Use inputAccessoryView with multiple UITextFields and ViewControllers - ios

Question

I am trying to take advantage of inputAccessoryView and displaying help text and previous and next buttons. However I have many UITextFields spanning across many ViewControllers. So I would like to have a reusable UIView for the inputAccessoryView.
To do this, I have created a xib file ('SetupKeyboardAccessory') and a ViewController ('SetupKeyboardAccessoryViewController') attached to that xib.
SetupKeyboardAccessory:
SetupKeyboardAccessoryViewController:
#interface SetupKeyboardAccessoryViewController : UIViewController
#property (weak, nonatomic) IBOutlet UILabel *helpTextLabel;
#property (weak, nonatomic) IBOutlet UIButton *previousButton;
#property (weak, nonatomic) IBOutlet UIButton *nextButton;
#end
Inside my MainViewController I have my UITextFields. This MainViewController is implementing UITextFieldDelegate:
MainViewController:
- (BOOL)textFieldShouldBeginEditing:(UITextField *)textField
{
// you can create the accessory view programmatically (in code), or from the storyboard
if (textField.inputAccessoryView == nil) {
SetupKeyboardAccessoryViewController *accessoryView =
[[SetupKeyboardAccessoryViewController alloc] initWithNibName:#"SetupKeyboardAccessory"
bundle:nil];
accessoryView.helpTextLabel.text = #"setting help text here";
textField.inputAccessoryView = accessoryView.view;
}
//self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = self.doneButton;
return YES;
}
- (BOOL)textFieldShouldEndEditing:(UITextField *)textField {
[textField resignFirstResponder];
return YES;
}
When the text field begins editing, I initialize my SetupKeyboardAccessoryViewController, set the help text, and then set it to the inputAccessoryView. For some reason the help text does not get set.
I know I'm probably doing something wrong here with setting the view of the SetupKeyboardAccessoryViewController to the inputAccessoryView. I'm still fairly new to iOS development. So any help would be appreciated. Thank you!

Answer 1

It's not appropriate to create a view controller for the sole purpose of instantiating a view, only to then discard the view controller.
Your code would be much simpler if you just had a SetupKeyboardAccessoryView class that was a subclass of UIView. Then made the view in the nib file this class, and instantiated it with :
SetupKeyboardAccessoryView *accessoryView = [[[NSBundle mainBundle] loadNibNamed:#"SetupKeyboardAccessoryView" owner:nil options:nil] firstObject]

Answer 2

Figured out what the problem is after a little bit of digging. Turned out when I was trying to set the text of helpTextLabel, helpTextLabel itself was nil.
This is due to outlets not being set until the view controllers view has been fully instantiated. (source: https://stackoverflow.com/a/4005968/986105)
So in my SetupKeyboardAccessoryViewController.m file, I added my own init function: (id)initWithNibName:(NSString *)nibNameOrNil bundle:(NSBundle *)nibBundleOrNil withHelpText:(NSString*)helpText
And then in viewDidLoad function, I would set the text of UILabel.
SetupKeyboardAccessoryViewController.m:
#interface SetupKeyboardAccessoryViewController ()
{
NSString* helperText;
}
#end
#implementation SetupKeyboardAccessoryViewController
- (id)initWithNibName:(NSString *)nibNameOrNil bundle:(NSBundle *)nibBundleOrNil withHelpText:(NSString*)helpText
{
self = [self initWithNibName:nibNameOrNil bundle:nibBundleOrNil];
if (self) {
// Custom initialization
}
helperText = helpText;
return self;
}
- (id)initWithNibName:(NSString *)nibNameOrNil bundle:(NSBundle *)nibBundleOrNil
{
self = [super initWithNibName:nibNameOrNil bundle:nibBundleOrNil];
if (self) {
// Custom initialization
}
return self;
}
- (void)viewDidLoad
{
[super viewDidLoad];
// Do any additional setup after loading the view.
self.helpTextLabel.text = helperText;
}
- (IBAction)previousButton:(id)sender {
NSLog(#"prev button pressed");
}
- (void)didReceiveMemoryWarning
{
[super didReceiveMemoryWarning];
// Dispose of any resources that can be recreated.
}
#end
So in my MainViewController, I would just call my init function and remove the line to set the text of the UILabel.
MainViewController:
- (BOOL)textFieldShouldBeginEditing:(UITextField *)textField
{
// you can create the accessory view programmatically (in code), or from the storyboard
if (textField.inputAccessoryView == nil) {
SetupKeyboardAccessoryViewController *accessoryView =
[[SetupKeyboardAccessoryViewController alloc] initWithNibName:#"SetupKeyboardAccessory"
bundle:nil withHelpText:#"setting help text here"];
textField.inputAccessoryView = accessoryView.view;
}
//self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = self.doneButton;
return YES;
}
- (BOOL)textFieldShouldEndEditing:(UITextField *)textField {
[textField resignFirstResponder];
return YES;
}