More screenshots: without text and with text.

This is a precise reconstruction of the compose bar from the iOS Messages.app, mimicking the behaviors and graphics while also allowing you to customize many aspects of it.

It basically consists of a text view, a placeholder label, a utility button located to the left of the text view, and a main button located to the right of the text view.

If you're looking for something that works with iOS 5 and 6 featuring the old look and feel, have a look at version 1.1.1.

• title of main button (the one on the right) can be changed
• tint color of main button can be changed
• title of the placeholder can be changed
• placeholder is exposed as a property for further customization
• text view is exposed as a property for further customization
• utility button (the one on the left) can be shown by setting the utility button image (best results for gray images (~56% white) on transparent background with up to 50pt side length)
• optional character counter when specifying a max character count (similar to typing an SMS in Messages.app; the max char count limit is not imposed)
• uses delegation to notify of button presses
• forwards delegation methods from the text view
• automatically grows when text wraps
• posts notifications and sends delegate messages about frame changes before and after the change so you can adjust your view setup
• by default grows upwards, alternatively downwards
• max height for growth can be specified in terms of points or line numbers
• has a translucent blurred background

The prefered way is to use CococaPods.

pod 'PHFComposeBarView', '~> 2.0.1'

If you can't use CocoaPods for some reason (you really should though, it's the cool kid on the block), then grab the files in Classes/ and put it in your project. The code uses ARC, so make sure to turn that on for the files if you're not already using ARC. There's a dependency on PHFDelegateChain, so make sure to add that to your project, too.

The compose bar visible in the demo above was created as follows:

CGRect viewBounds = [[self view] bounds];
CGRect frame = CGRectMake(0.0f,
                          viewBounds.size.height - PHFComposeBarViewInitialHeight,
                          viewBounds.size.width,
                          PHFComposeBarViewInitialHeight);
PHFComposeBarView *composeBarView = [[PHFComposeBarView alloc] initWithFrame:frame];
[composeBarView setMaxCharCount:160];
[composeBarView setMaxLinesCount:5];
[composeBarView setPlaceholder:@"Type something..."];
[composeBarView setUtilityButtonImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"Camera"]];
[composeBarView setDelegate:self];

To get notified of button presses, implement the optional methods from the PHFComposeBarViewDelegate protocol:

- (void)composeBarViewDidPressButton:(PHFComposeBarView *)composeBarView;
- (void)composeBarViewDidPressUtilityButton:(PHFComposeBarView *)composeBarView;

To get notified of frame changes, either listen to the notifications (PHFComposeBarViewDidChangeFrameNotification and PHFComposeBarViewWillChangeFrameNotification) or implement the optional delegate methods:

- (void)composeBarView:(PHFComposeBarView *)composeBarView
   willChangeFromFrame:(CGRect)startFrame
               toFrame:(CGRect)endFrame
              duration:(NSTimeInterval)duration
        animationCurve:(UIViewAnimationCurve)animationCurve;
- (void)composeBarView:(PHFComposeBarView *)composeBarView
    didChangeFromFrame:(CGRect)startFrame
               toFrame:(CGRect)endFrame;

Note that all methods from the UITextViewDelegate protocol are forwarded, so you can add your own behavior to the text view such as limiting the text length etc.

Refer to PHFComposeBarView.h for the available properties and their descriptions.

PHFComposeBarView is released under the MIT license.

• PHFDelegateChain

Philipe Fatio (@fphilipe)