iOS 8 custom input view background color - background

Question

I have a custom input view that I swap out with the iOS keyboard. Previous to iOS 8, for iOS 7 I "sussed out" the keyboard backdrop by finding the subview of class UIKBInputBackdropView (contained by a UIPeripheralHostView). Then I was able to set the alpha of the backdrop view to get a clear custom input view backdrop.
With iOS 8, this no longer works (i realize it is unsupported API and this is the risk). Through some experimentation and reading here, it seems that the custom input view is now found in a view hierarchy as such:
UIInputSetContainerView -> UIInputSetHost
It looks like there is no longer a backdrop view that is providing the opacity behind the custom input view. Can someone point me to how get rid of the translucent/blur effect behind my custom input view?

Answer 1

I had same issue on iOS 8 and there is way to remove background from input view.
- (void)removeKeyboardBackground
{
// Locate non-UIWindow.
UIWindow *keyboardWindow = nil;
for (UIWindow *testWindow in [[UIApplication sharedApplication] windows]) {
if (![[testWindow class] isEqual:[UIWindow class]]) {
keyboardWindow = testWindow;
break;
}
}
// Locate background.
for (UIView *possibleFormView in [keyboardWindow subviews]) {
if ([[possibleFormView description] hasPrefix:#"<UIInputSetContainerView"]) {
for (UIView* peripheralView in possibleFormView.subviews) {
if ([[peripheralView description] hasPrefix:#"<UIInputSetHostView"]) {
for (UIView* backSubiview in peripheralView.subviews) {
if ([[backSubiview description] hasPrefix:#"<UIKBInputBackdropView"]) {
[[backSubiview layer] setOpacity:0.0];
}
}
}
}
}
}
}

Answer 2

I used a variant of the accepted answer for later iOS versions. It looks like Apple has pushed the UIKBInputBackdropView under another UIView now:
#define SYSTEM_VERSION_GREATER_THAN_OR_EQUAL_TO(v) ([[[UIDevice currentDevice] systemVersion] compare:(v) options:NSNumericSearch] != NSOrderedAscending)
- (void)removeKeyboardBackground
{
NSString *viewPath;
if (SYSTEM_VERSION_GREATER_THAN_OR_EQUAL_TO(#"11.0"))
viewPath = #"UIRemoteKeyboardWindow/UIInputSetContainerView/UIInputSetHostView/UIView/UIKBInputBackdropView";
else
viewPath = #"UIRemoteKeyboardWindow/UIInputSetContainerView/UIInputSetHostView/UIKBInputBackdropView";
NSArray *appWindows = [NSMutableArray arrayWithArray:[[UIApplication sharedApplication] windows]];
NSArray *viewsFound = [self viewsFromViews:appWindows AtPath:[viewPath componentsSeparatedByString:#"/"]];
for (UIView *background in viewsFound)
background.layer.opacity = 0.0;
}
- (NSArray<__kindof UIView *> *)viewsFromViews:(NSArray<__kindof UIView *> *)views AtPath:(NSArray<NSString *> *)path
{
NSMutableArray *viewsFound = [NSMutableArray array];
if (views != nil && path != nil && [views count] > 0 && [path count] > 0)
{
NSString *prefix = [#"<" stringByAppendingString:[path firstObject]];
NSArray *pathRemaining = [path count] <= 1 ? nil : [path subarrayWithRange:NSMakeRange(1, [path count] - 1)];
for (UIView *view in views)
if ([[view description] hasPrefix:prefix]) {
if (pathRemaining == nil)
[viewsFound addObject:view];
else
[viewsFound addObjectsFromArray:[self viewsFromViews:[view subviews] AtPath:pathRemaining]];
}
}
return viewsFound;
}