Setting animation to always come up - iphone

Question

I made a textfield who's first responder is a datePicker. I also attached a toolBar to to a view, so when the textfield is tapped, the toolbar slides up with an animation. Then on the toolBar their is a done button that resigns the first responder. I also want it to remove the toolBar. To do this I added this
[pickerBar removeFromSuperview];
Then to reopen it I did this
[self.view addSubview:pickerBar];
So it is activated when the textview is touched.
The problem is when I tap the textfield again the toolBar loses its navigation.
Heres most of the code
pickerBar = [[UIToolbar alloc] init];
pickerBar.barStyle=UIBarStyleBlackOpaque;
[pickerBar sizeToFit];
if([[UIDevice currentDevice] userInterfaceIdiom] == UIUserInterfaceIdiomPhone && [UIScreen mainScreen].bounds.size.height == 568.0) {
CGRect pickerBarRect = CGRectMake(0, 568, 320, 44);
[pickerBar setFrame:pickerBarRect];
} else {
CGRect pickerBarRect = CGRectMake(0, 480, 320, 44);
[pickerBar setFrame:pickerBarRect];
}
//Set up the new position of the frame of the view
NSMutableArray *barItems = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
UIBarButtonItem *flexSpace = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithBarButtonSystemItem:UIBarButtonSystemItemFlexibleSpace target:self action:nil];
[barItems addObject:flexSpace];
UIBarButtonItem *doneBtn = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithBarButtonSystemItem:UIBarButtonSystemItemDone target:self action:#selector(releasePicker)];
[barItems addObject:doneBtn];
[barItems addObject:doneBtn];
[pickerBar setItems:barItems animated:YES];
}
}
}
- (void)releasePicker {
[textfield resignFirstResponder];
[pickerBar removeFromSuperview];
}
- (void)pickerActivated {
[UIView animateWithDuration:.4 animations:^(void) {
[self.view addSubview:pickerBar];
if([[UIDevice currentDevice] userInterfaceIdiom] == UIUserInterfaceIdiomPhone && [UIScreen mainScreen].bounds.size.height == 568.0){
CGRect rect = CGRectMake(0, 266, 320, 44);
[pickerBar setFrame:rect];
pickerBar.hidden = NO;
} else {
CGRect rect = CGRectMake(0, 178, 320, 44);
[pickerBar setFrame:rect];
}
}];
}

Answer 1

There is a difference between inputView and inputAccessoryView. This is what you want:
// setting the inputView
UIPickerView *pickerView = [[UIPickerView alloc] init];
// other configurations //
self.textField.inputView = pickerView;
// setting up the inputAccessoryView
UIToolbar *pickerBar = [[UIToolbar alloc] init];
pickerBar.barStyle = UIBarStyleBlackOpaque;
[pickerBar sizeToFit];
UIBarButtonItem *flexSpace = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithBarButtonSystemItem:UIBarButtonSystemItemFlexibleSpace
target:self
action:nil];
UIBarButtonItem *doneBtn = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithBarButtonSystemItem:UIBarButtonSystemItemDone
target:self
action:#selector(releasePicker)];
[pickerBar setItems:#[flexSpace, doneBtn] animated:YES];
self.textField.inputAccessoryView = pickerBar;
This way the tool bar will be "attached" to your inputView and will automatically come up when the the text field is activated and disappear when your picker does!
Edit/Update
I did find this link that may help you, if you are interested in using a IB focused approach:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/10705161/1429262

Answer 2

Far simpler is to use the inputAccessoryView property on UITextField. It is irrelevant whether your inputView is a keyboard or a picker. Set your toolbar as the inputAccessoryView and it will animate in on top of your picker with the done button and then animate out on resignFirstResponder.