iOS - How to dismiss keyboard from the navigationItem.searchController when tap anywhere on the UIView?

Question

I have implemented the new SearchController with its searchBar and the searchResultsController.

Here is how I implemented it :

The resultViewController:

lazy var resultViewController: SearchResultViewController = {
    let storyboard = UIStoryboard.init(name: "Main", bundle: nil)
    let searchResultViewController = storyboard.instantiateViewController(withIdentifier: "SearchResultViewController") as! SearchResultViewController
    searchResultViewController.delegate = self
    return searchResultViewController
}()

And this is the SearchController:

lazy var searchController: UISearchController = {
    let searchController = UISearchController(searchResultsController: resultViewController)
    searchController.searchBar.delegate = self
    searchController.obscuresBackgroundDuringPresentation = true
    searchController.searchResultsUpdater = self
    searchController.searchBar.placeholder = "Search.city.label".localizable()
    searchController.searchBar.tintColor = UIColor.white
    searchController.searchBar.barTintColor = UIColor.white
    UITextField.appearance(whenContainedInInstancesOf: [type(of: searchController.searchBar)]).tintColor = UIColor(red:0.00, green:0.47, blue:0.78, alpha:1.0)

    if let textfield = searchController.searchBar.value(forKey: "searchField") as? UITextField {
        if let backgroundview = textfield.subviews.first {

            // Background color
            backgroundview.backgroundColor = UIColor.white

            // Rounded corner
            backgroundview.layer.cornerRadius = 10;
            backgroundview.clipsToBounds = true;
        }
    }

    definesPresentationContext = true
    return searchController
}()

In my viewWillAppear I set the navigationItem.searchController :

self.searchController.isActive = true

if #available(iOS 11.0, *) {
    self.navigationItem.searchController = searchController
    self.navigationItem.hidesSearchBarWhenScrolling = true
} else {
    // Fallback on earlier versions
}

I have been able to handle the cancelButtonClicked :

extension HomeViewController: UISearchBarDelegate {

    func searchBarCancelButtonClicked(_ searchBar: UISearchBar) {
        searchBar.endEditing(true)
        self.searchController.isActive = false
    }
}

This is doing the "cancel" animation, hiding keyboard + inactive state on searchBar/searchController. Both at the same time, with 1 tap on cancel Button.

But I am unable to achieve this when the user tap anywhere on the view.

I tried with tap gesture but it requires me 2 tap to achieve the same behavior.

NB:

I got an UICollectionView in my UIViewController, which takes all the place in the UIView.

Here is what I have tried :

override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()
    handleTapAnywhereToRemoveKeyboard()
}


func handleTapAnywhereToRemoveKeyboard() {
    let singleTapGestureRecognizer = UITapGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: #selector(self.singleTap(sender:)))
    //singleTapGestureRecognizer.numberOfTapsRequired = 1
    singleTapGestureRecognizer.cancelsTouchesInView = false
    self.view.addGestureRecognizer(singleTapGestureRecognizer)
}

@objc func singleTap(sender: UITapGestureRecognizer) {
    self.searchController.isActive = false
    self.searchController.searchBar.resignFirstResponder()
    self.searchController.searchBar.endEditing(true)
}

EDIT:

I was thinking, maybe it's because my searchBar and searchController aren't in the UIViewController's view hierarchy, but more in the NavigationController one.

So I also tried with :

navigationController?.view.endEditing(true)

I then was thinking, maybe it's because the UIScrollView within my UICollectionView is catching the tap. So I tried to link the tap gesture on the UICollectionView instead of the UIView, but without success.

Answer 1

There is no need to add UITapGestureRecognizer as proposed above. UIViewContoller already conforms to UIResponder interface (legacy from Objective C), so you can override this method like this:

extension UIViewController {

    override func touchesBegan(_ touches: Set<UITouch>, with event: UIEvent?) {
            self.view.window?.endEditing(true)
            super.touchesEnded(touches, with: event)
        }

}