How to change firstResponder with buttons on keyboard toolbar between UITextFields in UITableViewCells

I guess that it is a low brainer I'm struggling with, but unfortunately all my searches in this forum and other sources didn't give me a glue yet.

I'm creating a shopping list app for iOS. In the Viewcontroller for the entry of the shoppinglist positions I'm showing only the relevant entry fields depending on the kind of goods to be put on the shopping list.

Hence I have set up a tableView with different prototype cells and some of them contain UITextFields to handle this dynamic setup.

I have defined a toolbar for the keyboard containing one button at the right to hide the keyboard (which works) and two buttons ("next" & "back") on the left to jump to the next respectively previous input field, which should then become first responder, cursor set in this field and showing the keyboard.

Unfortunately this handing over of the firstResponder isn't working and the cursor is not set to the next/previous input field and sometimes even the keyboard disappears.

Jumping back doesn't work at all and the keyboard disappears always when the next active field is part of a different prototype cell (e.g. moving forward from the field for "brand" to the field for "quantity".

Has anyone a solution for it?

For the handling I have defined two notifications:

let keyBoardBarBackNotification = Notification.Name("keyBoardBarBackNotification")
let keyBoardBarNextNotification = Notification.Name("keyBoardBarNextNotification")

And the definition of the toolbar is done in the extension of UIViewController:

func setupKeyboardBar() -> UIToolbar {
    let toolbar = UIToolbar(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: self.view.frame.size.width, height: 50))
    let leftButton = UIBarButtonItem(image: UIImage(systemName: "chevron.left"), style: .plain, target: self, action: #selector(leftButtonTapped))
    leftButton.tintColor = UIColor.systemBlue
    let nextButton = UIBarButtonItem(image: UIImage(systemName: "chevron.right"), style: .plain, target: self, action: #selector(nextButtonTapped))
    nextButton.tintColor = UIColor.systemBlue
    let flexSpace = UIBarButtonItem(barButtonSystemItem: .flexibleSpace, target: nil, action: nil)
    let fixSpace = UIBarButtonItem(barButtonSystemItem: .fixedSpace, target: nil, action: nil)
    let doneButton = UIBarButtonItem(image: UIImage(systemName: "keyboard.chevron.compact.down"), style: .plain, target: self, action: #selector(doneButtonTapped))
    doneButton.tintColor = UIColor.darkGray
    toolbar.setItems([fixSpace, leftButton, fixSpace, nextButton, flexSpace, doneButton], animated: true)
    toolbar.sizeToFit()
    return toolbar
}

@objc func leftButtonTapped() {
    view.endEditing(true)
    NotificationCenter.default.post(Notification(name: keyBoardBarBackNotification))
}

@objc func nextButtonTapped() {
    view.endEditing(true)
    NotificationCenter.default.post(Notification(name: keyBoardBarNextNotification))
}

@objc func doneButtonTapped() {
    view.endEditing(true)
}

}

In the viewController I have setup routines for the keyboard handling and a routine "switchActiveField" to determine the next actual field that should become the firstResponder:

class AddPositionVC: UIViewController {

@IBOutlet weak var menue: UITableView!


override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()
    self.menue.delegate = self
    self.menue.dataSource = self
    self.menue.separatorStyle = .none
}

override func viewWillAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
    super.viewWillAppear(animated)
    NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(self, selector: #selector(handleKeyboardDidShow(notification:)), name: UIResponder.keyboardWillShowNotification, object: nil)
    NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(self, selector: #selector(handleKeyboardWillHide), name: UIResponder.keyboardWillHideNotification, object: nil)
    NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(self, selector: #selector(handleBackButtonPressed), name: keyBoardBarBackNotification, object: nil)
    NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(self, selector: #selector(handleNextButtonPressed), name: keyBoardBarNextNotification, object: nil)
}


enum TableCellType: String {
    case product = "Product:"
    case brand = "Brand:"
    case quantity = "Quantity:"
    case price = "Price:"
    case shop = "Shop:"
    // ...
}

var actualField = TableCellType.product  // field that becomes firstResponder

// Arrray, defining the fields to be diplayed
var menueList: Array<TableCellType> = [.product, .brand, .quantity, .shop
]

// Array with IndexPath of displayed fields
var tableViewIndex = Dictionary<TableCellType, IndexPath>()

@objc func handleKeyboardDidShow(notification: NSNotification) {
    guard let endframeKeyboard = notification.userInfo![UIResponder.keyboardFrameEndUserInfoKey]
                as? CGRect else { return }
    let insets = UIEdgeInsets( top: 0, left: 0, bottom: endframeKeyboard.size.height - 60, right: 0 )
    self.menue.contentInset = insets
    self.menue.scrollIndicatorInsets = insets
    self.scrollToMenuezeile(self.actualField)
    self.view.layoutIfNeeded()
}

@objc func handleKeyboardWillHide()  {
    self.menue.contentInset = .zero
    self.view.layoutIfNeeded()
}

@objc func handleBackButtonPressed() {
    switchActiveField(self.actualField, back: true)
}

@objc func handleNextButtonPressed() {
    switchActiveField(self.actualField, back: false)
}

// Definition, which field should become next firstResponder
func switchActiveField(_ art: TableCellType, back bck: Bool) {
    switch art {
    case .brand:
        self.actualField = bck ? .product : .quantity
    case .quantity:
        self.actualField = bck ? .brand : .shop
    case .price:
        self.actualField = bck ? .quantity : .shop
    case .product:
        self.actualField = bck ? .shop : .brand
    case .shop:
        self.actualField = bck ? .price : .product
    // ....
    }
    if let index = self.tableViewIndex[self.actualField] {
            self.menue.reloadRows(at: [index], with: .automatic)
    }
}

}

And the extension for the tableView is:

extension AddPositionVC: UITableViewDelegate, UITableViewDataSource {
    
    func scrollToMenuezeile(_ art: TableCellType) {
        if let index = self.tableViewIndex[art] {
            self.menue.scrollToRow(at: index, at: .bottom, animated: false)
        }
    }
    
    func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
        return menueList.count
    }
    
    func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
        let tableCellType = self.menueList[indexPath.row]
        self.tableViewIndex[tableCellType] = indexPath
        switch tableCellType {
        case .product, .brand, .shop:
            let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: "LabelTextFieldCell", for: indexPath) as! LabelTextFieldCell
            cell.item.text = tableCellType.rawValue
            cell.itemInput.inputAccessoryView = self.setupKeyboardBar()
            cell.itemInput.text = "" // respective Input
            if self.actualField == tableCellType {
                cell.itemInput.becomeFirstResponder()
            }
            return cell
        case .quantity, .price:
            let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: "QuantityPriceCell", for: indexPath) as! QuantityPriceCell
            cell.quantity.inputAccessoryView = self.setupKeyboardBar()
            cell.quantity.text = "" // respective Input
            cell.price.inputAccessoryView = self.setupKeyboardBar()
            cell.price.text = "" // respective Input
            if self.actualField == .price {
                cell.price.becomeFirstResponder()
            } else if self.actualField == .quantity {
                cell.quantity.becomeFirstResponder()
            }
            return cell
        }
    }
}


//*********************************************
// MARK: - tableViewCells
//*********************************************


class LabelTextFieldCell: UITableViewCell, UITextFieldDelegate {
    
    override func awakeFromNib() {
        super.awakeFromNib()
        itemInput.delegate = self
    }
    
    override func setSelected(_ selected: Bool, animated: Bool) {
        super.setSelected(selected, animated: animated)
    }
    
    func textFieldDidEndEditing(_ textField: UITextField, reason: UITextField.DidEndEditingReason) {
        self.itemInput.resignFirstResponder()
    }
    
    @IBOutlet weak var item: UILabel!
    @IBOutlet weak var itemInput: UITextField!
}


class QuantityPriceCell: UITableViewCell, UITextFieldDelegate {
    
    override func awakeFromNib() {
        super.awakeFromNib()
        self.quantity.delegate = self
        self.price.delegate = self
    }
    
    override func setSelected(_ selected: Bool, animated: Bool) {
        super.setSelected(selected, animated: animated)
    }
    
    func textFieldDidEndEditing(_ textField: UITextField, reason: UITextField.DidEndEditingReason) {
        textField.resignFirstResponder()
    }
    
    @IBOutlet weak var quantity: UITextField!
    @IBOutlet weak var price: UITextField!
    
}

Thanks for your support.

Solution

There are various ways to approach this... In fact, it's easy to find open-source 3rd-party libraries with lots of features -- just search (Google or wherever) for swift ios form builder.

But, if you'd like to work on it on your own, the basic idea is:

add your text fields to an array
add a class-level var/property such as var activeField: UITextField?
for each field, on textFieldDidBeginEditing:
- self.activeField = textField

when the user taps the "Next" button:

  guard let aField = self.activeField,
        let idx = self.textFields.firstIndex(of: aField)
  else { return }
  if idx == self.textFields.count - 1 {
      // "wrap around" to first field
      textFields.first?.becomeFirstResponder()
  } else {
      // "move to" next field
      textFields[idx + 1].becomeFirstResponder()
  }

If all your fields are "on-screen" it's pretty straight-forward.

If they won't fit vertically (particularly when the keyboard is showing), if they're all in a scroll view, again, pretty straight-forward.

It gets complicated when putting them in cells in a tableView, for several reasons:

cells are not necessarily generated in order, so you have to write a bunch more code to put move from field-to-field in the correct order
if you have more cells than will fit on-screen, the "next field" may not exist! For example, suppose you have 8 rows... only 5 rows fit... you're editing the field in the last row and tap the Next button. You want to move to the field in Row 0, but Row 0 won't exist until you scroll back up to the top.

To add repeating similar-but-varying "rows," we don't need to use a table view.

For example, if we have a UIStackView with .axis = .vertical:

for i in 1...10 {
    let label = UILabel()
    label.text = "Row \(i)"
    stackView.addArrangedSubview(label)
}

We've now added 10 single-label "cells."

So, for your task, instead of using a table view with your LabelTextFieldCell, we can write this function:

func buildLabelTextFieldView(labelText str: String) -> UIView {
    let aView = UIView()
    
    let label: UILabel = {
        let v = UILabel()
        v.font = .systemFont(ofSize: 15.0, weight: .light)
        v.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
        return v
    }()
    let field: UITextField = {
        let v = UITextField()
        v.borderStyle = .bezel
        v.font = .systemFont(ofSize: 15.0, weight: .light)
        v.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
        return v
    }()
    
    label.text = str
    
    self.textFields.append(field)
    
    aView.addSubview(label)
    aView.addSubview(field)
    NSLayoutConstraint.activate([
        label.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: aView.leadingAnchor, constant: 0.0),
        label.firstBaselineAnchor.constraint(equalTo: field.firstBaselineAnchor),
        field.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: label.trailingAnchor, constant: 8.0),
        field.trailingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: aView.trailingAnchor, constant: 0.0),
        field.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: aView.topAnchor, constant: 0.0),
        field.bottomAnchor.constraint(equalTo: aView.bottomAnchor, constant: 0.0),
    ])
    return aView
}

and a similar (but slightly more complex):

func buildQuantityPriceView() -> UIView {
    let aView = UIView()
    ...
    return aView
}

then use it similarly to cellForRowAt:

    for i in 0..<menueList.count {
        let tableCellType = menueList[i]
        
        var rowView: UIView!
        
        switch tableCellType {
            
        case .product, .brand, .shop:
            rowView = buildLabelTextFieldView(labelText: tableCellType.rawValue)

        case .quantity, .price:
            rowView = buildQuantityPriceView()
            
        }
    
        stackView.addArrangedSubview(rowView)
    }

If we add that stackView to a scrollView, we have a scrollable "Form."

Here's a complete example you can try out (no @IBOutlet or @IBAction connections ... just set a blank view controller's class to FormVC):

class FormVC: UIViewController, UITextFieldDelegate {
    
    var textFields: [UITextField] = []
    
    let scrollView = UIScrollView()
    
    var menueList: Array<TableCellType> = [.product, .brand, .quantity, .shop]
    
    lazy var kbToolBar: UIToolbar = {
        let toolbar = UIToolbar(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: self.view.frame.size.width, height: 50))
        let leftButton = UIBarButtonItem(image: UIImage(systemName: "chevron.left"), style: .plain, target: self, action: #selector(leftButtonTapped))
        leftButton.tintColor = UIColor.systemBlue
        let nextButton = UIBarButtonItem(image: UIImage(systemName: "chevron.right"), style: .plain, target: self, action: #selector(nextButtonTapped))
        nextButton.tintColor = UIColor.systemBlue
        let flexSpace = UIBarButtonItem(barButtonSystemItem: .flexibleSpace, target: nil, action: nil)
        let fixSpace = UIBarButtonItem(barButtonSystemItem: .fixedSpace, target: nil, action: nil)
        let doneButton = UIBarButtonItem(image: UIImage(systemName: "keyboard.chevron.compact.down"), style: .plain, target: self, action: #selector(doneButtonTapped))
        doneButton.tintColor = UIColor.darkGray
        toolbar.setItems([fixSpace, leftButton, fixSpace, nextButton, flexSpace, doneButton], animated: true)
        toolbar.sizeToFit()
        return toolbar
    }()
    
    var activeField: UITextField?

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        
        let stackView = UIStackView()
        
        stackView.axis = .vertical
        stackView.spacing = 32
        
        stackView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
        scrollView.addSubview(stackView)
        
        scrollView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
        view.addSubview(scrollView)
        
        let g = view.safeAreaLayoutGuide
        let cg = scrollView.contentLayoutGuide
        let fg = scrollView.frameLayoutGuide
        
        NSLayoutConstraint.activate([
            
            scrollView.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: g.topAnchor, constant: 16.0),
            scrollView.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: g.leadingAnchor, constant: 16.0),
            scrollView.trailingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: g.trailingAnchor, constant: -16.0),
            scrollView.bottomAnchor.constraint(equalTo: g.bottomAnchor, constant: -16.0),
            
            stackView.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: cg.topAnchor, constant: 8.0),
            stackView.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: cg.leadingAnchor, constant: 8.0),
            stackView.trailingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: cg.trailingAnchor, constant: -8.0),
            stackView.bottomAnchor.constraint(equalTo: cg.bottomAnchor, constant: -8.0),
            
            stackView.widthAnchor.constraint(equalTo: fg.widthAnchor, constant: -16.0),
            
        ])
        
        for i in 0..<menueList.count {
            let tableCellType = menueList[i]
            
            var rowView: UIView!
            
            switch tableCellType {
                
            case .product, .brand, .shop:
                rowView = buildLabelTextFieldView(labelText: tableCellType.rawValue)

            case .quantity, .price:
                rowView = buildQuantityPriceView()
                
            }
        
            stackView.addArrangedSubview(rowView)
        }
        
        // we've added all the labels and fields
        //  and our textFields array contains all the fields in order
        
        // we want all the "first/left" labels to be equal widths
        guard let firstLabel = stackView.arrangedSubviews.first?.subviews.first as? UILabel
        else  {
            fatalError("We did something wrong in our setup!")
        }
        stackView.arrangedSubviews.forEach { v in
            // skip the first one
            if v != stackView.arrangedSubviews.first {
                if let thisLabel = v.subviews.first as? UILabel {
                    thisLabel.widthAnchor.constraint(equalTo: firstLabel.widthAnchor).isActive = true
                }
            }
        }
        
        // set inputAccessoryView and delegate on all the text fields
        textFields.forEach { v in
            v.inputAccessoryView = kbToolBar
            v.delegate = self
        }
        
        // prevent keyboard from hiding scroll view elements
        let notificationCenter = NotificationCenter.default
        notificationCenter.addObserver(self, selector: #selector(adjustForKeyboard), name: UIResponder.keyboardWillHideNotification, object: nil)
        notificationCenter.addObserver(self, selector: #selector(adjustForKeyboard), name: UIResponder.keyboardWillChangeFrameNotification, object: nil)
        
        // during dev, use "if true" and set some colors so we can see view framing
        if false {
            view.backgroundColor = .systemYellow
            scrollView.backgroundColor = .yellow
            stackView.layer.borderColor = UIColor.red.cgColor
            stackView.layer.borderWidth = 1
            stackView.arrangedSubviews.forEach { v in
                v.backgroundColor = UIColor(white: 0.9, alpha: 1.0)
            }
        }
        
    }
    
    @objc func leftButtonTapped() {
        guard let aField = self.activeField,
              let idx = self.textFields.firstIndex(of: aField)
        else { return }
        if idx == 0 {
            textFields.last?.becomeFirstResponder()
        } else {
            textFields[idx - 1].becomeFirstResponder()
        }
    }
    
    @objc func nextButtonTapped() {
        guard let aField = self.activeField,
              let idx = self.textFields.firstIndex(of: aField)
        else { return }
        if idx == self.textFields.count - 1 {
            textFields.first?.becomeFirstResponder()
        } else {
            textFields[idx + 1].becomeFirstResponder()
        }
    }
    
    @objc func doneButtonTapped() {
        view.endEditing(true)
    }

    func textFieldDidBeginEditing(_ textField: UITextField) {
        self.activeField = textField
    }
    func textFieldDidEndEditing(_ textField: UITextField) {
        self.activeField = nil
    }

    @objc func adjustForKeyboard(notification: Notification) {
        guard let keyboardValue = notification.userInfo?[UIResponder.keyboardFrameEndUserInfoKey] as? NSValue else { return }
        
        let keyboardScreenEndFrame = keyboardValue.cgRectValue
        let keyboardViewEndFrame = view.convert(keyboardScreenEndFrame, from: view.window)
        
        if notification.name == UIResponder.keyboardWillHideNotification {
            self.scrollView.contentInset = .zero
        } else {
            self.scrollView.contentInset = UIEdgeInsets(top: 0, left: 0, bottom: keyboardViewEndFrame.height - view.safeAreaInsets.bottom, right: 0)
        }
        
        self.scrollView.scrollIndicatorInsets = self.scrollView.contentInset
    }
}

We'll put our "Row View" builder funcs in extensions, just to keep the code separated and a bit more readable:

extension FormVC {
    func buildLabelTextFieldView(labelText str: String) -> UIView {
        let aView = UIView()
        
        let label: UILabel = {
            let v = UILabel()
            v.font = .systemFont(ofSize: 15.0, weight: .light)
            v.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
            return v
        }()
        let field: UITextField = {
            let v = UITextField()
            v.borderStyle = .bezel
            v.font = .systemFont(ofSize: 15.0, weight: .light)
            v.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
            return v
        }()
        
        label.text = str
        
        self.textFields.append(field)
        
        aView.addSubview(label)
        aView.addSubview(field)
        NSLayoutConstraint.activate([
            label.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: aView.leadingAnchor, constant: 0.0),
            label.firstBaselineAnchor.constraint(equalTo: field.firstBaselineAnchor),
            field.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: label.trailingAnchor, constant: 8.0),
            field.trailingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: aView.trailingAnchor, constant: 0.0),
            field.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: aView.topAnchor, constant: 0.0),
            field.bottomAnchor.constraint(equalTo: aView.bottomAnchor, constant: 0.0),
        ])
        return aView
    }
}

extension FormVC {
    func buildQuantityPriceView() -> UIView {
        let aView = UIView()
        
        let labelA: UILabel = {
            let v = UILabel()
            v.font = .systemFont(ofSize: 15.0, weight: .light)
            v.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
            return v
        }()
        let fieldA: UITextField = {
            let v = UITextField()
            v.borderStyle = .bezel
            v.font = .systemFont(ofSize: 15.0, weight: .light)
            v.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
            return v
        }()
        
        labelA.text = "Quantity:"
        
        self.textFields.append(fieldA)
        
        let labelB: UILabel = {
            let v = UILabel()
            v.font = .systemFont(ofSize: 15.0, weight: .light)
            v.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
            return v
        }()
        let fieldB: UITextField = {
            let v = UITextField()
            v.borderStyle = .bezel
            v.font = .systemFont(ofSize: 15.0, weight: .light)
            v.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
            return v
        }()
        
        labelB.text = "Price:"
        
        self.textFields.append(fieldB)
        
        aView.addSubview(labelA)
        aView.addSubview(fieldA)
        aView.addSubview(labelB)
        aView.addSubview(fieldB)
        NSLayoutConstraint.activate([
            labelA.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: aView.leadingAnchor, constant: 0.0),
            labelA.firstBaselineAnchor.constraint(equalTo: fieldA.firstBaselineAnchor),
            fieldA.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: labelA.trailingAnchor, constant: 8.0),
            fieldA.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: aView.topAnchor, constant: 0.0),
            fieldA.bottomAnchor.constraint(equalTo: aView.bottomAnchor, constant: 0.0),
            labelB.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: fieldA.trailingAnchor, constant: 8.0),
            labelB.firstBaselineAnchor.constraint(equalTo: fieldB.firstBaselineAnchor),
            fieldB.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: labelB.trailingAnchor, constant: 8.0),
            fieldB.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: aView.topAnchor, constant: 0.0),
            fieldB.bottomAnchor.constraint(equalTo: aView.bottomAnchor, constant: 0.0),
            fieldB.trailingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: aView.trailingAnchor, constant: 0.0),
            
            // we want both fields to be equal widths
            fieldB.widthAnchor.constraint(equalTo: fieldA.widthAnchor),
        ])
        return aView
    }
}

When running, it looks like this:

If you add some more "rows" - or, easier, increase the stack view spacing, such as stackView.spacing = 100 - you'll see how it continues to work with the scrollView when the keyboard is showing.

Of course, you mention in your comments: "...more entry fields (e.g. date with a Datepicker, etc.)", so you'd need to write new "row builder" funcs and add some logic to Next tap going to/from a Picker instead of a textField.

But, you may find this a helpful starting point.