Custom UIView can't assign values to subviews - ios

Question

I have a UIView subclass and it is connected with a xib. I am not creating views in layoutSubviews method and only in xib. Its confusing when to use self.ivar and _ivar. I tried to set the text for a textField which is a subview of my UIView subclass. Can anyone help me?? I tried to set or get the text to my textfield from my viewController. But I can't succeed. Here is a code.
Here it is my UIView custom class DateRangeView.m
#import "DateRangeView.h"
#implementation DateRangeView
#synthesize tfStartDate = _tfStartDate;
#synthesize tfEndDate = _tfEndDate;
#synthesize startDate = _startDate;
#synthesize endDate = _endDate;
#synthesize dateFormatter = _dateFormatter;
#synthesize datePicker = _datePicker;
- (id)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame
{
self = [super initWithFrame:frame];
if (self) {
// Initialization code
NSArray *topLevelObjects = [[NSBundle mainBundle] loadNibNamed:#"DateRangeView" owner:self options:nil];
[self addSubview:[topLevelObjects objectAtIndex:0]];
[self baseInit];
}
return self;
}
- (id)initWithCoder:(NSCoder *)aDecoder {
self = [super initWithCoder:aDecoder];
if (self) {
// Initialization code
[self baseInit];
}
return self;
}
- (void)baseInit {
NSDateFormatter *df = [[NSDateFormatter alloc]init];
[df setDateStyle:NSDateFormatterMediumStyle];
_dateFormatter = df;
_startDate = [NSDate date];
_endDate = [NSDate date];
}
- (void)awakeFromNib {
[super awakeFromNib];
_datePicker = [[UIDatePicker alloc]initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 200, 320, 216)];
[_datePicker setDatePickerMode:UIDatePickerModeDate];
[_datePicker setDate:[NSDate date]];
_tfStartDate.inputView = _datePicker;
_tfEndDate.inputView = _datePicker;
UIToolbar *keyboardToolbar = [[UIToolbar alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0,self.frame.size.width, 44)];
UIBarButtonItem *cancelBtn = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:#"Cancel" style:UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered target:self action:#selector(cancelButtonPressed:)];
UIBarButtonItem *flexibleSpace = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithBarButtonSystemItem:UIBarButtonSystemItemFlexibleSpace target:nil action:nil];
UIBarButtonItem *doneButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithBarButtonSystemItem:UIBarButtonSystemItemDone target:self action:#selector(doneButtonPressed:)];
[keyboardToolbar setItems:[[NSArray alloc] initWithObjects:cancelBtn, flexibleSpace, doneButton, nil]];
[keyboardToolbar setTranslucent:YES];
[keyboardToolbar setTintColor:[UIColor blackColor]];
[_tfStartDate setInputAccessoryView:keyboardToolbar];
[_tfEndDate setInputAccessoryView:keyboardToolbar];
_tfStartDate.text = [_dateFormatter stringFromDate:_startDate];
_tfEndDate.text = [_dateFormatter stringFromDate:_endDate];
}
- (void)doneButtonPressed:(id)sender {
if ([_tfStartDate isFirstResponder]) {
self.startDate = _datePicker.date;
[_tfStartDate resignFirstResponder];
}else if ([_tfEndDate isFirstResponder]) {
self.endDate = _datePicker.date;
[_tfEndDate resignFirstResponder];
}
}
- (void)cancelButtonPressed:(id)sender {
[_tfStartDate resignFirstResponder];
[_tfEndDate resignFirstResponder];
}
- (void)setStartDate:(NSDate *)startDate {
_startDate = startDate;
_tfStartDate.text = [_dateFormatter stringFromDate:_startDate];
}
- (void)setEndDate:(NSDate *)endDate {
_endDate = endDate;
_tfEndDate.text = [_dateFormatter stringFromDate:_endDate];
}
Here is my code for adding view into viewcontroller and assigning text to textfield and tried to getting the text? But i am not successful in both setting and getting the text.
rangeView = [[DateRangeView alloc]initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 320, 150)];
[self.view addSubview:rangeView];
rangeView.startDate = [NSDate date];
NSCalendar *calendar = [NSCalendar currentCalendar];
NSDateComponents *startDateComponents = [calendar components:NSDayCalendarUnit fromDate:[NSDate date]];
[startDateComponents setDay:5];
NSDate *beginDate = [calendar dateByAddingComponents:startDateComponents toDate:[NSDate date] options:0];
rangeView.endDate = beginDate;
NSLog(#"start %#", rangeView.tfStartDate.text);
NSLog(#"end %#", rangeView.tfEndDate.text);
Log shows null.. Any help would be appreciated. I have attached a whole code of my UIView only to understand what I am doing.

Answer 1

In your code, I cannot see the initialization for self.tfStartDate and self.tfEndDate.
So, there are 2 possibilities:
they are meant to be IBOutlets: then, check in your nib file that they are also connected to the relevant views;
they are not defined in your xib: in this case just initialize them in viewDidLoad.
As to the use of self.ivar vs. _ivar, the only difference is in the fact that the former will handle reference counting for you; with the latter, you have to do it yourself. So, in this case it is not relevant which one you are using. The issue lies with their initialization so that they reference your subviews correctly.