Unable to find textfield's next responder - objective-c

Question

I am trying to cycle/navigate through the UITextFields which I added as subviews to the UITableViewCells. However I am unable to get my nextResponder value in the textFieldShouldReturn: method. Can anyone advise me where my code went wrong?
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
static NSString* PlaceholderCellIdentifier = #"PlaceholderCell";
UITableViewCell* cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:PlaceholderCellIdentifier];
if (cell == nil)
{
cell = [[[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleSubtitle reuseIdentifier:PlaceholderCellIdentifier] autorelease];
cell.selectionStyle = UITableViewCellSelectionStyleNone;
cell.textLabel.font = [UIFont boldSystemFontOfSize:14];
}
if (indexPath.row == 0) // first name
{
cell.textLabel.text = #"First Name:";
UITextField *tempFirstNameField = [[UITextField alloc]initWithFrame:CGRectMake(100, (44-18)/2, 320-100, 32)];
self.firstNameField = tempFirstNameField;
self.firstNameField.font = [UIFont systemFontOfSize:14];
self.firstNameField.tag = 1;
self.firstNameField.returnKeyType = UIReturnKeyNext;
self.firstNameField.delegate = self;
[tempFirstNameField release];
[cell.contentView addSubview:self.firstNameField];
}
else if (indexPath.row == 1) //last name
{
cell.textLabel.text = #"Last Name:";
UITextField *tempLastNameField = [[UITextField alloc]initWithFrame:CGRectMake(100, (44-18)/2, 320-100, 32)];
self.lastNameField = tempLastNameField;
self.lastNameField.font = [UIFont systemFontOfSize:14];
self.lastNameField.tag = 2;
self.lastNameField.returnKeyType = UIReturnKeyNext;
self.lastNameField.delegate = self;
[tempLastNameField release];
[cell.contentView addSubview:self.lastNameField];
}
return cell;
}
-(BOOL)textFieldShouldReturn:(UITextField*)textField;
{
NSInteger nextTag = textField.tag + 1;
NSLog(#"next tag %i",nextTag);
// Try to find next responder
UIResponder* nextResponder = [textField.superview.superview viewWithTag:nextTag];
//This always returns me null value
NSLog(#"next responder %#", nextResponder);
if (nextResponder) {
// Found next responder, so set it.
[nextResponder becomeFirstResponder];
} else {
// Not found, so remove keyboard.
[textField resignFirstResponder];
}
return NO; // We do not want UITextField to insert line-breaks.
}

Answer 1

Why do you need a tableView for that, your fields seem to be static. Use a simple scrollview if the content is larger than you screen.
To loop your fields you can :
1/ use a container view for all controls you want in your navigation loop and simply loop in your subviews NSArray
2/ best choice. Use the NSUInteger tag field to set the order in which the controls should get the focus. Begin at non-zero value because 0 is the default tag value. 10,11,12,13 and use viewWithTag: on your container view to retrieve the next control.

Answer 2

UITableView is not an array - it may reload or even release any cell when it's invisible.
If you would like to operate created cells - it's better to create them all, put in an array and then display them from the array. I.e. create them all before table start loading, but not in cellForRowAtIndexPath method. It may be done in ViewWillAppear, for example.
In this case all of your objects will be retained by the array and not released until you wish to.