Custom UITextField not showing - ios

Question

I am trying to create a custom UITextField that shows a date picker instead of a keyboard. I already change the textfields in my storyboard to use DateTextField custom class, however, still the keyboard is being shown instead of the date picker. Note that the textfields are inside a UITableviewCell.
Also, i am not sure if this is the correct way of creating the toolbar:
self.datePickerToolbar = [[UIToolbar alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, self.superview.bounds.size.width, 44)];
#interface DateTextField : UITextField
#property (strong, nonatomic) UIDatePicker *datePicker;
#property (strong, nonatomic) UIToolbar *datePickerToolbar;
#end
#implementation DateTextField
- (id)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame
{
self = [super initWithFrame:frame];
if (self) {
self.datePicker = [[UIDatePicker alloc] init];
self.datePicker.datePickerMode = UIDatePickerModeDate;
self.datePickerToolbar = [[UIToolbar alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, self.superview.bounds.size.width, 44)];
[self.datePickerToolbar setBarStyle:UIBarStyleBlackTranslucent];
UIBarButtonItem *extraSpace = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithBarButtonSystemItem:UIBarButtonSystemItemFlexibleSpace target:nil action:nil];
UIBarButtonItem *doneButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:#"Done" style:UIBarButtonItemStyleDone target:self action:#selector(setDatePickerValue:)];
[self.datePickerToolbar setItems:[[NSArray alloc] initWithObjects:extraSpace, doneButton, nil]];
self.inputView = self.datePicker;
self.inputAccessoryView = self.datePickerToolbar;
}
return self;
}
#end

Answer 1

If you add the textfields in storyboard/xib the init method will not be called.
Try with awakeFromNib. Move all the code in the init method to awakeFromNib
- (void)awakeFromNib
{
[super awakeFromNib];
self.datePicker = [[UIDatePicker alloc] init];
self.datePicker.datePickerMode = UIDatePickerModeDate;
self.datePickerToolbar = [[UIToolbar alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, self.superview.bounds.size.width, 44)];
[self.datePickerToolbar setBarStyle:UIBarStyleBlackTranslucent];
UIBarButtonItem *extraSpace = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithBarButtonSystemItem:UIBarButtonSystemItemFlexibleSpace target:nil action:nil];
UIBarButtonItem *doneButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:#"Done" style:UIBarButtonItemStyleDone target:self action:#selector(setDatePickerValue:)];
[self.datePickerToolbar setItems:[[NSArray alloc] initWithObjects:extraSpace, doneButton, nil]];
self.inputView = self.datePicker;
self.inputAccessoryView = self.datePickerToolbar;
}

Answer 2

Instead of using a UITextField, why don't you use a UIButton. It saves a whole lot of time in the future. In this case, the UIButton acts like a UILabel with a tap gesture recognizer.
However, if you need to use UITextField, do this:
- (void)textFieldDidBeginEditing:(UITextField *)textField
{
if ([textField isEqual:yourTextField])
{
// Present the picker here first
...
// And then...
return NO;
}
return YES;
}
Oh and also, do not initialize any UIView subclass properties inside any -initWith... methods. That will trigger a mismatched view lifecycle. Initialize/access these properties inside -viewDidLoad.