Question

I want to add some static text to a UITableViewCell in a UITextView.

UITextView *addressField = [[UITextView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 300, 75)];
[addressField setBackgroundColor:[UIColor clearColor]];
[addressField setFont:[UIFont fontWithName:@"HelveticaNeue" size:14]];
[addressField setContentInset:UIEdgeInsetsMake(0, 20, 0, 0)];
[addressField setEditable:NO];
[addressField setScrollEnabled:NO];

// change me later
[addressField setText:@"John Doe\n555 Some Street\nSan Francisco, CA, 00000"];

[cell.contentView addSubview:addressField];

[addressField release];

This works great but I this code makes the cell unselectable probably because the UITextView is covering the entire cell.

How can I work around this so that I can have both the UITextView and selectable cells?

btw, I could make the UITextView size a bit smaller but users would still not be able to select the cell if they touch the UITextView.

Answer 1

I would adopt the following approach in order to keep interaction enabled with both the UITextView and the UITableViewCell.

• Declare your controller class (a UITableViewController I guess ?) as UITexView delegate.
• When you declare your UITextView, set the table view controller as it’s delegate.
• Implement one of the UITextViewDelegate methods (ex : – (void)textViewDidChangeSelection:(UITextView *)textView) in your table view controller .m file.
• From within this method you can manipulate the targeted cell either with a custom code or by triggering the tableView:(UITableView *)tableView didSelectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *) delegate method through selectRowAtIndexPath:animated:scrollPosition:.

Your code might then look like :

In the table view controller .h file :

@interface MyTableViewController : UITableViewController <UITextViewDelegate> { ...
...
}

In the table view controller .m file :

UITextView *addressField = [[UITextView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 300, 75)];
[addressField setDelegate:self];
...

Then implement this function for example (or any other suitable UITextViewDelegate function) :

- (void)textViewDidChangeSelection:(UITextView *)textView {

    // Determine which text view triggered this method in order to target the right cell
    ...
    // You should have obtained an indexPath here
    ...
    // Call the following function to trigger the row selection table view  delegate method
    [self.tableView selectRowAtIndexPath:indexPath animated:YES    scrollPosition:UITableViewScrollPositionNone]

}

Note that there are other alternatives like subclassing UITextView and deal with it’s touch methods. I would recommend to use the possibilites offered by its delegate protocol though.

Note also that it might be handy to have your UITextView declared or at least referenced as an instance variable of the table view controller class. This will help you easily keep track of which addressField was hit and get the right indexPath.