I would like to create a custom UIButton looking like this:
The idea is simple, I want the titleLabel to start 24px from the leading, and stop 12px or more to the icon image (which is the square view at the right of the button). It can contain up to 2 lines.
The thing is that I have no idea where I should put this code in a class inheriting from UIButton.
What should go into draw(_ rect: CGRect)?
Also, should I use the titleLabel and titleEdgeInsets UIButton properties and the imageView/imageEdgeInsets as well, or instead use custom properties for this?
You just want these buttons to work, be tapped, and react somehow?
These buttons are custom buttons, and you may a create a Cocoa Touch Class file for them; name it and let it inherit from and be a subclass of UIButton.
Then connect that file to your buttons in the storyboard.
But first, you need to set/attach the newly created file to your buttons. Click on the button, In the identity inspector of your storyboard, with your button selected go to the Class field and type the name of your new file and don't forget to tap 'return' to save your changes.
Now, your buttons are attached to that custom UIButton class.
From now, you can attach all your icon images and many more as outlets to your custom UIButton Class you just created.
Most importantly, now these buttons can be used on their own; they can be outlets or trigger action methods. And to make it look just as you except, you just have to initialize your buttons, i.e. provide an icon image, text, etc.
Is what I wrote clear?
If not, I am glad to help you.
Related
I have a button. Unsure if it is specifically a UIButton class type. This is a Button which was dragged from the Object library into my Main.Storyboard.
I don't have text, instead I have an image. And I plan to use two images. One for "loop on" and the other for "loop off". I'm playing a sound and this button controls whether or not you will loop the sound. I'm all set with understanding how to do the looping versus not.
I have set the "loop off" image as my default image under the Attributes inspector.
So when the button gets touched, I'll change the behavior of my playing sound to be "loop forever" and I'd like to change the image of the button from within my IBAction function.
I can set a title for the button in the Attributes inspector.
But I don't see that title as a resource name (auto-typing-complete) from within my ViewController.m code.
I know there are properties per state for images. I believe there's also just a "setImage" action for a UIButton.
What I can't determine is how my Button is named in the code because this button was added via dragging it out of the Object library.
Anyone have any knowledge of where these resources get named, like a reference file?
A search found something close, the following link:
http://ranga-iphone-developer.blogspot.com/2011/08/how-to-change-uibutton-image.html
However the solution doesn't appear to reference a particular button name, title, or ID; unless the text "button" is supposed to be replaced with the specific resource name.
Have you added an IBOutlet for this UIButton in your code. If not see the link
You have to create outlets inside the code for your elements added in storyboard. After that you can programatically modify the properties of the elements.
Take a look at this for IBOutlets Link on Outlets
Create a property for the button in the view controller header
#property (nonatomic, strong) IBOutlet UIButton *yourButton;
Then link the outlet in the Interface Builder (i.e. control drag from the controller to the button) and select yourButton, now you can change the title, color and images of the button by using yourButton.
Lets say that i have an animation - an image is going from left side of the screen to the right. I would like to make it a little bit interactive - when user taps on a screen i want to change direction of image movement. Whats the best approach to implement it?
What I do in some cases is take the main view of the View Controller, in Storyboard, and change the class type of that UIView to UIControl.
In the code that is accessed as MyViewController.view, which you can write:
var viewAsControl = myViewController.view as UIControl
In Swift or some equivalent of that.
The UIControl subclass of UIView is the hierarchical layer (class) that adds the action/target facilities to a view. For example, UIButton is a UIControl, because it generates events (actions), and it is also a UIView so it can be added as a subview.
Then from the Connections Inspector, accessed via the far right Icon of the far right panel (that is, the panel to the right of the storyboard editor window), I'd select the Touch Up Inside event type or some other event and drag it to an #IBAction tagged function I'd add to the View Controller's source code, to receive the tap event. From that tap notification, you can cancel the current animation and add a new one, etc...
Alternatively, you can create an IBOutlet for the view if you've turned it into a UIControl in IB, and use the addTarget() method to assign an action handler for a specific event, e.g. to make it call a function in your code.
Either way the effect will be that any time the view is tapped, it will generate the event for you to respond to
I have a button and multiple labels placed over the button in storyboard. For the button I specified a default and a highlight state. Also for the labels I specified the highlight color in storyboard.
However on button press the font color of the label does not change to white. Am I missing something? I would like to configure this behavior in storyboard, not programmatically. Is this possible? Or do I have to create a custom button?
The problem is that the UILabel does not get the touch events because it simply does not handle touch events by design, it's just for showing text.
You might want to create a subclass of a UIButton but this is not a good idea since it's kind of a cluster class.
Best way to do it is creating a custom button class by subclassing either UIControl or UIView. With the later you could add it in your storyboard by changing their class to one of your button subclasses. In the subclass make your customizations in the initWithCoder: method.
If you decided to choose the UIControl way of doing this. Look at setHighlighted: method:
- (void)setHighlighted:(BOOL)highlighted
{
[super setHighlighted: highlighted];
// Highlight your labels here
}
Useful link: UIControl Class Reference
I am trying to add a view on a UIButton inside IB. The only problem it doesn't allow me to put in inside the button only on top?
Is this not possible through IB or am I doing it wrong?
It's not possible in Interface Builder. You have to add it in code.
You should not do this:
Do Not Customize Controls by Embedding Subviews
Although it is technically possible to add subviews to the standard system controls—objects that inherit from UIControl—you should never customize them in this way. Controls that support customizations do so through explicit and well-documented interfaces in the control class itself. For example, the UIButton class contains methods for setting the title and background images for the button. Using the defined customization points means that your code will always work correctly. Circumventing these methods, by embedding a custom image view or label inside the button, might cause your application to behave incorrectly now or at some point in the future if the button’s implementation changes.
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/WindowsViews/Conceptual/ViewPG_iPhoneOS/WindowsandViews/WindowsandViews.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40009503-CH2-SW26
If you need to add a UIView on your UIButton you can achieve it in 2 different ways
The easy way is to follow Cyrille answer: you can do it programmatically because IB doesn't allow you to modify a UIBUtton adding a view on it
The hard way is to create your custom button (let me call it "MYCustomButton"), that extends a UIButton, and use it in your application. With this way when you need to modify the buttons in your interface, you can achieve it modifying the XIB of the "MYCustomButton".
My application has a few portions that have really big buttons (640x130, 230x150, etc.) What I need is to have a way to update different portions of the button, with different text. Initially, I assumed that in my code I could create various UILabels and then add them as subviews to my button. However, as soon as I try to add a UILabel to the button as a sub-view, my app crashes.
What is the easiest way to create an overlay for a button, that I can completely layout myself, without preventing button taps from being interested using overlay controls?
I imagine there are multiple ways to solve this problem. However, the best solution for my case should use the fewest lines of code (I have quite a few of these types of buttons) and I'd like to be able to continue using some form of configurable button within IB.
I'm not opposed to subclassing UIButton but, if I do, I would like to be able to use it in IB. I've never created a custom UIView for such a circumstance, so I'd need help defining that type of subclass so that it will work correctly in IB.
You need to add the subview to the containing view - not the button. To ensure that is doesn't interfere with button presses, be sure to set it to:
[myCustomTextOverlay setUserInteractionEnabled:NO];