title: How do I retrieve keystrokes from a custom keyboard on an iOS app?
body: <p>I need to build a custom keyboard for my iPhone app. <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4643167/iphone-objc-how-to-create-a-custom-keyboard">Previous questions and answers</a> on the topic have focused on the visual elements of a custom keyboard, but I'm trying to understand how to retrieve the keystrokes from this keyboard.</p>
  
  <p>Apple provides the inputView mechanism which makes it easy to associate a custom keyboard with an UITextField or UITextView, but they do not provide the functions to send generated keystrokes back to the associated object. Based on the typical delegation for these objects, we'd expect three functions : one of normal characters, one for backspace and one for enter. Yet, no one seems to clearly define these functions or how to use them.</p>
  
  <p>How do I build a custom keyboard for my iOS app and retrieve keystrokes from it?</p>