UILabel vs UITextView and attributed string url links

Question

If I use the same function below to set some attributes for an attributed string with a UILabel and a UITextView then the display looks the same in both cases, but I can't tap on the links for the UILabel (User Interaction is enabled for it).

Why doesn't the UILabel respond to taps but the UITextVIew does, how to enable the UILabel to behave like the UITextVIew?

I saw a past question and the answer was to set dataDetectors for the UILabel, but that must have been for an old version of Swift as it doesn't exist anymore and I didn't see anything similar as an alternative.

class MyViewController: UIViewController {

    @IBOutlet weak var label1: UILabel!
    @IBOutlet weak var textView1: UITextView!

    let kTextContent = "This is some text with bold and link1 and link2 and color."
    let kBoldText = "bold"
    let kLink1Text = "link1"
    let kLink2Text = "link2"
    let kColorText = "color"
    let kUrl1 = "http://www.google.com"
    let kUrl2 = "http://www.apple.com"

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        label1.text = kTextContent
        label1.attributedText = setAttributes(theAttributedString: label1.attributedText?.mutableCopy(with: nil) as! NSMutableAttributedString)

        textView1.text = kTextContent
        textView1.attributedText = setAttributes(theAttributedString: textView1.attributedText?.mutableCopy(with: nil) as! NSMutableAttributedString)
    }

    func setAttributes(theAttributedString: NSMutableAttributedString) -> NSMutableAttributedString
    {
        let boldRange = theAttributedString.mutableString.range(of: kBoldText)
        let boldFontAttribute: [NSAttributedString.Key: Any] = [NSAttributedString.Key.font: UIFont.boldSystemFont(ofSize: 20)]
        theAttributedString.addAttributes(boldFontAttribute, range: boldRange)

        let link1Range = theAttributedString.mutableString.range(of: kLink1Text)
        theAttributedString.addAttribute(.link, value: kUrl1, range: link1Range)
        theAttributedString.addAttribute(NSAttributedString.Key.underlineStyle, value: NSUnderlineStyle.single.rawValue, range: link1Range)

        let link2Range = theAttributedString.mutableString.range(of: kLink2Text)
        theAttributedString.addAttribute(NSAttributedString.Key.link, value: kUrl2, range: link2Range)
        theAttributedString.addAttribute(NSAttributedString.Key.underlineStyle, value: NSUnderlineStyle.single.rawValue, range: link2Range)

        let colorRange = theAttributedString.mutableString.range(of: kColorText)
        theAttributedString.addAttribute(NSAttributedString.Key.foregroundColor, value: UIColor.red , range: colorRange)

        return theAttributedString
    }

It's normal behavior from the start of iOS. See link related answer where I explained why, and definitely look at the WWDC Video. — Larme

Mr.P Mr.P · Accepted Answer · 2019-05-03T15:38:14

A UILabel that responds to taps is a UIButton, I suggest that you swap out your UILabel for a button and style it accordingly. Then you can just hook up an IBAction to it and it'll work.

UITextView responds to interaction by default

UILabel vs UITextView and attributed string url links

1 Answers