UITextInput setMarkedText:selectedRange not working? (Can't be!)

Question

I want to set the marked text programmatically and since iOS5 UITextView and UITextField conform to UITextInput this should be possible but for some reason I always get the markedText to be nil. :( What am I missing here?

This is what I've tried without success:

(While the textview is firstResponder)

1.- When the text view contains no text:

text: "", selectedRange : {0,0}, markedText: nil.

[_textView setMarkedText:@"月" selectedRange:NSMakeRange(0, 1)];

Result: text : "", selectedRange: {0,0}, markedText: nil. (Nothing changed)

2.- When the text view contains text + some marked text:

text : "AAA", selectedRange = {0,3}, marked text at the end : "太陽" then I do:

[_textView setMarkedText:@"地" selectedRange:NSMakeRange(0,3)];

Result : text :"AAA", selectedRange: {0,3}, markedText: nil; (the marked text became nil)

In both cases is like setMarkedText:selectedRange: would be setting the current marked text (if some) to nil.

Any help would be highly appreciated :)

UPDATE

Since the concept of marked text seems to be unclear, here is an explanation:

In multi stage input languages (e.g. Japanese) you can input regular text (like english) or input marked text (like japanese).

Here I wrote regular text : regular text then I wrote marked text つ and then I wrote marked text き so it was appended becoming つき.

Marked text (text in the blue box) represents a transitional or intermediate input stage because it can become into other characters/words called candidates. Candidates are shown in the big box.

This screenshot was taken when using a bluetooth keyboard in the iPad but you will get similar results when using the software keyboard when writing japanese for example.

Before writing つ the textview was:

textView.text : "regular text"
textView.selectedRange : {12,0}
textView.markedText:nil

Then I wrote つ and the text view became:

textView.text : "regular textつ"
textView.selectedRange : {13,0}
textView.markedText: "つ"

Then I wrote き and the text view became:

textView.text : "regular textつき"
textView.selectedRange : {14,0}
textView.markedText: "つき"

Which is the current state of the text view.

I want to be able to set the marked text programatically :)

Is this possible? -- According to UITextInput docs it is.

Riegel

To narrow the issue down, you could try using only Western characters and see if you still have the same issue. – Expectorant

Tried it with alphabet too .... The result is the same :( – Riegel

Answer 1

I have a conceptual problem with your code here. I may just be overlooking some small thing, but I think you just have a simple error in your programming.

1) When the text view contains no text: text: "", selectedRange : {0,0}, markedText: nil:

[_textView setMarkedText:@"月" selectedRange:NSMakeRange(0, 1)];

Result: text: "", selectedRange: {0,0}, markedText: nil. 

(Nothing changed)

2) When the text view contains text + some marked text: text: "AAA", selectedRange: {0,3}, markedText at the end: "太陽" then I do:

[_textView setMarkedText:@"地" selectedRangeNSMakeRange(0,3)];

Result: text: "AAA", selectedRange: {0,3}, markedText: nil; 

(the marked text became nil)

I just fixed your problem in the code that I ran in Xcode. It ran flawlessly and changed the marked text when I clicked three different buttons. When there was no marked text, the text was appended and marked.

text is the name of a UITextView:

-(IBAction)first
{
    [text setMarkedText:@"test" selectedRange:NSMakeRange(0, 4)];
}
-(IBAction)second
{
    [text setMarkedText:@"woo" selectedRange:NSMakeRange(0,4)];
}

Here I clicked "First"

Here I clicked "Second"

I hope this helps you and is deserving of the bounty.

Victory

Sorry about the block quote being formatted as code. The engine wouldn't allow me to leave it as a block quote because it included code. – Victory

Thank you David. About the first, second, and third problem: method [textView setMarkedText:@"月" selectedRange:range will NOT search 月 and then mark , Instead it is supposed to input 月 as marketText or replace the current markedText if there is one. – Riegel

About the fourth problem, that is just an typo, in my program I wrote is correctly. I just corrected it here. – Riegel

Hmm, okay I see what you are saying, let me try it real quick in xcode and see what I can do. – Victory

Indeed , this time it worked. Thank you so much for your answer. I guess I will have to report this as a bug. setMarkedText:selectedRange work only when the textview is not the first responder, making the API almost useless because it is intended to be used while editing the text. Thank David again. – Riegel

I'm glad this worked for you. You must be right because this worked when I hadn't made a single edit to the textview. I just slammed together a new project in 5 minutes and it worked perfectly. – Victory

Answer 2

Did you add the UITextField to the view before setting it's contents (and marking the text)?

Implication

According to this topic: #3278038 you should force the textfield, to be the first responder. – Implication

The text view is first responder at that moment. BTW, I answered that question :) – Riegel