Hiding the inputAccessoryView of a UIWebView

UIWebView+AccessoryHiding.m

#import <objc/runtime.h>
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@interface UIWebView (HackishAccessoryHiding)
@property (nonatomic, assign) BOOL hackishlyHidesInputAccessoryView;
@end

@implementation UIWebView (HackishAccessoryHiding)

static const char * const hackishFixClassName = "UIWebBrowserViewMinusAccessoryView";
static Class hackishFixClass = Nil;

- (UIView *)hackishlyFoundBrowserView {
    UIScrollView *scrollView = self.scrollView;
    
    UIView *browserView = nil;
    for (UIView *subview in scrollView.subviews) {
        if ([NSStringFromClass([subview class]) hasPrefix:@"UIWebBrowserView"]) {
            browserView = subview;
            break;
        }
    }
    return browserView;
}

- (id)methodReturningNil {
    return nil;
}

- (void)ensureHackishSubclassExistsOfBrowserViewClass:(Class)browserViewClass {
    if (!hackishFixClass) {
        newClass = objc_allocateClassPair(browserViewClass, hackishFixClassName, 0);
        IMP nilImp = [self methodForSelector:@selector(methodReturningNil)];
        class_addMethod(newClass, @selector(inputAccessoryView), nilImp, "@@:");
        objc_registerClassPair(newClass);

        hackishFixClass = newClass;
    }
}

- (BOOL) hackishlyHidesInputAccessoryView {
    UIView *browserView = [self hackishlyFoundBrowserView];
    return [browserView class] == hackishFixClass;
}

- (void) setHackishlyHidesInputAccessoryView:(BOOL)value {
    UIView *browserView = [self hackishlyFoundBrowserView];
    if (browserView == nil) {
        return;
    }
    [self ensureHackishSubclassExistsOfBrowserViewClass:[browserView class]];
	
    if (value) {
        object_setClass(browserView, hackishFixClass);
    }
    else {
        Class normalClass = objc_getClass("UIWebBrowserView");
        object_setClass(browserView, normalClass);
    }
    [browserView reloadInputViews];
}

@end

UIWebViewAccessoryHiding.m

#import <objc/runtime.h>
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@interface UIWebView (HackishAccessoryHiding)
@property (nonatomic, assign) BOOL hackishlyHidesInputAccessoryView;
@end

@implementation UIWebView (HackishAccessoryHiding)

static const char * const hackishFixClassName = "UIWebBrowserViewMinusAccessoryView";
static Class hackishFixClass = Nil;

- (UIView *)hackishlyFoundBrowserView {
    UIScrollView *scrollView = self.scrollView;
    
    UIView *browserView = nil;
    for (UIView *subview in scrollView.subviews) {
        if ([NSStringFromClass([subview class]) hasPrefix:@"UIWebBrowserView"]) {
            browserView = subview;
            break;
        }
    }
    return browserView;
}

- (id)methodReturningNil {
    return nil;
}

- (void)ensureHackishSubclassExistsOfBrowserViewClass:(Class)browserViewClass {
    if (!hackishFixClass) {
        Class newClass = objc_allocateClassPair(browserViewClass, hackishFixClassName, 0);
        IMP nilImp = [self methodForSelector:@selector(methodReturningNil)];
        class_addMethod(newClass, @selector(inputAccessoryView), nilImp, "@@:");
        objc_registerClassPair(newClass);

        hackishFixClass = newClass;
    }
}

- (BOOL) hackishlyHidesInputAccessoryView {
    UIView *browserView = [self hackishlyFoundBrowserView];
    return [browserView class] == hackishFixClass;
}

- (void) setHackishlyHidesInputAccessoryView:(BOOL)value {
    UIView *browserView = [self hackishlyFoundBrowserView];
    if (browserView == nil) {
        return;
    }
    [self ensureHackishSubclassExistsOfBrowserViewClass:[browserView class]];
	
    if (value) {
        object_setClass(browserView, hackishFixClass);
    }
    else {
        Class normalClass = objc_getClass("UIWebBrowserView");
        object_setClass(browserView, normalClass);
    }
    [browserView reloadInputViews];
}

@end

For anyone who wants to actually use this in your code, you need to do three things:

1. Make setHackishlyHidesInputAccessoryView available to your code (change the interface to):
   @interface UIWebView (HackishAccessoryHiding)
   @Property (nonatomic, assign) BOOL hackishlyHidesInputAccessoryView;

   • (void) setHackishlyHidesInputAccessoryView:(BOOL)value;
     @EnD

2. Call that in your code somewhere. For me, I called it after initiating load of a webview as follows:
   [self.webView setHackishlyHidesInputAccessoryView:YES];

3. In ensureHackishSubclassExistsOfBrowserViewClass, add 'Class' before the first appearance of the 'newClass' variable. It should now look like:
   Class newClass = objc_allocateClassPair(browserViewClass, hackishFixClassName, 0);

And also follow the advice above if you want it to work on iOS 4.x

@jessep:

1. There's no need to declare the -setHackishlyHidesInputAccessoryView: method; it's implicitly declared as part of the @property. That's how @propertys work. You can read more about it here: https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/ObjectiveC/Chapters/ocProperties.html
2. Correct; you just need to call webView.hackishlyHidesInputAccessoryView = YES or [webView setHackishlyHidesInputAccessoryView:YES]. Both are equivalent.
3. Oh, you're absolutely right, I somehow missed the variable type declaration there. I'll fix that.

Do you think this will pass AppStore review?

Based on Mike Ash comments http://www.mikeash.com/pyblog/friday-qa-2010-11-6-creating-classes-at-runtime-in-objective-c.html, would it be better to do the following?

Method inputAccessoryView = class_getInstanceMethod([NSResponder class],
                                                 @selector(inputAccessoryView));
const char *types = method_getTypeEncoding(inputAccessoryView);
class_addMethod(newClass, @selector(inputAccessoryView), nilImp, types);

@devinfoley
I think some apps like Evernote, which is probably using a UIWebView to show/edit notes, may use something similar to this Gist.

I used a variation of this to get rid of the inputView entirely, nice work.

I seems like does not work on IOS 6.x.

@matt-curtis:

how to get rid of inputView?

@bjhomer
I'm afraid I'm very inexperienced within Objective-C, I've created a .m file (UIWebViewFormAssistantHack.m) with this contents, and although you explained that the property should be accessible, I can't seem to reference it from the viewDidLoad scope using self.webView.sethackishlyHidesInputAccessoryView(YES); (or self.webView.hackishlyHidesInputAccessoryView = YES for that matter)

Would you be so kind to help me clarify what I am doing wrong?

@zhangchuqi
Just replace references to "inputAccessoryView" with "inputView" in the above code. And instead of returning nil (which I think in the case of inputView will still cause the default keyboard to show) you'll want to return an empty UIView.

@AskeG
You probably know this by now, but you need to include the category's .h file in header of your view controller.

I think this is way much better than https://github.com/don/KeyboardToolbarRemover

You can eliminate [browserView reloadInputViews];

I didn't see a license on the website. Would you be willing to license the code under the MIT (http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT) or BSD (http://opensource.org/licenses/BSD-2-Clause) license?

hi ! can we custom inputView for UIWebview with this solutions?

I've made a Cocoapod based on your solution.

https://cocoapods.org/pods/FA_InputAccessoryViewWebView

I also posted a gist that allows to customize OR disable the inputAccessoryView:

https://gist.github.com/kgaidis/5f9a8c7063b687cc3946fad6379c1a66

how do i do this for wkwebview

@tinhbka
replace UIWebView's inputView :
-(id)methodReturningKeyboard {
return [[JSInputView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectZero];
}

- (void)ensureHackishSubclassExistsOfBrowserViewClass:(Class)browserViewClass {
if (!hackishFixClass) {
Class newClass = objc_allocateClassPair(browserViewClass, hackishFixClassName, 0);
newClass = objc_allocateClassPair(browserViewClass, hackishFixClassName, 0);
IMP keyboardImp = [self methodForSelector:@selector(methodReturningKeyboard)];
class_addMethod(newClass, @selector(inputView), keyboardImp, "@@:");
objc_registerClassPair(newClass);
hackishFixClass = newClass;
}
}