Adding UIView on top of all views dynamically during runtime? - iphone

Question

Team,
I am trying to bring a menu in top of all visible views during runtime. This menu should be easily addable and removable dynamically in certain conditions.
To do this, I have tried adding a button view to the UIWindow as a subview during runtime.
UIButton *button = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeRoundedRect];
[button addTarget:self action:nil forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchDown];
[button setTitle:#"Show View" forState:UIControlStateNormal];
button.frame = CGRectMake(80.0, 210.0, 160.0, 40.0);
[window addSubview:button];
[window makeKeyAndVisible];
[window bringSubviewToFront:button];
But it doesnt worked. Also I have tried to place this button in the root view controller, but no luck again.
Edit - Note: This code is not from a UIViewController. I am trying to build a library this will be in that library code. Use case be like you could post NSNotification to enable and disable this menu dynamically during runtime.
Please suggest.
Thanks !

Answer 1

An easier way would be add the menu view to the controller's view. You will have some benefits:
It will handle rotation correctly
You do not mess with window
Taking a look to your code, I should suppose that you are using it inside a view controller, thus you do not need to call [window makeKeyAndVisible]. Also, you are not showing which window you are talking about. Are you creating it? are you using the one of your root view controller?

Answer 2

in appdelgate.h
-(void)addMarketOpenCloseIcon;
in appdelgate.m
#pragma mark Add Market Open Close Label
-(void)addMarketOpenCloseIcon
if (lblMarketOpenClose==nil) {
lblMarketOpenClose=[[UILabel alloc ] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(116,20, 80, 21)];
lblMarketOpenClose.textColor=[UIColor redColor];
[lblMarketOpenClose setBackgroundColor:[UIColor clearColor]];
lblMarketOpenClose.font=[UIFont fontWithName:#"Arial" size:12];
[self.window addSubview:lblMarketOpenClose];
}
}
#pragma mark DidFinishLauch
- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions
{
self.window = [[UIWindow alloc] initWithFrame:[[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds]];
//create all table
LoginViewController *login=[[LoginViewController alloc]initWithNibName:#"LoginViewController" bundle:nil];
navigationController = [[ UINavigationController alloc] initWithRootViewController:login];
[self.window setRootViewController:navigationController];
self.navigationController.navigationBarHidden=YES;
self.window.backgroundColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
[self.window makeKeyAndVisible];
return YES;
}
In LoginViewController.m
- (void)viewDidLoad
{
[super viewDidLoad];
appdelgate=[[UIApplication sharedApplication]delegate];
[appdelgate addMarketOpenCloseIcon];
}

Answer 3

You want to display something that floats over all of the user's views. You want to implement this in a library to be used generically.
That sounds a lot like a UIAlertView. Why not implement it the same way as UIAlertView? Create a new UIWindow and set its windowLevel to UIWindowLevelAlert. Put your “floating” content in your own UIWindow.
You can find some useful tips for creating a second UIWindow in this Q&A.

Answer 4

Create UIWindow object, add the button on it and then add the UIWindow object into [UIApplication sharedApplication].keyWindow
UIWindow *keyWindow = [UIApplication sharedApplication].keyWindow;
UIWindow *buttonWindow = [UIWindow alloc] initWithFrame: self.view.bounds]
UIButton *button = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeRoundedRect];
[button addTarget:self action:nil forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchDown];
[button setTitle:#"Show View" forState:UIControlStateNormal];
button.frame = CGRectMake(80.0, 210.0, 160.0, 40.0);
[buttonWindow addSubview: button];
[keyWindow addSubview: buttonWindow]
[buttonWindow makeKeyAndVisible]
[backgroundWindow bringSubviewToFront:button];