How to intercept long press on UITextView without disabling context menu?

Question

I want to intercept long press on UITextview, but don't want to disable the context menu option at the same time.

If I use gesture recognizer on textview, it will disable context menu so I am using the method like below now.

- (BOOL)canPerformAction:(SEL)action withSender:(id)sender {    
    //fire my method here
}

But, it only fires the method when context menu shows up after the user long press some words. So when the user long press a blank space, then only the magnifying glass shows up, I can't fire the method at the time.

Does anyone have better ideas? Thanks!

//////The Problem Solved//////

Thanks to @danh and @Beppe, I made it even with tap gesture on UITextView. I wanted to show the font bar on textview by long press.

@First, I subclassed the UITextview.

@interface LisgoTextView : UITextView {
    BOOL        pressing_;

}

@property (nonatomic)         BOOL      pressing;

@end


@interface LisgoTextView (private)
    - (void)longPress:(UIEvent *)event;
@end


@implementation LisgoTextView

@synthesize pressing = pressing_;


//--------------------------------------------------------------//
#pragma mark -- Long Press Detection --
//--------------------------------------------------------------//

- (void)longPress:(UIEvent *)event {

    if (pressing_) {

        //post notification to show font edit bar
        NSNotification *fontEditBarNotification = [NSNotification notificationWithName:@"fontEditBarNotification" 
                                                                                object:nil userInfo:nil];
        [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] postNotification:fontEditBarNotification];
    }    
}

- (void)touchesBegan:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event {
    [super touchesBegan:touches withEvent:event];
    [self performSelector:@selector(longPress:) withObject:event afterDelay:0.7];
    pressing_ = YES;
}

- (void)touchesEnded:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event {
    [super touchesEnded:touches withEvent:event];    
    pressing_ = NO;
}

- (void)touchesMoved:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event {
    [super touchesMoved:touches withEvent:event];    
    pressing_ = NO;
}

@I used the delay to solve the conflict with tap gesture I implemented on UITextView.

- (void)tapGestureOnTextView:(UITapGestureRecognizer *)sender {

    //cancel here if long press was fired first
    if (cancelTapGesture_) {
        return;
    }

    //don't fire show font bar 
    cancelShowFontBar_ = YES;
    [self performSelector:@selector(enableShowFontBar) withObject:nil afterDelay:1.0];

    //method here   
}


- (void)showFontEditBar {

    //cancel here if tap gesture was fired first
    if (cancelShowFontBar_) {
        return;
    }

    if (fontEditBarExists_ == NO) {

        //method here    

        //don't fire tap gesture
        cancelTapGesture_ = YES;
        [self performSelector:@selector(enableTapGesture) withObject:nil afterDelay:1.0];
    }
}

- (void)enableTapGesture {
    cancelTapGesture_ = NO;
}

- (void)enableShowFontBar {
    cancelShowFontBar_ = NO;
}

Answer 1

I usually avoid subclassing unless the docs explicitly suggest, this worked for me. Long press and context menu. Whoops - Answer just loaded by @Beppe. Great minds think alike :-)

@interface TextViewSubclass ()
@property(assign,nonatomic) BOOL pressing;
@end

@implementation TextViewSubclass
@synthesize pressing=_pressing;

- (void)longPress:(UIEvent *)event {
    NSLog(@"long press");
}

- (void)touchesBegan:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event {
    [super touchesBegan:touches withEvent:event];
    self.pressing = YES;
    [self performSelector:@selector(longPress:) withObject:event afterDelay:2.0];
}

- (void)touchesEnded:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event {
    [super touchesEnded:touches withEvent:event];
    [NSObject cancelPreviousPerformRequestsWithTarget:self];
    self.pressing = NO;
}
@end

Answer 2

This worked for me. I just wanted to control what happens when the user taps or long presses a link

- (BOOL)textView:(UITextView *)textView shouldInteractWithURL:(NSURL *)URL inRange:(NSRange)characterRange
{
    // check for long press event
    BOOL isLongPress = YES;
    for (UIGestureRecognizer *recognizer in self.commentTextView.gestureRecognizers) {
        if ([recognizer isKindOfClass:[UILongPressGestureRecognizer class]]){
            if (recognizer.state == UIGestureRecognizerStateFailed) {
                isLongPress = NO;
            }
        }
    }

    if (isLongPress) {
        // user long pressed a link, do something
    } else {
        // user tapped on a link, do something
    }

    // return NO cause you dont want the normal behavior to occur
    return NO;
}

Answer 3

Adaptation of Lucas Chwe's answer to work on iOS 9 (and 8). See comment in his answer.

The gist: invert the logic by starting with "no long press", then switch to "long press detected" if at least one UILongPressGestureRecognizer is in Began state.

BOOL isLongPress = NO;
for (UIGestureRecognizer *recognizer in textView.gestureRecognizers) {
    if ([recognizer isKindOfClass:[UILongPressGestureRecognizer class]]) {
        if (recognizer.state == UIGestureRecognizerStateBegan) {
            isLongPress = YES;
        }
    }
}

Still a bit hackish, but working for iOS 8 and 9 now.

Answer 4

This is a little tricky, but it works for me.

I add a subclass of UIButton on top of my UITextView, check for long touches and pass them to UITextView this way:

- (void)touchesBegan:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event {
    [super touchesBegan:touches withEvent:event];
    isLongTouchDetected = NO;
    [self performSelector:@selector(longTouchDetected) withObject:nil afterDelay:1.0];
}

- (void)touchesEnded:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event {
    if (isLongTouchDetected == YES) {
        [super touchesCancelled:touches withEvent:event];
    } else {
        [super touchesEnded:touches withEvent:event];
        [NSObject cancelPreviousPerformRequestsWithTarget:self selector:@selector(longTouchDetected) object:nil]; 
    }
}

- (void)longTouchDetected {
    isLongTouchDetected = YES;
    // pass long touch to UITextView
}

Answer 5

For SWIFT [Easiest Way]

extension UITextField {

    override public func canPerformAction(action: Selector, withSender sender: AnyObject?) -> Bool {
        if action == "paste:" {
            return false
        }

        return super.canPerformAction(action, withSender: sender)
    }

    override public func addGestureRecognizer(gestureRecognizer: UIGestureRecognizer) {
        if gestureRecognizer.isKindOfClass(UILongPressGestureRecognizer) {
            gestureRecognizer.enabled = false
        }
        super.addGestureRecognizer(gestureRecognizer)
        return
    }
}

Above code has also function for disable "PASTE" option in content menu.

Answer 6

Could you use the textViewDidChangeSelection method of the UITextViewDelegate protocol?