First few methods to create buttons/labels (Updated)

I was always quite annoyed to have to write so much code just to create simple button or label --- as I don't like to use Interface Builder.

Thanks to this post from iPhone Dev SDK Forum, I sort of worked out how to create a utility/shared function for creating buttons and labels as below. Of course could have further improve it to provide further options in setting colours for different parts and other stuffs, but this is sufficient for what I am working on now.

Note that in the last line for "createNormalButton", at first I used "[buttonObj autorelease]". But I found that the buttons will just display a blank box with white colour, no title at all and couldn't click on it either. After changed to "[[buttonObj retain]autorelease]" it seems to work ok now. Not sure if this will cause any memory leak..... Please let me know if any of you got better ideas/suggestions.

+ (void) createNormalButton: (UIButton *) buttonObj 

 atPosX: (double) buttonPositionX

 atPosY: (double) buttonPositionY   

                  withWidth: (double) buttonWidth  

                 withHeight: (double) buttonHeight 

                withBGColor: (UIColor *) buttonBGColor 

             withTitleColor: (UIColor *) buttonTitleColor

withTag: (int) buttonTag 

withTitle: (NSString *) buttonTitle 

withSelfID: (id)buttonSelfID 

withActionID: (SEL)selectorID 

                  ifEnabled: (BOOL)buttonEnabled 

                     inView: (UIView *)viewToAddTo

 {

    

buttonObj = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeRoundedRect];

[buttonObj setFrame:CGRectMake(buttonPositionX, buttonPositionY, buttonWidth, buttonHeight)]; 

[buttonObj setTitle: buttonTitle forState:UIControlStateNormal];

[buttonObj setTitleShadowColor:buttonBGColor forState:UIControlStateNormal];

        [buttonObj setBackgroundColor: buttonBGColor];

[buttonObj setTag: buttonTag];

    

        [buttonObj addTarget:buttonSelfID action:selectorID      
            forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];

    if (buttonEnabled) {

        [buttonObj setEnabled:YES];

        [buttonObj setTitleColor:buttonTitleColor forState:UIControlStateNormal];

    } else {

        [buttonObj setEnabled:NO];

        [buttonObj setTitleColor:buttonBGColor forState:UIControlStateNormal];

    }

[viewToAddTo addSubview:buttonObj];
        [[buttonObj retain ]autorelease];

}

+(void) createNormalLabel: (UILabel *) labelObj 

                   atPosX: (double)labelPositionX 

                   atPosY: (double)labelPositionY  

                withWidth: (double)labelWidth 

               withHeight: (double)labelHeight                 

              withBGColor: (UIColor *) labelBGColor  

            withTextColor: (UIColor *) labelTextColor  

                  withTag: (int) labelTag                  

                 withText: (NSString *)labelText

                   inView: (UIView *)viewToAddTo

{

    labelObj = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(labelPositionX, labelPositionY, labelWidth, labelHeight)];

    

[labelObj setTag:labelTag];

[labelObj setText:labelText];

[labelObj setBackgroundColor:labelBGColor];

 [labelObj setTextColor:labelTextColor];

[labelObj setNumberOfLines:0];

[labelObj sizeToFit];

[viewToAddTo addSubview:labelObj];

[labelObj release];

}

With these methods, I can now simplify the button creation code to as below. Will need to work out a more organised way of controlling the Position X/Y values somehow later.

    UIButton *buttonNext;

    UIButton *buttonPrev;

    [SharedFunctions createNormalButton: buttonNext 

                                 atPosX: 180 

                                 atPosY: 420 

                              withWidth: 80

                             withHeight: 30  

                            withBGColor: CONST_COLOR_BACKGROUND 

                         withTitleColor: CONST_COLOR_BUTTON_TITLE 

                                withTag: TAG_BUTTON_NEXT 

                              withTitle: @"Next" 

                             withSelfID: self 

                           withActionID: @selector(buttonNextClicked) 

                              ifEnabled: YES

                                 inView: self.view];

   

    [SharedFunctions createNormalButton: buttonPrev     

                                 atPosX: 60 

                                 atPosY: 420 

                              withWidth: 80

                             withHeight: 30                               

                            withBGColor: CONST_COLOR_BACKGROUND 

                         withTitleColor: CONST_COLOR_BUTTON_TITLE 

                                withTag: TAG_BUTTON_PREVIOUS 

                              withTitle: @"Previous" 

                             withSelfID: self 

                           withActionID: @selector(buttonPreviousClicked) 

                              ifEnabled: NO

                                 inView: self.view];

For labels, it's like this:

    [SharedFunctions createNormalLabel: test1Label 

                                atPosX: 10 

                                atPosY: 200 

                             withWidth: 300 

                            withHeight: 300 

                           withBGColor: CONST_COLOR_BACKGROUND  

                         withTextColor: CONST_COLOR_LABEL_TEXT 

                               withTag: TAG_LABEL_TEST1 

                              withText: @"Click on the previous/next buttons to navigate" 

                                inView: self.view];

Hope this helps!

Update: Missed a line about setting text color for the label, fixed now.

Posted in: Button creation,label creation,sample code,tutorial