I have a UIView subclass and I am drawing in the drawRect method.
How can I add an overlay image on top of the drawRect target layer?
I add the following in the initWithFrame method:
//add the image overlay
UIImageView *overlageImage = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:[UIImage imageNamed:#"downloaderFront.png"]];
overlageImage.center = self.center;
[self.layer addSublayer:overlageImage.layer];
//replacing the above line with below line does not fix either
[self addSubview:overlageImage];
This image is not visible on top of the drawRect drawing.
The stuff with the layer is certainly wrong. Just do this:
UIImageView *overlageImage =
[[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:[UIImage imageNamed:#"downloaderFront.png"]];
[self addSubview:overlageImage];
You can play with the frame of overlageImage to get the position where you want it.
As to your actual question: put a breakpoint. I suspect you'll find that your code is never even running (because your view's initWithFrame is never called). That's just a guess - you didn't say anything about how this UIView subclass instance gets into the interface - but it's a common enough mistake, and one should always suspect the obvious first!
Related
I'm writing something relatively simple, or so I thought.
Firstly, the code, for which I'm trying to place an image on the background of the UICollectionView if there are no results returned from my server. The image is 200 by 200:
UIView *myView = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:self.view.bounds];
CGRect myViewSpace = self.view.bounds;
CGFloat myX = (myViewSpace.size.width /2.0) - 100;
CGFloat myY = (myViewSpace.size.height /2.0) - 100;
UIImageView *imView = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(myX, myY, 200, 200)];
imView.image = [UIImage imageNamed:#"imNotHome"];
[myView addSubview:imView];
myCollectionView.backgroundView = myView;
Once there are results, I want to be able to remove it.
I thought it'd be as simple as placing the following, before I reloaded the UICollectionView:
[myCollectionView.backgroundView removeFromSuperview];
However, it appears to be doing nothing.
Am I missing something?
Thanks in advance!
It should be done this way instead:
myCollectionView.backgroundView = nil;
Explanation: You should unset the UICollectionView's background in the same way as you set it. You didn't set it by manipulating the view hierarchy, but by setting the background property. You did call addSubview in the previous line, but that was to add a subview to your background view, not to add the background view itself.
Edit:
There is a very good article about this UICollectionView bug here:
http://blog.spacemanlabs.com/2013/11/uicollectionviews-backgroundview-property-is-horribly-broken/
The solution the author gives is to reset the background to an empty opaque view:
UIView *blankView = [UIView new];
blankView.backgroundColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
[myCollectionView.backgroundView removeFromSuperview];
myCollectionView.backgroundView = blankView;
Also, the author recommends not using the backgroundView property at all but doing it yourself:
Frankly, I think the best solution is to just ignore the backgroundView property all together. Instead, make the collection view’s background clear, and implement your own backgroundView; just throw a view behind the collection view.
When subclassing UIView, I usually place all my initialisation and layout code in its init method. But I'm told that the layout code should be done by overriding layoutSuviews. There's a post on SO that explains when each method gets called, but I'd like to know how to use them in practice.
I currently put all my code in the init method, like this:
MyLongView.m
- (id)initWithHorizontalPlates:(int)theNumberOfPlates
{
self = [super initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 768, 1024)];
if (self) {
// Initialization code
_numberOfPlates = theNumberOfPlates;
UIScrollView *scrollView = [[UIScrollView alloc] initWithFrame:self.frame];
[scrollView setContentSize:CGSizeMake(self.bounds.size.width* _numberOfPlates, self.bounds.size.height)];
[self addSubview:scrollView];
for(int i = 0; i < _numberOfPlates; i++){
UIImage *img = [UIImage imageNamed:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"a1greatnorth_normal_%d.jpg", i+1]];
UIImageView *plateImage = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:img];
[scrollView addSubview:plateImage];
plateImage.center = CGPointMake((plateImage.bounds.size.width/2) + plateImage.bounds.size.width*i, plateImage.bounds.size.height/2);
}
}
return self;
}
It's the usual tasks: setting up the view's frame, initialising an ivar, setting up a scrollview, initialising UIImages, placing them in UIImageViews, laying them out.
My question is: which of these should be done in init, and which of these should be done in layoutSubviews?
Your init should create all the objects, with the required data. Any frame you pass to them in init should ideally be their starting positions.
Then, within layoutSubviews:, you change the frames of all your elements to place them where they should go. No alloc'ing or init'ing should take place in layoutSubviews:, only the changing of their positions, sizes etc...
In case you're autoresizing works perfectly with just autoresizingFlags, or autolayout, you may just use init to setup the whole view.
But in general your should do layouting in layoutSubviews, since this will be called on every change of the views frame and in other situation, where layout is needed again. Sometimes you just don't know the final frame of a view within init, so you need to be flexible as mentioned, or use layoutSubviews, since you do the layout there after the final size has been set.
As mentioned by WDUK, all initialization code / object creation should be in your init method or anywhere, but not in layoutSubviews.
I would like to obtain this effect (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7023271/how-to-adjust-drop-shadow-dynamically-during-an-uiimageview-rotation) but from a more complex image than just a red square ! If the link ever gets broken, it's a about how to adjust drop shadow dynamically during an UIImageView rotation.
So I tried implementing something but I just can't get the shadow in a separate layer... Here is my code, very simple, but doesn't work:
// here is my code
- (void)viewDidLoad {
[super viewDidLoad];
testView = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage: [UIImage imageNamed:#"handNoShadow.png"]];
testViewShadow = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:testView.frame];
testViewShadow.layer.shadowPath = [[testView layer] shadowPath];
testViewShadow.layer.shadowOpacity = 1.0;
testViewShadow.layer.shadowOffset = CGSizeMake(10, 10);
testViewShadow.layer.shadowRadius = 5.0;
[self.view addSubview:testViewShadow];
[self.view addSubview:testView];
}
PS: i did #import
I do get an image but no shadow... =(
Any lead, help, code, link... is welcome !
Thanks
possible cause:
your testViewShadow.clipToBounds property is set to YES (should be NO)
your testViewShadow do the drawing of the shadow correctly but another UIView is on top and mask it. Check your Z order. Either the order in Storyboard/Nib file (or the order you added the subviews programmatically). Last in the list (or last one added) is on top. For my app I had to put the UIView that need a shadow last so that no other view mask it.
I have a custom class inheriting from UITableViewCell class that shows either an image (left to the title) or a generic dark-colored square if the image is not available). The following code shows a dark square on a light-colored cell background:
imageView = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(11, 6, 40, 40)];
[imageView setBackgroundColor:kBackgroundGreyColour];
[cell.contentView addSubview:imageView];
However, instead of creating a custom subview in each table cell I would rather like to use the existing imageView property of the generic UITableViewCell class and modify it somehow to show the square as the code above does. This is what I am trying at this moment:
UIImageView* iv = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(11, 6, 40, 40)];
[iv setBackgroundColor:[UIColor redColor]];
self.imageView.hidden = NO;
self.imageView.opaque = iv.opaque;
self.imageView.alpha = iv.alpha;
self.imageView.image = iv.image;
[self bringSubviewToFront:self.imageView];
[self.imageView setBackgroundColor:[UIColor redColor]];
I added all those lines to set as many of the existing UIImageView properties to the same values as the created UIImageView instance in the first code snippet, and yet the second code snippet doesn't show any dark square. It just doesn't show anything at all and the cell looks like there is just the light background and no image view visible. But I see that the imageView property is not nil so executing all those lines of code in the second snippet should show something?
However, as soon as I assign a new image to the imageView property (e.g. self.imageView.image = [[UIImage alloc] init...], the square shows the assigned image without problems.
Edit: Just a note that in the second case I am setting the frame of the imageView in layoutSubview function, e.g.:
-(void)layoutSubviews
{
[super layoutSubviews];
self.imageView.frame = CGRectMake(11, 6, 40, 40);
}
So my questions are:
1. Which properties of the existing imageView property I would need to set and to what values so that the code will show a square filled with a specific color (like the first snippet of code does)?
Is there a way of creating the UIImage programatically so that it shows only a background color without any image associated with it (and which I could use to set the imageView.image property to show that color).
Is it possible to replace the existing imageView property in a UITableViewCell class with a custom view without adding a custom subview (like the first code snippet did), so that I can show a placeholder UIView with a background color when the image is not available?
The reason why your code doesn't work, is as you guessed; Because when you set the background colour of an imageview, it doesn't create anything on the image property.
And, you've figured out that you can't directly set the imageview property of the cell either.
I'd say your best bet, is the former option; To create a UIImage programmatically.
Although, I'd highly suggest simply creating one in your favourite image editing software then including it in the bundle. It makes for easy replacement later, for when you may get a better image, and next to no code and effort required to replace.
But if you still wish to do it all programmatically, it's not as simple as you'd hope.
CGRect rect = CGRectMake(11, 6, 40, 40);
UIGraphicsBeginImageContext(rect.size);
CGContextRef context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext();
CGContextSetFillColorWithColor(context, [kBackgroundGreyColour CGColor]);
CGContextFillRect(context, rect);
UIImage *image = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
UIGraphicsEndImageContext();
self.imageview.image = image;
Should do the trick.
This defines the image size, creates a graphics context (think of it as a canvas), picks your grey colour to use, paints the canvas with it, then scans it into your computer into the small little size you wanted.
The little green imp does it all behind the screen (Sorry, too much Terry Pratchett).
I couldn't find anything on how you can center the 'image' when you use (maybe you can't):
[self setBackgroundColor:[UIColor colorWithPatternImage:[UIImage imageNamed:#"background"]]];
Setting my [self setContentMode:UIContentModeCenter]; doesnt help.
Do I have to manually draw the image (either in drawRect or set the content of the CALayer? Which one if preferable?
I think you're on the wrong path here: you create a UIColor from a pattern (pattern already implies this is a repeating image). All in all- you can't have your pattern not repeat and centered.
If you just want simple image as background of your UIView, just add it as a subview and center it.
UIImage* img = [UIImage imageNamed:#"yourfile.png"];
UIImageView* imgView = [[UIImageView alloc]initWithImage: img];
[yourUIView addSubview: imgView];
imgView.center = CGPointMake(yourUIView.frame.size.width/2, yourUIView.frame.size.height/2);
Now - add more subviews to your "yourUIView" view and they'll show on top of the image - thus the image becoming the background.
So... no need to draw anything yourself.