UITableViewCell - How to set selection clipping? - iphone

In my app, I have a UITableView and each UITableViewCell utilizes a custom background and style with the following code in the "WillDisplayCell" method:
UIImage *cellBackgroundImage = [UIImage imageNamed:#"TableView_Cell_Background_iPhone"];
UIImageView *backgroundImage = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:cellBackgroundImage highlightedImage:cellBackgroundImage];
[cell setBackgroundView:backgroundImage];
[backgroundImage release];
The problem is that the PNG I'm using as the background is a rectangle, but the UITableViewCell is a rounded rectangle with a specific layer radius property. When I select a cell, the background overrides the rounded nature of the cell and I get a jarring blue highlighted sharp rectangle. Is there a way to set the selected state corner radius or something along those lines? My only other option if not would be to create a PNG background that fits the rounded rectangle perfectly.
Thanks.

I would set the selectionStyle of the cell to UITableViewCellSelectionStyleNone, this stops the blue highlight. Then start to do a custom selection job.
You will have to make a custom subclass of UITalbeViewCell. Override setSelected or if that doesn't work user a gesture recognizer or override touchesBegan etc. I have done it once, before, I forget exactly how, if you have trouble let me know and ill look it up.
When you detect that the cell is selected, perhaps create a translucent overlay as a PNG and make it appear when the cell is selected. Alternatively lower the transparency of the background image or add a color mask.

Related

Drawing on a UITableViewCell backgroundView using CoreGraphics

I have a subclass of UITableViewCell where I need to draw a custom backgroundView for the cell. Implementing drawRect:, I can draw the view fine, but it is behind the tableView and tableViewCells.
In order to use CG to draw my custom backgroundView, do I need to make a separate UIView subclass that I do the drawing in and set that as the cell's backgroundView?
Thanks!
EDIT: Screenshot
I want the blue to be drawn INSTEAD of the white. In place of the white. Or at least on top of it.
I am drawing a shadow behind the cell using CA, and I would like to have this shadow behind my view I am drawing.
You need to set the background of the contentView.
myCell.contentView.backgroundColor = [ UIColor greenColor ]; //
try this,
cell.contentView.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];

How to create a gray overlay for a UIButton in touched state programmatically?

I would like to make a generic class that when tapped, makes the element grayish.
Facebook's app is the perfect example of what I want to achieve. All their links and images become gray when tapped.
I can only guess that they are subclassing UIButton.
I have made my button's style UIButtonTypeCustom to get rid of the rounded border. Beyond this, I don't know how to have the gray overlay because I see no such property in the documentation.
Its simple:
#define TAG_GRAYVIEW 5671263 // some random number
// add the gray overlay
UIView *grayView = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:button.bounds];
grayView.backgroundColor = [UIColor grayColor];
grayView.tag = TAG_GRAYVIEW;
[button addSubview:grayView];
// remove the gray overlay
UIView *grayView = [button viewWithTag:TAG_GRAYVIEW];
[grayView removeFromSuperview];
I think you need to use a semi transperant grey image PNG file. You need to then set Image of button in Highlighted state.
Also note that both the images for Normal State and Highlighted State need to have the images with titles on them.
As once we set the image to button, btn.titleLabel.text won't be displayed.
So you can have a image with transperant background and title on it for Normal state. And an grey image with title on it for Highlighted State.
Code for doing it programmatically is
[btn setImage:#"Transperant.png" forState:UIControlStateNormal];
[btn setImage:#"Grey.png" forState:UIControlStateHighlighted];
Hope this helps you.
The default UIButton masks the opaque content using a gray highlight. For example when using a transparent png, only the parts that contain non-transparent pixels will be grayed out on touch. The default UIButton highlight has no effect on subviews/sublayers, and will only work on provided images. What you see in the Facebook app is probably just a UIWebView highlight, possibly customized using css.
To create something similar using your own control (to prevent the overhead of a UIWebView) you should probably create your own UIControl subclass and highlight the content on touch using a transparent CALayer. You can even mask the CALayer to only highlight the actual contents, instead of a rectangular shape.
Also see my stackoverflow post on creating custom controls for iOS by subclassing UIControl.
Try setting the button up something like this.
*mind you I didn't create the image for this example.
Set your button type to custom, and in "State Config" select "Highlighted" from there you will want to set the image of the button to be a semi-transparent grey image. There are probably several other ways to achieve this same effect but this one should be nice and simple.

UIImageView not showing the background View if the image has transparent regions

I have a UIView has some labels and buttons on it.
Next I also have a image which has a square area that is transparent, now
if I create a UIImageView and add this image which has transparent regions I am not able to see the background view (which has buttons and labels) through this transparent image.
If I play with the alpha value that doesn't work as intended which is to see the transparent regions exactly as it would have appeared on the UIView which has the labels and buttons.
UIImage* image = [UIImage imageNamed:#"TI1.jpg"];
UIImageView* imageView = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:image];
[self.view addSubview:imageView];
Also I would be interested to know if there is other way to achieve what I am trying to achieve.
Basically I want to highlight a certain area of the view which has buttons/labels and make the rest of the area greyed out. My idea was to have this UIImageView with transparent regions in image to achieve that.
Thanks
Ankur
Try setting imageView.opaque = NO;
UIImageView inherits from UIView. According to that class's docs:
This property provides a hint to the drawing system as to how it
should treat the view. If set to YES, the drawing system treats the
view as fully opaque, which allows the drawing system to optimize some
drawing operations and improve performance. If set to NO, the drawing
system composites the view normally with other content. The default
value of this property is YES.
Also, not sure that JPG even supports transparency, so try exporting the image as a PNG to ensure you get the results you're looking for.

how to set tableViewCell background to black gradient like navigationbar

I have set up my own custom tableViewCell and want to the background to be the same
black gradient as my navigationBar with style UIBarStyleBlackOpaque.
what would be the best way to do that ?
Use the key combination CMD-SHIFT-4 to capture a 1 pixel wide image of the navigation bar's gradient. The image will be saved on your desktop (you can use Preview to crop, etc.). Add the image to your project. In -tableView:cellForRowAtIndexPath:, use:
cell.backgroundView = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:[UIImage imageNamed:#"blackGradient.png"]];
UIKit automatically stretches the gradient horizontally to fit the width of the cell.

How to put gradient style table cell in a table?

Hey, I am making a custom table cell right now but my custom cell is just white cell with some buttons and labels in background color which looks not that great.
Is there a way to render the background color so that the cell has some vertical gradient effect?
For example, on top of the cell it looks white and as it gets closer to center of the cell, it gets darker.
But as it gets closer to the bottom of the cell, it gets whiter again.
A great example would be this free app called "friendsaroundme".
Another thing is that I don't want to use custom image to do it (i.e make the cell.backgroundcolor = [uicolor colorwithpatternimage:somethingsomething.png..... ) because it's not that flexible.
So is there anyway to render the gradient style programatically?
You can use a CAGradientLayer as the background layer. Remember a table view cell is just a UIView. You can add a new layer to the layer tree with:
[[[self view] layer] addSublayer:gradientLayer];
I wrote a blog post on how to do this with UIButtons. The same technique applies.