Intercept copy, paste, define popover in UIWebView

Question

When we select text in a UIWebView, usually a copy, paste, definition .. etc. appears. How can I intercept this so that when I select a copy, I call some other method / do something else. Is it possible?

Answer 1

You can simply override -copy:

- (void)copy:(id)sender { // Do something else here return [super copy:sender]; } 

Change the response to your comment.

Defining a little more difficult, since it is private. However, you can implement your own method. Configure the UIMenuController using the required elements.

 UIMenuItem *copyItem = [[UIMenuItem alloc] initWithTitle:@"Copy" action:@selector(myCopy:)]; UIMenuItem *defineItem = [[UIMenuItem alloc] initWithTitle:@"Define" action:@selector(myDefine:)]; [[UIMenuController sharedMenuController] setMenuItems:[NSArray arrayWithObjects:defineItem, copyItem, nil]]; [defineItem release]; [copyItem release]; 

Then you implement these methods.

As for the definition, it is more complicated. First, you need to check if the UIReferenceLibraryController has a definition by overriding -canPerformAction: withSender:

 - (BOOL)canPerformAction:(SEL)action withSender:(id)sender { if (action == @selector(myDefine:)) { // Make sure we are on iOS5.x if (NSClassFromString(@"UIReferenceLibraryViewController")) { return [UIReferenceLibraryViewController dictionaryHasDefinitionForTerm:[webView selectedText]]; } } // Implement other custom actions here return NO; } 

-selectedText is a category in a UIWebView:

 - (NSString *)selectedText { return [self stringByEvaluatingJavaScriptFromString:@"window.getSelection().toString()"]; } 

Then you need to implement myDefine:

 - (void)myDefine:(UIMenuController *)menuController { CGRect selectedWordFrame = [webView rectForSelectedText]; UIReferenceLibraryViewController *dict = [[UIReferenceLibraryViewController alloc] initWithTerm:[webView selectedText]]; UIPopoverController *popover = [[UIPopoverController alloc] initWithContentViewController:dict]; [popover presentPopoverFromRect:selectedWordFrame inView:webView permittedArrowDirections:UIPopoverArrowDirectionAny animated:YES]; [popover setDelegate:self]; [dict release]; } - (void)popoverControllerDidDismissPopover:(UIPopoverController *)popoverController { [popoverController release]; } 

Edit the answer to answer it again.

-rectForSelectedText is another user category in a UIWebView.

 - (CGRect)rectForSelectedText { return CGRectFromString([self stringByEvaluatingJavaScriptFromString:@"getRectForSelectedWord()"]); } 

What it does is a javascript call that returns a string that you can convert with CGRectFromString (), looks something like this:

 function getRectForSelectedWord() { var selection = window.getSelection(); var range = selection.getRangeAt(0); var rect = range.getBoundingClientRect(); return "{{" + rect.left + "," + rect.top + "}, {" + rect.width + "," + rect.height + "}}"; } 

Check this page to learn how to embed javascript in a UIWebView.