (void)viewWillDisappear:(BOOL)animated
{
    [super viewWillDisappear:animated];
    // unregister for keyboard notifications while not visible.
    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] removeObserver:self
                                             name:UIKeyboardWillShowNotification
                                           object:nil];

    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] removeObserver:self
                                             name:UIKeyboardWillHideNotification
                                           object:nil];
}

Best Solution

Related Solutions

Ios – How to check for an active Internet connection on iOS or macOS

Swift

Objective-C

Ios – How to make a UITextField move up when the keyboard is present – on starting to edit

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