Block ui when keyboard is up - objective-c

I've seen a couple of apps that show a transparent view on top of the current ui while the keyboard is present and if clicked it hides the keyboard. I looked around the web and couldnt find a solution for this problem.

Simply add a UIButton, custom type, the size of your screen and add it to your view when your text field (or other entry) takes focus. Make sure your edit view is brought to the front of its superview at the point you add the button (to ensure the edit view still responds to touch).
Add a target to the button which dismisses the keyboard ([myTextfield resignFirstResponder]) and removes the button.
Also make sure to remove the button when the textField dismisses normally.

Related

Keep textfield above keyboard

I am trying to figure out how to keep the textfield about the keyboard in IOS. I tried the different code on stackoverflow but none works perfectly. Like if the textfield is above the keyboard and I click on the field, it does not move up. How can I show the textfield above the keyboard at all times? thanks!
lakesh's link is an excellent resource to look at.
There are essentially two ways to handle the situation.
Method 1:
You can encapsulate your view inside a UIScrollView and when the keyboard pops up, you should scroll your entire view up an equal distance to account for the space taken up by the keyboard.
Method 2:
Take the ultimate parent UIView inside your current UIViewController and change its frame (ideally with an animation) so that it moves off the top of the screen and makes way for the keyboard.
As a general guide, Method 1 is the preferred method. This is because you can still access the UI 'higher up' in the UIScrollView by scrolling up to it (consider say, a form with multiple fields). In Method 2 the user cannot return to the other elements in the view without the keyboard first being dismissed. Of course, it may be that you don't need to see the rest of the view while accepting keyboard input, but that decision is up to you.

UIText field does not respond to touch after switching view

In my app, I have a text field that works fine, however after going back to the main menu and then back onto the page with the text field, the text field becomes un-touchable, the keyboard does not show no matter how many times you click it.
Here is a screen shot of the interface http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=y11sm&s=6
I think I may have to add code or connect an action with the text field, but how?
Thanks for your time.
You can remove subviews that you don't use anymore like #Kim has already told you or if you need these subviews but they are blocking the action, you can bring your textfield to front using,
[your_view bringSubviewToFront: your_textfield];

How to get the Spotlight-like text input effect in menu bar?

I want to have an icon in the menubar in my Mac app - and the icon should spawn a menu upon clicking. While having more entries in the menu, I would like to have a top row as a universal text entry field - like it is in Spotlight:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3943878/_mine/Screen%20shot%202011-07-16%20at%2012.29.18.png
Is it possible to add such a field to NSMenu? Or should I do it as a panel-type window?
If you're using xcode 4 , make a custom view in interface builder and add a textfield or anything you want to it. In IB also drag and drop a "Menu" from the objects library with as many items as you want in it. Then simply ctrl+click the menu item you want to make into the text field (In your case it would be the top one) and drag to the custom view and select "view". Now when you open the menu, instead of showing a menu item in that space, it shows whatever was in your custom view.
EDIT: As for your comment here's what you should do. Make your menu an outlet by opening the assistant editor view and ctrl+click from your menu to the header file that you want to use. now, simply make a method that will run whenever the menu will open, conveniently apple already made this, it's called menuWillOpen.
- (void)menuWillOpen: nameOfYourMenu{
[self performSelector:#selector(methodExecutedWhenMenuIsClicked) withObject:nil afterDelay:0.0 inModes:[NSArray arrayWithObject:NSRunLoopCommonModes]];
the delay at 0 will make it happen immediately, it must be done in the common modes run loop so that the menu will be updated even while it's open. Now just make the methodExecutedWhenMenuIsClicked and set it so the text field responds.
- (void)methodExecutedWhenMenuIsClicked{
[[yourTextfiled window] makeFirstResponder:yourTextField];
You can put any view in a menu using -[NSMenuItem setView:]. See the long comment in NSMenuItem.h and the section Views in Menus in Application Menu and Pop-up List Programming Topics.
You're probably going to struggle quite a bit. I just tried doing the same thing, and reading the Views in Menus in Application Menu and Pop-up List Programming Topics document referenced by Ahruman, I found this:
A view in a menu item can receive all mouse events as normal, but keyboard events are not supported. During “non-sticky” menu tracking (that is, manipulating menus with the mouse button held down), a view in a menu item receives mouseDragged: events.
I think we're SOL. Apparently Spotlight pops up a borderless window instead.

What is the correct UI guideline for an "Action" button in an iOS application on a UITableView per row?

My iPad (!!) app has a table view as the UISplitViewControllers details controller. To trigger various actions I use the following:
A swipe gesture on the cells to make a button visible that is called "Action".
Touching the action button shows a UIActionSheet with various options (Delete, Send, Download).
Touching one of the buttons in the action sheet triggers the action.
To achieve this behavior I customized the title of the "Delete" button which would normally be shown by the swipe gesture.
Please note that touching the cell itself will open/preview the touched item.
However, my test users complain that they cannot find the action menu because they would never try swiping the cells and if they would, they would do it to delete the entry. But they like that touching the cell previews the item.
Hence my question: what is the correct way of doing it? Show a disclosure button in every row (the little blue arrow to the right)? Show UIBarButtonItem in every row to bring up the action menu?
I'm so against it because it looks ridiculous to have a button in every row.
Sounds like a tricky situation; I'd either:
Add a detail disclosure button to each cell, and have that push a new view controller with the options (like the YouTube app).
Show the options in the "entry" view and have the "swipe" action an extra, discoverable feature (like the Twitter app).

How to do a pop-up window with textfields in Objective-C?

In the iPhone Objective-C app, I want to pop-up a window (which is smaller than the main view, and the app does not stop running) when a button is tapped, with textField for the user to input text, and dismiss it when it is done.
This is widely used but I really cannot google the relevant content out.
What view should I use to connect it with the button? AlertView (which seems you cannot add dialogue in), ModalView?
Are there relevant info somewhere?
Thanks.
Make the popup it's own, full-sized window. Put a UIImageView in behind your popup screen, and duplicate the results of the normal window. That way, it will look like a popup window, but it still has the proper animation speed and everything. If you do it as a real popup, the game itself will slow down and look jumpy.
You can create any view and use UIViewController's presentModalViewController: to display a modal view controller (and even animate it).