How do I 'share' pieces of code throughout my whole app? - objective-c

Question

I am working on a simple app. This app has various textfields that require the 'Done' button in a toolbar.
Currently, this toolbar requires <10 lines of code, but I dislike the fact that for every textfield in every viewController I need to add those lines.
So, is there a way to shorten this 'toolbar setup'? Ideally, I would need to call a single method containing all I need:
[self addDefaultToolbar:field]
But then again adding this method everywhere I need seems a bit 'dirty' (maybe this is not clear enough, self implies that within the controller there's a method called addDefaultToolBar).
So this is what I tried:
I made a nice folder, an header and an .m file. In the header I put this:
#ifndef UIUtils_h
#define UIUtils_h
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#interface UIUtils : NSObject
-(void)addDefaultToolbar:(UITextField *)field;
#end
#endif /* UIUtils_h */
And in the .m file I put this:
#import "UIUtils.h"
#implementation UIUtils
-(void)addDefaultToolbar:(UITextField *)field{
UIToolbar *textFieldToolbar = [[UIToolbar alloc] init];
[textFieldToolbar sizeToFit];
UIBarButtonItem *doneButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithBarButtonSystemItem:UIBarButtonSystemItemDone target:self action:#selector(doneClick)];
UIBarButtonItem *flexSpace = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithBarButtonSystemItem:UIBarButtonSystemItemFlexibleSpace target:self action:nil];
[textFieldToolbar setItems:[NSArray arrayWithObjects:flexSpace, doneButton, nil] animated:NO];
field.inputAccessoryView = textFieldToolbar;
}
-(void)doneClick
{
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] sendAction:#selector(resignFirstResponder) to:nil from:nil forEvent:nil];
}
#end
And then I call this from where I need it, like this:
#import "UIUtils.h"
UIUtils *utils = [[UIUtils alloc] init];
[utils addDefaultToolbar:field];
Now, unfortunately, the button doesn't work. The keyboard should be dismissed but it isn't. Secondly, I have no idea if I am doing this right.
How do I do this properly?
Edit:
Further research indicates that the doneClick method is not being called at all. It does work if I add doneClick to the viewController, but this kinda defeats the purpose of what I'm trying to achieve here.

Answer 1

What you want is a toolbar that takes care of its own button press. You can create one of those.
#interface MYDefaultToolBar : UIToolbar
#end
#implementation MYDefaultToolBar
- (instancetype)init
{
self = [self initWithFrame: CGRectZero];
if (self) {
[self sizeToFit];
UIBarButtonItem *doneButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithBarButtonSystemItem:UIBarButtonSystemItemDone
target:self action:#selector(doneClick)];
UIBarButtonItem *flexSpace = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithBarButtonSystemItem:UIBarButtonSystemItemFlexibleSpace
target:self action:nil];
[self setItems:[NSArray arrayWithObjects:flexSpace, doneButton, nil] animated:NO];
}
return self;
}
-(void)doneClick
{
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] sendAction:#selector(resignFirstResponder) to:nil from:nil forEvent:nil];
}
#end
Then you want to be able to add it to text fields. I'd probably recommend doing that by hand:
textField.inputAccessoryView = [MYDefaultToolBar new];
This is very clear that it's modifying the inputAccessoryView (so if something else in the same code also modifies the inputAccessoryView, it'll be more obvious that there's a conflict). But you can also do this with a category, particularly if it were more complex.
#interface UITextField (AddDefaultToolBar)
- (void)my_addDefaultToolBar;
#end
#implementation UITextField (AddDefaultToolBar)
- (void)my_addDefaultToolBar {
self.inputAccessoryView = [MYDefaultToolBar new];
}
Or you could modify -[MYDefaultToolBar init] to take a text field, and add itself.