Avoid code repetition when coding UIButtons in iOS - ios

Question

I'm pretty new to iOS programming and Objective-C in general, so this question has probably been asked quiet a few times. Anyway:
In my iOS app, I have several UIButtons that I create the following way:
UIButton *webButton = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeCustom];
[webButton addTarget:self action:#selector(buttonPressed:) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];
webButton.frame = CGRectMake(10, 315, 300, 44);
[webButton setBackgroundImage:[UIImage imageNamed:#"WebButton.png"] forState:UIControlStateNormal];
[webButton setBackgroundImage:[UIImage imageNamed:#"WebButtonPressed.png"] forState:UIControlStateHighlighted];
Since I want the title of the button to be easily editable, I then add UILabels to the button instead of having them be part of the image used as the buttons background image.
UILabel *webLabel = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 14, 300, 15)];
webLabel.text = #"Some website";
webLabel.font = [UIFont boldSystemFontOfSize:16.0];
webLabel.textColor = [UIColor colorWithRed:62.0 / 255 green:135.0 / 255 blue:203.0 / 255 alpha:1];
webLabel.textAlignment = UITextAlignmentCenter;
webLabel.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
[webButton addSubview:webLabel];
[webLabel release];
This gets very tedious, when you have to go through this procedure every single time you want to create a new button. What is the best way to simplify this process, so I don't have to repeat myself over and over again when coding buttons?
Thanks.

Answer 1

I suspect want you want to do is to create a subclass of UIButton. That way you write your code once, but use it for any number of buttons. Something a bit like this:
// in your .h file
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#interface WebButton : UIButton
+ (WebButton*) webButtonWithBackgroundImageNamed: (NSString*) imageName title: (NSString*) string andTarget: (id) target;
#end
// in your .m file
#import "WebButton.h"
#implementation WebButton
+ (WebButton*) webButtonWithBackgroundImageNamed: (NSString*) imageName title: (NSString*) string andTarget: (id) target;
{
WebButton *webButton = [WebButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeCustom];
[webButton addTarget:target action:#selector(buttonPressed:) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];
webButton.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, 300, 44);
[webButton setBackgroundImage:[UIImage imageNamed: imageName] forState:UIControlStateNormal];
[webButton setBackgroundImage:[UIImage imageNamed: [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#pressed", imageName]] forState:UIControlStateHighlighted];
UILabel *webLabel = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 14, 300, 15)];
webLabel.text = string;
webLabel.font = [UIFont boldSystemFontOfSize:16.0];
webLabel.textColor = [UIColor colorWithRed:62.0 / 255 green:135.0 / 255 blue:203.0 / 255 alpha:1];
webLabel.textAlignment = UITextAlignmentCenter;
webLabel.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
[webButton addSubview:webLabel];
[webLabel release];
return webButton;
}
And then to create and add the button to a view something a bit like this:
WebButton* webButton = [WebButton webButtonWithBackgroundImageNamed:#"WebButton" title:#"testing" andTarget:self];
CGRect webButtonFrame = [webButton frame];
webButtonFrame.origin.x = 10;
webButtonFrame.origin.y = 30;
[webButton setFrame:webButtonFrame];
[[self window] addSubview:webButton];