Question

I find myself creating essentially the same UILabel repeatedly in my app. So I’m thinking this is a good time to create a class for it and just call the class?

For example, I reuse this code many times to create a UILabel for my UINavigationBar in views, with the only difference being the label.text that I’m thinking I can pass as a parameter:

// - - - - - Add a Navigation Bar

UINavigationBar *navBar = [[UINavigationBar alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 320, 44)];
navBar.barStyle = UIBarStyleBlack; 
navBar.translucent = YES;

[self.view addSubview:navBar];
[navBar release];

// - - - - - Add a label to the navbar

UILabel *navLabel = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(20,8,280,30)];
navLabel.autoresizingMask = UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleWidth;
navLabel.text = @"Some Label String";
navLabel.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
navLabel.textColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
navLabel.font = [UIFont boldSystemFontOfSize:20];
navLabel.shadowColor = [UIColor colorWithWhite:0.0 alpha:0.5];
navLabel.textAlignment = UITextAlignmentCenter;
[navBar addSubview:navLabel];
[navLabel release];

So I’m thinking I should be able to create a UILabelNavBar Class and simply create the UILabel by calling it like this:

navBar addSubview:[UILabelNavBar createLabel:@"Some Label String"]];

Except I don’t know how to create the class.
Any help is appreciated.
lq

Answer 1

Thanks to the nudge from Adubr, the following works:

// *** OftenUsedLabel.h ***

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@interface OftenUsedLabel : UILabel 
{
    UILabel *oftenUsedLabel;
}

@property (nonatomic, retain) UILabel *oftenUsedLabel;

@end

// *** OftenUsedLabel.m ***

#import "OftenUsedLabel.h"

@implementation OftenUsedLabel

@synthesize oftenUsedLabel;

- (id)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame {

    self = [super initWithFrame:frame];

    if (self) {

        CGRect rect;
        rect = CGRectMake(0.0,0.0,280.0,30.0);

        oftenUsedLabel = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:rect];
        oftenUsedLabel.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
        oftenUsedLabel.textColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
        oftenUsedLabel.font = [UIFont boldSystemFontOfSize:20];
        oftenUsedLabel.shadowColor = [UIColor colorWithWhite:0.0 alpha:0.5];
        oftenUsedLabel.textAlignment = UITextAlignmentCenter;

        [self addSubview:oftenUsedLabel];
    }

    return self;    
}

- (void)dealloc {
    [oftenUsedLabel release];
    [super dealloc];
}


// *** SomeViewController.m ***

#import "OftenUsedLabel.h"

// CALL THE LABEL LIKE THIS:

    CGRect rect;
    rect = CGRectMake(0.0, 0.0, 320.0, 60.0);
    UILabel *myLabel = [[[OftenUsedLabel alloc] initWithFrame:rect] autorelease];
    myLabel.text = @"Some Text";
    [self.view addSubview:myLabel];
    [myLabel release];