AKAttributeKit

AKAttributeKit is a new fun way to create NSAttributedString. Same power of it without the hassles of genarating! Use HTML-ish tags instead of finding ranges for setting attributes.

// ---- Native way to NSAttributedString ----//
var mStr = NSMutableAttributedString(string: "Hello Attributed String!")
var range = (mStr.string as NSString).rangeOfString("Hello")
mStr.addAttributes([
    NSForegroundColorAttributeName : UIColor.redColor(),
    NSFontAttributeName : UIFont(name: "Arial", size: 25)!
    ], range: range)

// ---- AKAttributeKit way to NSAttributedString ----//
mStr = "<fg #f00><font Arial|25>Hello</font></fg> Attributed string!".toAttributedString()
// or
mStr = AKAttributeKit.parseString("<fg #f00><font Arial|25>Hello</font></fg> Attributed string!")

Usage

Check the example project and/or playground to see and play with AKAttributeKit.
To run the example project, clone the repo, and run pod install from the Example directory first.

Requirements

• XCode 8.1
• Swift 3
• iOS 8.0+

HTML-ish tags, not HTML

There are some other libraries to create NSAttributedString form HTML. This is not like that. AKAttributeKit focuses on native APIs and gives a straight way to implement those. The basic difference between AKAttribute Tags and HTML Tags are:

1. AKAttribute tags are some custom defined tags based on NS**AttributeNames provided by native APIs. For convenience, related tags are named like in HTML, but they are not exact same thing.
2. Properties for AKAttribute tags are provided as | (Bar)-separated sequencial values.
3. Unlike HTML, any tag started in other tag can be finished outside that tag. e.g. <fg #f00>Red text <u>with</fg> underline</u> is works just fine.

Tags (Short Reference)

Tag	Attribute	Example
a	NSLinkAttributeName	<a http://google.com>Google</a>
base	NSBaselineOffsetAttributeName	square<base 15>2</base>
bg	NSBackgroundColorAttributeName	<bg #00ff00>Green</bg> or <bg 255|255|0>Yellow</bg>
ex	NSExpansionAttributeName	<ex 5>WIDE</ex>
fg	NSForegroundColorAttributeName	<fg #ff0000>Red</fg> or <fg 0|0|255>Blue</fg>
font	NSFontAttributeName	Different <font Arial|18>Font</font>
i	NSObliquenessAttributeName	<i 0.5>Italic</i> or <i 0.8>oblique</i>
k	NSKernAttributeName	<k 20>Huge Space</k>
sc, sw	NSStrokeColorAttributeName, NSStrokeWidthAttributeName	<sc #f00><sw 2>Storked Text</sw></sc>
t, tc	NSStrikethroughStyleAttributeName, NSStrikethroughColorAttributeName	<t 1>Wrong</t> or <t><tc #f00>Wrong</t></tc>
u, uc	NSUnderlineStyleAttributeName, NSUnderlineColorAttributeName	<u>Important</u> or <u 1><uc #f00>Important</u></uc>

Note: tc or uc are not necessary normally. But when used, it need t or u respectively in scope to be applied. Similarly, sc and sw need to be coupled to imply a visible attribute change.

Parameter Types

Here is the short list of parameter types and acceptable formats to use:

Type	Acceptable Formats	Tags to apply
Link	Any valid URL format	a
Int	Any integer value supported by respective attribute	t, u
Float	Any float value	base, ex, i, k, sw
Color	1. Hex formats: rgb, rgba, rrggbb, rrggbbaa with or without 0x or # prefix 2. Integer sequence: r|g|b|a param sequence where all params in sequence are Int ranges from 0-255. 3. Insert UIColor: Directly insert UIColor into swift string like <tag \(myColor)> where myColor is any UIColor other than colorWithPatternImage.	bg, fg, sc, tc, uc
Font	1. Param sequence: fontName|fontSize param sequence where fontName is String and fontSize is Float 2. Insert UIFont: Directly insert UIFont into swift string like <font \(myFont.asAKAttribute())>	font

Installation

AKAttributeKit is available through CocoaPods. To install it, simply add the following line to your Podfile:

pod "AKAttributeKit"

TODO

Below is some TODOs that I have plan to implement. New ideas and/or help on current tasks are most welcome :D

• For common tags with (almost) obvius choices make parameter optional.
  • underline
  • italic
  • Strike through
• Support OSX
• Ability to escape a tag
• Unit testing

Author

Ashik uddin Ahmad, ashikcu@gmail.com

License

AKAttributeKit is available under the MIT license. See the LICENSE file for more info.