UIView (subclass) trying to present UIImagePickerController - ios

Question

I have a parent view that allows you to see post in a UITableView. In its Navigation Bar I have a post button that when pressed presents a UIView subclass and shows it on the top of the screen. I have an image on that UIView that when tapped I want to present the UIImagePickerController to allow users to pick an image to post to the service. How can I do this since my subview is not a view controller it cannot present the UIImagePickerController.
Below is my subview code.
#import "PostView.h"
#implementation PostView
#synthesize attachedLabel;
#synthesize postButton;
#synthesize textView;
#synthesize characterLimit;
#synthesize attachImage;
- (id)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame
{
self = [super initWithFrame:frame];
if (self) {
originalFrame = frame;
NSArray *xib = [[NSBundle mainBundle] loadNibNamed:#"PostView" owner:self options:nil];
PostView *view = [xib objectAtIndex:0];
[view setBackgroundColor:[UIColor whiteColor]];
[view setAlpha:0.7f];
attachedLabel = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(204, 212, 56, 21)];
attachedLabel.textColor = [UIColor blackColor];
[attachedLabel setText:#"Attached"];
attachedLabel.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
attachedLabel.font = [UIFont fontWithName:text_font_name size:12.0];
characterLimit = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(246, 13, 50, 21)];
[characterLimit setTextAlignment:NSTextAlignmentRight];
characterLimit.textColor = [UIColor blackColor];
characterLimit.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
characterLimit.font = [UIFont fontWithName:text_font_name size:12.0];
attachImage = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(270, 208, 30, 30)];
[attachImage setImage:[UIImage imageNamed:#"attachphoto30x30.png"]];
[self.textView setDelegate:self];
[self.textView setAlpha:0.7f];
[self.textView setTextColor:[UIColor whiteColor]];
[self.textView setBackgroundColor:[UIColor clearColor]];
self.layer.cornerRadius = 10.0f;
self.layer.masksToBounds = YES;
[self addSubview:view];
[self addSubview:characterLimit];
[self addSubview:attachedLabel];
[self addSubview:attachImage];
}
return self;
}
- (IBAction)openCamera:(id)sender
{
UIImagePickerController *controller = [[UIImagePickerController alloc] init];
controller.delegate = self;
//[self presentViewController:controller animated:YES completion:nil];
NSLog(#"%#", #"Image Tapped");
}
-(void)imagePickerController:(UIImagePickerController*)picker didFinishPickingMediaWithInfo:(NSDictionary*)info
{
/*[picker dismissViewControllerAnimated:YES completion:nil];
UIImage *image = [info objectForKey: UIImagePickerControllerOriginalImage];
UIImage *scale = [image scaleToSize:CGSizeMake(320.0f, 548.0f)];
imageData = UIImageJPEGRepresentation(scale, 1);
encodedImage = [self Base64Encode:imageData];
[attachedLabel setHidden:NO];
*/
}
#pragma mark Custom alert methods
- (IBAction)postAction:(id)sender
{
[self hide];
}
- (void)show
{
//prepare attachImage
attachImage.userInteractionEnabled = YES;
UITapGestureRecognizer *tapAttach = [[UITapGestureRecognizer alloc]
initWithTarget:self action:#selector(openCamera:)];
tapAttach.numberOfTapsRequired = 1;
[self.attachImage addGestureRecognizer:tapAttach];
isShown = YES;
self.transform = CGAffineTransformMakeScale(0.1, 0.1);
self.alpha = 0;
[UIView beginAnimations:#"showAlert" context:nil];
[self setBackgroundColor:[UIColor clearColor]];
[UIView setAnimationDelegate:self];
self.transform = CGAffineTransformMakeScale(1.1, 1.1);
self.alpha = 1;
[UIView commitAnimations];
}
- (void)hide
{
isShown = NO;
[UIView beginAnimations:#"hideAlert" context:nil];
[UIView setAnimationDelegate:self];
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] postNotificationName:#"hidePostView_Notification" object:nil];
self.transform = CGAffineTransformMakeScale(0.1, 0.1);
self.alpha = 0;
[UIView commitAnimations];
}
- (void)toggle
{
if (isShown)
{
[self hide];
} else
{
[self show];
}
}
#pragma mark Animation delegate
- (void)animationDidStop:(NSString *)animationID finished:(NSNumber *)finished context:(void *)context
{
if ([animationID isEqualToString:#"showAlert"])
{
if (finished)
{
[UIView beginAnimations:nil context:nil];
self.transform = CGAffineTransformMakeScale(1.0, 1.0);
[UIView commitAnimations];
}
} else if ([animationID isEqualToString:#"hideAlert"])
{
if (finished)
{
self.transform = CGAffineTransformMakeScale(1.0, 1.0);
self.frame = originalFrame;
}
}
}
- (BOOL)textViewShouldBeginEditing:(UITextView *)textView
{
return YES;
}
- (BOOL)textView:(UITextView *)textViewer shouldChangeTextInRange:(NSRange)range replacementText:(NSString *)string
{
if ([string isEqualToString:#"\n"])
{
[textViewer resignFirstResponder];
}
return [self isAcceptableTextLength:textViewer.text.length + string.length - range.length];
}
-(IBAction)checkIfCorrectLength:(id)sender
{
if (![self isAcceptableTextLength:self.textView.text.length])
{
// do something to make text shorter
}
}
- (BOOL)isAcceptableTextLength:(NSUInteger)length
{
return length <= 160;
}
- (void)textViewDidChange:(UITextView *)textViewer
{
NSString *characters = [[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%d", textViewer.text.length] stringByAppendingString:#"/160"];
NSLog(#"%#", characters);
[self updateDisplay:characters];
}
-(void) updateDisplay : (NSString *)str
{
[self.characterLimit performSelectorOnMainThread : # selector(setText : ) withObject:str waitUntilDone:YES];
}
#end

Answer 1

Yes, you can not present a viewcontroller from a UIView subclass.
To solve this problem, you can use your subview's superview's viewcontroller class. calling [self.superview nextResponder] in your subview will return you the superview's viewcontroller. Using that you can present your UIImagePicker view controller. To use the presentViewController method, you should cast [self.superview nextResponder] to your parentviewcontroller's class type. Also make sure you import parentview controller.h inside subview.m file
[(YourParentViewController *)[self.superview nextResponder] presentViewController:controller animated:YES completion:nil];

Answer 2

You should present a UIViewController subclass rather than a UIView subclass.
I would also say that UIViewController should be responsible for handling data and operational logic for its views. Check out some of the docs:
View Controller Basics:
http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#featuredarticles/ViewControllerPGforiPhoneOS/AboutViewControllers/AboutViewControllers.html
UIViewController Class Reference:
http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#featuredarticles/ViewControllerPGforiPhoneOS/AboutViewControllers/AboutViewControllers.html