What's the difference between UIControlStateHighlighted and UIControlStateSelected? - iphone

I am trying to set a state for UIButton.
But i don't know the difference between the UIControlStateHighlighted and UIControlStateSelected.
Could anyone help me out?
Thanks and best regards.

They can mean whatever you want them to, but in general they mean the following:
Highlighted = The user is currently interacting with something that will change once they stop interacting (e.g. holding down a button)
Selected = The item is current the active item in a group (e.g. The selected item in a segmented control). This can only be achieved by setting it programmatically.

UIControlStateHighlighted = it highlights the button with some flash(in button background) when the user taps.
UIControlStateSelected = it highlights nothing to that button.

From the official doc:
UIControlStateHighlighted Highlighted state of a control. A control
enters this state when a touch enters and exits during tracking and
when there is a touch up event. You can retrieve and set this value
through the highlighted property.
UIControlStateSelected Selected state of a control. For many controls,
this state has no effect on behavior or appearance. But other
subclasses (for example, the UISegmentedControl class) may have
different appearance depending on their selected state. You can
retrieve and set this value through the selected property.
Your button get highlighted in reaction of a touch event. It could then be on a selected state within a group (for segmented control).

Highlighted is typically applied transiently when the control is being touched, selected is a more permanent state. Imagine a checkbox type button which dimmed while it was being touched - dimming is highlighted, ticked is selected, unticked is unselected.
Typically you'd never set highlighted status manually as the system will be setting/unsettling it in response to touches, whereas selected is safer. This particularly applies to buttons.

Related

Highlight controls programmatically

I have many controls like, image views, labels (UIControls), which have I wish to show like a dual mode controls. i.e. Based on my data, I have to set them either with image 1 or image 2 (for a image view), similarly with the label. I tried accomplishing this using the highlighted state properties of image view and labels. For the image view, I gave one image reference for highlighted and another for normal.
however when I programmatically set the highlighted property to yes, they are not toggling between them. Is there something I'm missing?
From the documentation:
Highlighted state of a control. A control enters this state when a
touch enters and exits during tracking and when there is a touch up
event. You can retrieve and set this value through the highlighted
property.
So, you don't set the highlighted property. Try setSelected.
Have you seen this related topic: Highlighting a UIControl subclass?
Use selected state instead. I think highlighted state is a transient state.
Try this out:
if([imgeview isselected]){
[imageview setselected:NO];
}else{
[imageview setselected:YES];
}

my UISegmentControl placed in a tableHeaderView doesn't change

when i click on a button of my segmentcontrol i see interaction(i.e thing happen the way they should) but the buttons clicked don't gate darker (to show that they are selected). Any ideas why this happens?
There are two check boxes in the Segmentcotrol's Attributes setting in IB that might effect the behavior that you encountered: State: Momentary and Behavior: Enabled.

UIButton states

I am making multiple custom buttons that look much like this:
It is a simple button with either the green or gray in the "indicator view". What I need some explanation for is: In interfacebuilder there are four states a button can have; Normal, Highlighted, Selected and Disabled. When I provide images for everything except disabled I thought that normal would be when no touches were made on the button, highlighted is while you hold your finger on it and selected would be when after you release finger.
However I do not think thats right now. I use the touch-up-inside event. Is it correct that I need to set the selected/highlighted etc property on the button?
Thank you for your time.
You might want to set to selected and not highlighted.
Highlight is darkening the button for a fraction when touching the UIButton. UIButton can modify your image automaticaly so usually you don't need to provide a highlight image.
Disabled is when it is disabled.
Selected is when it is selected. You can invert the select flag on touch up inside event to make a state button.
[button setSelected:![button isSelected]];
Yes, you need to respond to the touch up inside by setting the button to highlighted.
Btw, it's "disabled" not deselected, but it doesn't sound like you need that state.

Making Segments start in a state where nothing is selected

I have a UISegmentControl where I'd like if none of the segments are selected when the segment first loads.
Is this possible or do I need to write some custom control?
Many Thanks,
-Code
Just uncheck the 'selected' checkbox for each segment in the Interface Builder Inspector.
EDIT:
If you are doing it through code, this should happen by default. See the discussion for selectedSegmentIndex -
// ignored in momentary mode. returns last segment pressed. default is UISegmentedControlNoSegment until a segment is pressed
// the UIControlEventValueChanged action is invoked when the segment changes via a user event. set to UISegmentedControlNoSegment to turn off selection
#property(nonatomic) NSInteger selectedSegmentIndex;
value of UISegmentedControlNoSegment is -1. So no segment will be selected by default

iphone - forcing button to acknowledge touch programmatically

When you touch a UIButton it hides for a fraction of second and then it executes its action. This fast "blink" is the feedback the user needs to know that the button has been clicked.
In the project I am doing, I need to select the button programmatically, as if the user had clicked it. In other words, the same behavior has the button had been clicked by the user... a fast blink and execution of its action.
Is this possible to do?
thanks for any help.
The change in the appearance of the button is effected by setting the button's highlighted property. The property is automatically set to YES when the user touches down on the button, and back to NO when she releases.
The highlighted property is writable, so you can set it YES yourself to simulate a touch down. You'll probably want to use +[NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval:invocation:repeats:] to set it back to NO after a short interval.
It is pretty simple, and probably there is a better solution.
First, use images to your button, and when you have to fire the button, you just change the button's image in the normal state to the pressed image, and after that, replace it back to the original. You can simply do it with a timer.