Replication of iMessage's text input behavior on iOS 7 (UIScrollViewKeyboardDismissModeInteractive + persistent inputAccessoryView).

What does it do

In the chat view of Apple's iMessage app, it is possible to interactively dismiss the keyboard. This feature has been introduced publicly in iOS 7 by means of the keyboardDismissMode property on UIScrollView and the corresponding enum values.

Disregarding the new keyboardDismissMode, it has always been tough to have a UITextView visible when it is not the first responder, while having it stick to the keyboard as well when it is the first responder. The new keyboardDismissMode does not solve this issue. RDRStickyKeyboardView is a UIView subclass that hosts a UIScrollView instance (or subclass) and a text input view stuck at the bottom. When the user taps the text input view, it animates upwards alongside the keyboard. The user can subsequently drag the keyboard away while the input view follows and falls back into place when the user has stopped dragging. As an added bonus, the input view provided by RDRStickyKeyboardView is auto-growing.

How does it work

RDRStickyKeyboardView uses two instances of the custom RDRKeyboardInputView class (let's call them A and B) that acts as the input view and contains a UIButton on the left, a UITextView in the middle, and a UIButton on the right. Instance A is always positioned at the bottom of the view, B is the inputAccessoryView of A's UITextView. As soon as A's UITextView becomes the first responder, the first responder status is handed over to B, which is glued to the top of the keyboard. The text entered into the UITextView instances of both input views A and B is synchronized.

How to use

Check out the sample project to learn more.

UITableView *tableView = ...;
RDRStickyKeyboardView *keyboardView = [[RDRStickyKeyboardView alloc] initWithScrollView:tableView];
keyboardView.frame = self.view.bounds;
keyboardView.autoresizingMask = UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleHeight|UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleWidth;
[self.view addSubview:keyboardView];

Requirements

• ARC
• iOS 7

Known issues

• The keyboard's inputAccessoryView updates after the device's orientation has changed, instead of during the rotation
• The keyboard is visible at all times when editing, also with an external keyboard connected

License

The code is licensed under the MIT license. See the file LICENSE for details.