Method to create UIButtons - iphone

Question

this is my first post, any help would be greatly appreciated.
I have to create a number of UIButtons programmatically, which I have done, but the code gets quite messy when there are alot of buttons so I have written a method that will take a UIbutton, string and UIcolor as input and set the rest of the UIButton attributes for me. The problem is the buttons don't seem to be created. Is what I'm trying possible or am I going about it the wrong way.
The method
-(void)makeButton:(UIButton *)name titleOfButton:(NSString *)title buttonColor:(UIColor *)color {
name =[[UIButton alloc] initWithFrame:(CGRectMake(400,400,150,100))];
[name setAlpha:(0.5)];
[name setBackgroundColor: color];
[name setTitle:title forState:UIControlStateNormal];
name.titleLabel.font = [UIFont systemFontOfSize:16];
name.titleLabel. numberOfLines = 0; // Dynamic number of lines
name.titleLabel.lineBreakMode = UILineBreakModeWordWrap;
name.titleLabel.textColor = [UIColor blackColor];
[myView addSubview:name];
}
and to call the method
[self makeButton:JDLabel
titleOfButton:#"JD"
buttonColor:[UIColor redColor]];
The method has been declared in the header file and the buttons at the top of the class.

Answer 1

This is some code to get you started. This will work if you paste it to your view controller, generally put it in the view you want but change "self.view" to "self" or any view you want as long as you have the reference to it. Just call "addSomeButtons" on "viewDidLoad" or as some target..
- (void)buttonPressed:(UIButton *)sender {
NSLog(#"button %d pressed", sender.tag+1);
}
- (void)makeButtonWithtitle:(NSString *)title andColor:(UIColor *)color atPositionIndex:(NSInteger)index {
const CGFloat buttonHeight = 60.0f;
UIButton *button = [[UIButton alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(.0f, buttonHeight*index, 300.0f, buttonHeight)];
button.tag = index;
[button setAlpha:(0.5)];
[button setBackgroundColor: color];
[button setTitle:title forState:UIControlStateNormal];
button.titleLabel.font = [UIFont systemFontOfSize:16];
button.titleLabel. numberOfLines = 0; // Dynamic number of lines
button.titleLabel.lineBreakMode = UILineBreakModeWordWrap;
button.titleLabel.textColor = [UIColor blackColor];
[button addTarget:self action:#selector(buttonPressed:) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];
[self.view addSubview:button];
[button release];
}
- (void)addSomeButtons {
for(int i=0; i<10; i++) {
[self makeButtonWithtitle:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"button %d", i+1] andColor:[UIColor greenColor] atPositionIndex:i];
}
}
Anyway what you are trying to do is very common and very possible. For instance I never ever ever use the interface builder.

Answer 2

set the different tag value of to separate the button from another button like:
button.tag = 1;
here you should use variable like
in .h
int i ;
in .m
button.tag = i;
and set the frame size of one button to another button
UIButton *name = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeRoundRectangle];
name.frame = CGRectMake(10*i,10*i,150,100);
i++;

Answer 3

UIButtons are getting created but getting overlapped over each other.. u just need to change the frame with every method call too.. 400,400 will create the button off screen .. i don't think thats what u want .. try something like 160,240

Answer 4

You might want to consider creating the Buttons in Interface Builder, which I find much more convenient for setting the size, colors etc.
You can then reference the buttons in the code via either with an IBOutlet per Button or with an IBOutletCollection, which let's you "group" a number of UIViews in one Outlet:
Simply create your UIButtons in Interfacebuilder and place them next to your main view, so that they won't be displayed initially.
CMD + Click all buttons and CTRL + Drag to your .h file and create an IBOutletCollection which will eventually look like this in your code:
#property (strong, nonatomic) IBOutletCollection(UIButton) NSArray *allMyButtonsFromIB;
Now you can access the buttons in the implementation via self.allMyButtons, which is an NSArray

Answer 5

-(void)createButtonWithTitle:(NSString*)title andColor:(UIColor*)color andFrame:(CGRect)frame{
UIButton *lButton = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeCustom];
[lButton setFrame:frame];
[lButton setTitle:title forState:UIControlStateNormal];
lButton.titleLabel.font = [UIFont systemFontOfSize:16];
[lButton setBackgroundColor:color];
[self.view addSubview:lButton];
lButton = nil;
}
You can change the frame values to put the buttons at appropriate positions on the view.