How to reuse properties - ios

Question

I have many different buttons in my app, yet most of them have the same properties assigned to them:
login = [[UIButton alloc]initWithFrame:CGRectMake(8, CGRectGetMaxY(password.frame) + 16, loginView.frame.size.width - 16, 40)];
[login setTitle:#"Login" forState:UIControlStateNormal];
[login.titleLabel setFont:[UIFont fontWithName:#"Avenir Next" size:18]];
[login setTitleColor:[UIColor whiteColor] forState:UIControlStateNormal];
[login setTitleColor:[UIColor colorWithWhite:0.7 alpha:1] forState:UIControlStateHighlighted];
[login setTitleColor:[UIColor colorWithWhite:0.5 alpha:1] forState:UIControlStateDisabled];
Is there any way to create a class or something of a button that already has these default properties assigned? So I could simply go something like:
CustomButtom *btn = [CustomButton alloc]init];
Then the btn will have all of the above properties assigned?
Thanks.

Answer 1

Another way of handling this, is you can create a private method that will return the UIButton with the same properties. I think creating a subclass of UIButton is a little unnecessary.

Answer 2

You can do this by creating a CustomButton class
Xcode -> New File -> Cocoa Touch Class -> Next -> Name Your Button-> Select Subclass of UIButton
CustomButton.h file
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#interface CustomButton : UIButton
#end
CustomButton.m file
#import "CustomButton.h"
#implementation CustomButton
// Only override drawRect: if you perform custom drawing.
// An empty implementation adversely affects performance during animation.
- (void)drawRect:(CGRect)rect {
// Drawing code
//login = [[UIButton alloc]initWithFrame:CGRectMake(8, CGRectGetMaxY(password.frame) + 16, loginView.frame.size.width - 16, 40)];
[self setTitle:#"Login" forState:UIControlStateNormal];
[self.titleLabel setFont:[UIFont fontWithName:#"Avenir Next" size:18]];
[self setTitleColor:[UIColor whiteColor] forState:UIControlStateNormal];
[self setTitleColor:[UIColor colorWithWhite:0.7 alpha:1] forState:UIControlStateHighlighted];
[self setTitleColor:[UIColor colorWithWhite:0.5 alpha:1] forState:UIControlStateDisabled];
}
#end
Now, Call you button
CustomButton *customButton = [[CustomButton alloc]initWithFrame:CGRectMake(8, CGRectGetMaxY(password.frame) + 16, loginView.frame.size.width - 16, 40)];
[customButton addTarget:self action:#selector(loginButtonPressed:) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchDown];
[YourView addSubview:customButton];

Answer 3

You've got two options:
Make a function that you can pass in a UIButton to that sets the properties for you
Write a Category for UIButton that does the same as the above. Categories allow you to add functionality to a class without subclassing. See https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/ProgrammingWithObjectiveC/CustomizingExistingClasses/CustomizingExistingClasses.html

Answer 4

Yes. You can subclass the UIButton. When you override the init method setting the properties you could get the button's with the same properties.