UIButton and UIViewContoller IOS7 - objective-c

Question

I'm new to ObjC and I'm trying to create Button outside ViewController file (following MVC paradigm).
What I did:
.h
#interface MainMenu : UIButton
-(UIButton *)addButton;
#end
.m
#implementation MainMenu
-(UIButton *)addButton {
UIButton* button = [[UIButton alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(50.0, 50.0, 200.0, 75.0)];
[button setBackgroundColor:[UIColor colorWithRed:1.0
green:1.0
blue:0.0
alpha:1.0]];
[button setTitle:#"TITLE"
forState:UIControlStateNormal];
return button;
}
#end
In ViewController I want to create button on the screen and make it respond to touch event. So
.m
#implementation ViewController
-(void)viewDidLoad {
[super viewDidLoad];
MainMenu *menuButton = [[MainMenu alloc] init];
[menuButton addTarget:self
action:#selector(ButtonClick)
forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];
[self.view addSubview:menuButton];
}
-(void)ButtonClick {
NSLog(#"You clicked on button!!!");
}
#end
I can make it work by implementing all in ViewController.m file, but wish I could have then separated. This code above doesnt show me a button
Second thing: I tried to add addTarget:action:forControlEvents: method to MainMenu.m instead of ViewController.m and I couldnt make it work properly because I need to pass ViewController as a target and method ButtonClick from ViewController.m as a selector (I guess)
So I'm interesting how to make it right according to MVC?
Thanks!

Answer 1

They way you are doing is bit wrong, as you subclassing UIButton and then you have instance method addButton which returns a button, don't make sense. Either you can add Class level method or just subclass and add another init method to fulfill your requirements.
Better would be if you want to create a custom button and want to add target action also do something like this
#interface CustomButton : UIButton
- (instancetype)initWithTarget:(id)target andAction:(SEL)action;
#end
in .m file
#implementation CustomButton
- (instancetype)initWithTarget:(id)target andAction:(SEL)action {
self = [super initWithFrame::CGRectMake(50.0, 50.0, 200.0, 75.0)];
if (self) {
[self setBackgroundColor:[UIColor colorWithRed:1.0
green:1.0
blue:0.0
alpha:1.0]];
[self setTitle:#"TITLE"
forState:UIControlStateNormal];
[self addTarget:target
action:action
forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];
}
return self;
}
#end
and you can just use it like this anywhere
[self.view addSubView:[CustomButton alloc] initWithTarget:self andAction:#selector(name)]];

Answer 2

You are almost there. Here is what you have done right:
1) Subclassed UIButton to MainMenu class. (I would typically call this MainMenuButton or something more specific)
2) Set up, created, and configured an instance of MainMenu in ViewController.
Here is what you did wrong:
1) Did not implement a custom init method
2) Tried to setFrame from within the subclass, this should be done from ViewController
3) You need to make modifications to self, which is the current instance of the subclass, not a new variable called button
The addButton method will never be called, since there is nothing to call it. When customizing a UIButton subclass you will want to do all of this in a custom init method. Try replacing your addButton method with this code:
#implementation MainMenu
-(id)init {
self = [super init];
if(self) {
[self setBackgroundColor:[UIColor colorWithRed:1.0
green:1.0
blue:0.0
alpha:1.0]];
[self setTitle:#"TITLE"
forState:UIControlStateNormal];
}
return self;
}
#end
Then in ViewController create an instance of your MainMenu subclass, set the frame, and configure as you did previously. This init method will be called when you call [[MainMenu alloc] init]; and will configure the subclass before returning it to ViewController.
#implementation ViewController
-(void)viewDidLoad {
[super viewDidLoad];
MainMenu *menuButton = [[MainMenu alloc] init];
[menuButton setFrame:CGRectMake(50.0, 50.0, 200.0, 75.0)];
[menuButton addTarget:self
action:#selector(ButtonClick)
forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];
[self.view addSubview:menuButton];
}
-(void)ButtonClick {
NSLog(#"You clicked on button!!!");
}
#end