How to Reference UIImageView (Xcode iOS) - ios

Question

I've just started learning the basics of Xcode and Objective C and I am making a basic torch app as a starting point.
I've already picked up most of the basics of things, but I don't know how to make a reference to another element from an separate action (I have no idea if this terminology is correct).
For example:
- (IBAction)screenButtonClicked:(id)sender {
UIButton *button = (UIButton *)sender;
if (_ScreenOnOff) {
[self.view setBackgroundColor:[UIColor blackColor]];
[button setTitle:#"Screen (Off)" forState: UIControlStateNormal];
}
else {
[self.view setBackgroundColor:[UIColor whiteColor]];
[button setTitle:#"Screen (On)" forState: UIControlStateNormal];
}
_ScreenOnOff = !_ScreenOnOff;
}
I have a button on the storyboard which is linked to that, and I have a UIImageView which I want to show and hide (depending on the if's).
I've looked everywhere about how to do this and put it as many ways as I can into Google, but no luck.
This might be a baby step in Objective C, but please help as it will teach me.
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Declare an IBOutlet for the UIImageView in the header file:
#property (weak) IBOutlet UIImageView *myImageView;
After that, connect the UIImageView to this IBOutlet in Interface Builder.
Then, you can reference (and hide it) like:
self.myImageView.hidden = _ScreenOnOff;
in your implementation file.
See also: Creating and Connecting an Outlet

Answer 2

This action is probably owned by your view controller. If your view controller has a UIImageView property named 'imageView' you can access it from inside your action just like you're doing with the _ScreenOnOff.
To hide your image view you could do something like this:
self.imageView.hidden = YES;
Note that it is important to use self.imageView and self.ScreenOnOff instead of accessing directly the property by _imageView. When you declare a property in your class (be it an IBOutlet or not) the compiler synthesizes accessor methods to that property (get and sets). So when you call self.ScreenOnOff it would be the similar of doing [self ScreenOnOff].
The only places where you will access the property directly by '_' is inside init and dealloc methods. '- (void) viewDidLoad' is on type of init method. I guess you want something like this:
- (IBAction)screenButtonClicked:(id)sender {
UIButton *button = (UIButton *)sender;
if (self.ScreenOnOff) {
[self.view setBackgroundColor:[UIColor blackColor]];
[button setTitle:#"Screen (Off)" forState: UIControlStateNormal];
self.imageView.hidden = YES;
}
else {
[self.view setBackgroundColor:[UIColor whiteColor]];
[button setTitle:#"Screen (On)" forState: UIControlStateNormal];
self.imageView.hidden = NO;
}
self.ScreenOnOff = !self.ScreenOnOff;
}
I hope that helps.