UILabel - string as text and links

Question

I have a UILabel whose text I am getting from a server. Some of the text is to be identified as links, and on touching those links some action should be performed. e.g.

NSString *str = @"My phone number is 645-345-2345 and my address is xyz";

This is the complete text for UILabel. I have only one UILabel for displaying this text (Text is dynamic. I just gave an example.). On clicking these links I need to perform actions like navigating to some different screen or make a call.
I know that I can display such text with help of OHAttributedLabel. And the links can be displayed as follows :

[label1 addCustomLink:[NSURL URLWithString:@"http://www.foodreporter.net"] inRange:[txt rangeOfString:someString]];  

But I wonder how can I make these text links perform some action like navigation to different screen or making a call.
Let me know if more explanation is required.

Answer 1

You can add custom actions to any of the available UILabel replacements that support links using a fake URL scheme that you'll intercept later:

TTTAttributedLabel *tttLabel = <# create the label here #>;
NSString *labelText = @"Lost? Learn more.";
tttLabel.text = labelText;
NSRange r = [labelText rangeOfString:@"Learn more"]; 
[tttLabel addLinkToURL:[NSURL URLWithString:@"action://show-help"] withRange:r];

Then, in your TTTAttributedLabelDelegate:

- (void)attributedLabel:(TTTAttributedLabel *)label didSelectLinkWithURL:(NSURL *)url {
    if ([[url scheme] hasPrefix:@"action"]) {
        if ([[url host] hasPrefix:@"show-help"]) {
            /* load help screen */
        } else if ([[url host] hasPrefix:@"show-settings"]) {
            /* load settings screen */
        }
    } else {
        /* deal with http links here */
    }
}

TTTAttributedLabel is a fork of OHAttributedLabel.

If you want a more complex approach, have a look to Nimbus Attributed Label. It support custom links out-of-the-box.