get selected text from a uiwebview Xcode - text

Question

I have a UIWebView that loads text from an htmlString.
I need when the user selects a part of the text and presses a button, i will be capable of extracting it in order to use it elsewhere, so i am using this code :
// The JS File
NSString *filePath = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:#"HighlightedString" ofType:#"js" inDirectory:#""];
NSData *fileData = [NSData dataWithContentsOfFile:filePath];
NSString *jsString = [[NSMutableString alloc] initWithData:fileData encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
[WebV2 stringByEvaluatingJavaScriptFromString:jsString];
// The JS Function
NSString *startSearch = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"getHighlightedString()"];
[WebV2 stringByEvaluatingJavaScriptFromString:startSearch];
NSString *selectedText = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"selectedText"];
NSString * highlightedString = [WebV2 stringByEvaluatingJavaScriptFromString:selectedText];
UIAlertView *alert = [[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:#"Highlighted String"
message:highlightedString
delegate:nil
cancelButtonTitle:#"Oh Yeah"
otherButtonTitles:nil];
[alert show];
Along with HighlightedString.js :
/*!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Search Highlighted String
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*/
var selectedText = "";
function getHighlightedString() {
var text = window.getSelection();
selectedText = text.anchorNode.textContent.substr(text.anchorOffset, text.focusOffset - text.anchorOffset);
}
// ...
function stylizeHighlightedString() {
var range = window.getSelection().getRangeAt(0);
var selectionContents = range.extractContents();
var span = document.createElement("span");
span.appendChild(selectionContents);
span.setAttribute("class","uiWebviewHighlight");
span.style.backgroundColor = "black";
span.style.color = "white";
range.insertNode(span);
}
// helper function, recursively removes the highlights in elements and their childs
function uiWebview_RemoveAllHighlightsForElement(element) {
if (element) {
if (element.nodeType == 1) {
if (element.getAttribute("class") == "uiWebviewHighlight") {
var text = element.removeChild(element.firstChild);
element.parentNode.insertBefore(text,element);
element.parentNode.removeChild(element);
return true;
} else {
var normalize = false;
for (var i=element.childNodes.length-1; i>=0; i--) {
if (uiWebview_RemoveAllHighlightsForElement(element.childNodes[i])) {
normalize = true;
}
}
if (normalize) {
element.normalize();
}
}
}
}
return false;
}
// the main entry point to remove the highlights
function uiWebview_RemoveAllHighlights() {
selectedText = "";
uiWebview_RemoveAllHighlightsForElement(document.body);
}
I always get nothing as a result ... The alert view shows nothing...What's the problem with this code ? Any help ? Any ideas ? It will be really appreciated.

Answer 1

The solution was actually pretty simple and no need for all the above code!
For any future users just use:
NSString *textToSpeech = [WebV2 stringByEvaluatingJavaScriptFromString: #"window.getSelection().toString()"];
NSLog(#" -**-*--****-*---**--*-* This is the new select text %#",[WebV2 stringByEvaluatingJavaScriptFromString: #"window.getSelection().toString()"] );

Answer 2

NSString *theSelectedText = [self.webView stringByEvaluatingJavaScriptFromString:#"window.getSelection().toString()"];
This will pass your selection to the string variable.