subview from UIWindow and sending it back to UIwindow - objective-c

Question

I have an UIWebView loaded with div, act as editor to write. Now i am adding UIWebView as sub view on UIWindow to set the frame equal to full screen and to hide the UIKeyboard, but at some button method, i need to get UIWebview from UIWindow and sent it back to UIKeyboard. Here is my code which is not working:
keyboardWindowFrame= nil;
for (UIWindow *testWindow in [[UIApplication sharedApplication] windows])
{
if (![[testWindow class] isEqual:[UIWindow class]])
{
keyboardWindowFrame = testWindow;
[webViewForEditing setFrame:CGRectMake(5, 63, 310, 400)];
[webViewForEditing.scrollView setContentSize:CGSizeMake(310, 400)];
[keyboardWindowFrame addSubview:webViewForEditing];
break;
}
}
- (IBAction)keyboardButtonSelected:(id)sender
{
[keyboardWindowFrame sendSubviewToBack:webViewForEditing]; //need to send UIWebView back to UIWindow so i can write
}

Answer 1

I think I am trying to do the same thing as you and so although your question is not particularly clear hopefully my answer will help.
It seems that you have a view 'webViewForEditing' which you want to add and bring in front of the keyboard. When you click a button you want to put this view behind the keyboard again.
I have also tried using the sendSubViewToBack code with no joy.
In the end though I managed to get it to work using:
[[self view] exchangeSubviewAtIndex: withSubviewAtIndex: ];
(Credit goes to Sunny with it adapted from a question here)
I used the following code below, with to switch between a UIView and the keyboard:
- (IBAction)toggleButtonPressed:(id)sender {
UIWindow * window = [UIApplication sharedApplication].windows.lastObject;
if (window.subviews.count == 1) {
[window addSubview:_menuView];
}
else {
[window exchangeSubviewAtIndex: 0 withSubviewAtIndex: 1];
}
}
I am only working with two views (_menuView and the keyboard) which means I check how many subviews my window has to make sure I only add _menuView once.
Then it is easy to exchange the two views.
Even if you had more subviews in your window I am sure you could use a modified version of this. As long as none of your other views change places then exchanging them will always switch the same two views.
NOTE: As an aside. I am not sure if this code works if called when the keyboard is not first responder. I get the variable for Window using the last object in the window, which is always the keyboard if it has been made first responder. It might need tweaking to get it working at other times.

Answer 2

I formulated another, more eloquent, answer while working on this:
Add the views you want to the window view that holds the keyboard view:
#interface BViewController : UIViewController {
UIWindow * window;
}
// Add the code when the keyboard is showing to ensure it is added while we have a keyboard and to make sure it is only added once
-(void) keyboardDidShow: (NSNotification *) notification {
window = [UIApplication sharedApplication].windows.lastObject;
if (window.subviews.count == 1) {
[window addSubview:_menuView];
[window addSubview:_gameView];
[window addSubview:_stickerView];
[self hideViews];
}
}
- (void)hideViews {
_menuView.hidden = YES;
_gameView.hidden = YES;
_stickerView.hidden = YES;
}
So now we have our UIWindow view which contains our views and also our keyboard. They are all hidden so our keyboard appears at the front and can be typed on.
Now use a simple function to decide which view to bring in front of the keyboard:
- (void)bringViewToFront: (UIView *)view {
[self hideViews];
view.hidden = NO;
}
Hiding the views makes sure we only have our correct view at the front.
I spent a lot of time thinking how we could move different views forward and back, using the exchange function. Actually using hide and reveal means we can get our view immediately and still easily have access to the keyboard by hiding all the views.