How can I create a "hyperlink" with Swift?

Question

I'm trying to make separate pieces of text UILabels clickable. What I'm looking for is commonly known as a hyperlink in web development.

<a href="//example.com">Link 1</a>
<a href="//example.com/example">Link 2</a>
<a href="//example.com/other_example">Link 3</a>

Each a tag is its own UILabel, and it would ideally open Safari to the specified href when the text between the tags is clicked.

I've found a bevy of resources on how to do this sort of thing in Objective-C, but they all seem unnecessarily complicated and don't translate well to Swift (they fit an Objective-C organizational structure that doesn't work well in Swift and goes against the recommended way of using the language).

Here are a few:

• How to add hyperlink in iPhone app?
• How to make a clickable link inside a NSTextField and Cocoa
• Text as Hyperlink in Objective-C

If I had a 3 UILabels,

Item 1

Item 2

Item 3

then what would be the best "Swift-y" way to make each item open to a different URL in Safari?

I could create separate buttons for each, but the UILabels are programmatically populated, so I was thinking that making the text respond to taps might be a better option.

Solution 1

The One approach would be something like the following.
The assumptions are:

• self.urls is a string array containing the urls associated with each UILabel.
• Each UILabel tag has been set to the corresponding index in the array
• labelTapped: is set as the touchUpInside handler for the labels.

import Foundation
import UIKit

class urltest {

    var urls:[String]

    init() {
        self.urls=[String]()  // Load URLs into here
    }

    @IBAction func labelTapped(sender:UILabel!) {

        let urlIndex=sender.tag;
        if (urlIndex >= 0 && urlIndex < self.urls.count) {
           self.openUrl(self.urls[urlIndex]);
        }

    }

    func openUrl(url:String!) {

        let targetURL=NSURL.URLWithString(url)

        let application=UIApplication.sharedApplication()

        application.openURL(targetURL);

    }
}

Solution 2

Swift 3 I created a LinkUILabel class in github: https://github.com/jorgecsan/LinkUILabel With this you only need add the url inspectable as the shows the image: or assign the url variable programmatically:

linkUILabel.url = "www.example.com"

If you want to implement by your self also I found that solution!:)

using:

// This is the label
@IBOutlet weak var label: UILabel!

override func loadView() {
    super.loadView()

    // This is the key
    let tap = UITapGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: #selector(self.onClicLabel(sender:)))
    label.isUserInteractionEnabled = true
    label.addGestureRecognizer(tap)
}

// And that's the function :)
func onClicLabel(sender:UITapGestureRecognizer) {
    openUrl("http://www.google.com")
}


func openUrl(urlString:String!) {
    let url = URL(string: urlString)!
    if #available(iOS 10.0, *) {
        UIApplication.shared.open(url, options: [:], completionHandler: nil)
    } else {
        UIApplication.shared.openURL(url)
    }
}

Hope it helps!:)

Solution 3

Hyperlink via UITextView

var termsConditionsTextView: UITextView = {
let view = UITextView()
 view.backgroundColor = .clear
 view.textAlignment = .left
 
 let firstTitleString = "By registering for THIS_APP I agree with the "
 let secondTitleString = "Terms & Conditions"
 let finishTitleString = firstTitleString + secondTitleString
 let attributedString = NSMutableAttributedString(string: finishTitleString)
 attributedString.addAttribute(.link, value: "https://stackoverflow.com", range: NSRange(location: firstTitleString.count, length: secondTitleString.count))
 
 view.attributedText = attributedString
 view.textContainerInset = .zero
 view.linkTextAttributes = [
     .foregroundColor: UIColor.blue,
     .underlineStyle: NSUnderlineStyle.single.isEmpty
 ]
 
 view.font = view.font = UIFont(name: "YOUR_FONT_NAME", size: 16)
 view.textColor = UIColor.black
 
 return view }()

Comments

[Tim Quinn]

Looks to me like you have duplicated the function of a button.

[Tim Quinn]

Then I would have to ask, out of curiosity, why? A button is just a piece of text that calls an action when you tap it. That is exactly what you are asking for.

[AstroCB]

@TimQuinn The problem here was more opening Safari than it was calling the action: these are UILabels and that is why I asked for a solution using them. I could use a button, but why change it if the only difference is adding a touchup handler to the label?

[AstroCB]

@TimQuinn I actually did end up making them buttons because the way they're handled natively is more suited to it than the way UILabels are. I was hesitant to do so originally because my intent was to have something resembling a list, but the buttons were similar enough to the labels to work out.