User Interface
Twitter Specific Keyboard – UIKeyboardTypeTwitter
In a series of previous posts I wrote about the integrated Twitter support that was introduced in iOS 5. If you are creating a custom control such as a UITextField or UITextView, there is a keyboard type specifically designed for writing tweets – the keyboard includes the characters @ and # on the primary view [...]
iOS 5 : Customize UINavigationBar and UIBarButtonItem with the Appearance API
In a previous post, UIImage and resizableImageWithCapInsets, I explained how to use the method resizableImageWithCapInsets in a UIImage object to set cap insets, which specify areas of an image that are not to be changed when resizing or scaling an image. That post was a segue to this post, which will use images (and cap [...]
iOS 5 : UIImage and resizableImageWithCapInsets
I recently began writing a short example to learn more about the iOS 5 Appearance API and customizing UINavigationBar objects. The goal was to add a custom background, title and text to the navbar. Once I had this working, to keep a consist look across my application, I began tweaking the buttons on the navbar [...]
iOS 5 : UIStepper Control
There is a new pre-built control in iOS 5 for incrementing or decrementing a value, UIStepper. The control has two buttons aligned horizontally, one labeled with a plus (+) the other a minus (-). One nice feature is a continuous option, wherein if the user presses and holds down either +/- button, the stepper value [...]
Simple Menus and Messages with UIActionSheet
If you need to create a quick menu or present a user with a short message, you may want to consider a UIActionSheet as an option. This control will slide up from the bottom of the screen, and offers a number of easily configurable options. The code in the interface definition below creates an actionsheet [...]
Load and Access Custom Fonts
It’s surprisingly easy to add custom fonts to your iOS apps. Begin by adding the font(s) to your project, (drag/drag into the resources folder in the Project Window).
Using Font Macros for Consistency
In most applications, keeping with one or two fonts is a good design choice. To this end, I often include a few simple macros to keep fonts consistent, easily change font size as well as emphasis (bold). Below are a few macros that give you an idea how I might go about specifying two primary [...]
Deselect Table Row with Animation
Here is a quick little trick to automatically deselect a table row once tapped by a user. With the approach below you can also adjust the length of the delay (in seconds) before the deselection occurs. When working with a table, when a row is selected didSelectRowAtIndexPath is called, inside this method after you take [...]
Creating Clickable Hyperlinks from a URL, Phone Number or Address
The following tips shows a quick way to create clickable hyperlinks using a UITextView. The trick is to set the dataDetectorTypes property to specify the data type you are after, from there, upon a tap the link will launch the appropriate application, namely Safari, Phone Dialer or Maps.
