See Also: UITextField Members

System.Object
     MonoTouch.Foundation.NSObject
          MonoTouch.UIKit.UIResponder
               MonoTouch.UIKit.UIView
                    MonoTouch.UIKit.UIControl
                         MonoTouch.UIKit.UITextField

Remarks

Overview

A UITextField object is a control that displays editable text and sends an action message to a target object when the user presses the return button. You typically use this class to gather small amounts of text from the user and perform some immediate action, such as a search operation, based on that text.

In addition to its basic text-editing behavior, the UITextField class supports the use of overlay views to display additional information (and provide additional command targets) inside the text field boundaries. You can use custom overlay views to display features such as a bookmarks button or search icon. The UITextField class also provides a built-in button for clearing the current text.

A text field object supports the use of a delegate object to handle editing-related notifications. You can use this delegate to customize the editing behavior of the control and provide guidance for when certain actions should occur. For more information on the methods supported by the delegate, see the UITextFieldDelegate protocol.

Managing the Keyboard

When the user taps in a text field, that text field becomes the first responder and automatically asks the system to display the associated keyboard. Because the appearance of the keyboard has the potential to obscure portions of your user interface, it is up to you to make sure that does not happen by repositioning any views that might be obscured. Some system views, like table views, help you by scrolling the first responder into view automatically. If the first responder is at the bottom of the scrolling region, however, you may still need to resize or reposition the scroll view itself to ensure the first responder is visible.

It is your application’s responsibility to dismiss the keyboard at the time of your choosing. You might dismiss the keyboard in response to a specific user action, such as the user tapping a particular button in your user interface. You might also configure your text field delegate to dismiss the keyboard when the user presses the “return” key on the keyboard itself. To dismiss the keyboard, send the UIResponder.ResignFirstResponder message to the text field that is currently the first responder. Doing so causes the text field object to end the current editing session (with the delegate object’s consent) and hide the keyboard.

The appearance of the keyboard itself can be customized using the properties provided by the UITextInputTraits protocol. Text field objects implement this protocol and support the properties it defines. You can use these properties to specify the type of keyboard (ASCII, Numbers, URL, Email, and others) to display. You can also configure the basic text entry behavior of the keyboard, such as whether it supports automatic capitalization and correction of the text.

Keyboard Notifications

When the system shows or hides the keyboard, it posts several keyboard notifications. These notifications contain information about the keyboard, including its size, which you can use for calculations that involve moving views. Registering for these notifications is the only way to get some types of information about the keyboard. The system delivers the following notifications for keyboard-related events:

• UIKeyboardWillShowNotification
• UIKeyboardDidShowNotification
• UIKeyboardWillHideNotification
• UIKeyboardDidHideNotification

For more information about these notifications, see their descriptions in UIWindow Class Reference. For information about how to show and hide the keyboard, see “Text and Web”.

Requirements

Namespace: MonoTouch.UIKit
Assembly: monotouch (in monotouch.dll)
Assembly Versions: 0.0.0.0