Using UIEditMenuInteraction with UITextView

Question

How can we use UIEditMenuInteraction with UITextView to customize menu and add more buttons?

Before iOS 16 I was using:

UIMenuController.shared.menuItems = [menuItem1, menuItem2, menuItem3]

Septum

Answer 1

Try this sample source:

class ViewController: UIViewController {
    
    @IBOutlet weak var txtView: UITextView!
    
    var editMenuInteraction: UIEditMenuInteraction?
    
    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        
        setupEditMenuInteraction()
    }
    
    private func setupEditMenuInteraction() {
        
        // Addding Menu Interaction to TextView
        editMenuInteraction = UIEditMenuInteraction(delegate: self)
        txtView.addInteraction(editMenuInteraction!)
        
        // Addding Long Press Gesture
        let longPressGestureRecognizer =
        UILongPressGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: #selector(handleLongPress(_:)))
        txtView.addGestureRecognizer(longPressGestureRecognizer)
    }
    
    @objc
    func handleLongPress(_ gestureRecognizer: UILongPressGestureRecognizer) {
        guard gestureRecognizer.state == .began else { return }
        
        let configuration = UIEditMenuConfiguration(
            identifier: "textViewEdit",
            sourcePoint: gestureRecognizer.location(in: txtView)
        )
        
        editMenuInteraction?.presentEditMenu(with: configuration)
    }
}

extension ViewController: UIEditMenuInteractionDelegate {
    func editMenuInteraction(_ interaction: UIEditMenuInteraction,
                             menuFor configuration: UIEditMenuConfiguration,
                             suggestedActions: [UIMenuElement]) -> UIMenu? {
        
        var actions = suggestedActions
        
        let customMenu = UIMenu(title: "", options: .displayInline, children: [
            UIAction(title: "menuItem1") { _ in
                print("menuItem1")
            },
            UIAction(title: "menuItem2") { _ in
                print("menuItem2")
            },
            UIAction(title: "menuItem3") { _ in
                print("menuItem3")
            }
        ])
        
        actions.append(customMenu)
        
        return UIMenu(children: actions) // For Custom and Suggested Menu
        
        return UIMenu(children: customMenu.children) // For Custom Menu Only
    }
}

Output

Aureolin

Thank you, but how can we add custom menus without long press gesture, I need to add it when user interact normally with text view. – Septum

I think we should use this func editMenu(for textRange: UITextRange, suggestedActions: [UIMenuElement]) -> UIMenu? developer.apple.com/documentation/uikit/uitextinput/… – Septum

@HassanTaleb That's an optional UITextInput protocol method, I haven't checked that yet. – Aureolin

@Aureolin would you please kindly provide an example in Objective-C for UIEditMenuInteraction? – Bust

Answer 2

The editMenu solution from the documentation that uses the standard press, and executes a function on highlighted text.

private class CustomUITextView: UITextView, UIEditMenuInteractionDelegate {
    override func canPerformAction(_ action: Selector, withSender sender: Any?) -> Bool {
        // A little short-circuit for our new function to run.
        if action == #selector(printToConsole) {
            return true
        }
        return super.canPerformAction(action, withSender: sender)
    }
    
    override func editMenu(for textRange: UITextRange, suggestedActions: [UIMenuElement]) -> UIMenu? {
        let refreshAction = UIAction(title: "Print to Console") { (action) in
            self.printToConsole()
        }

        var actions = suggestedActions
        actions.insert(refreshAction, at: 0) // insert at the front of the menu.
        return UIMenu(children: actions)
    }
    
    @objc func printToConsole() {
       if let range = self.selectedTextRange, let selectedText = self.text(in: range) {
          print(selectedText)
       }
    }
}

Adkisson