Question

I want to know if it is possible for an AlertView to time out if it has been visible on the screen for a certain period of time without receiving any acknowledgement from the user, and if so, how? Is there a way for the AlertView object be linked with an NSTimer object?

My basic AlertView code is the following:

- (IBAction)showMessage:(id)sender {
    UIAlertView *message = [[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:@"Hello World!"
                                                      message:@"This is your first UIAlertview message."
                                                     delegate:nil
                                            cancelButtonTitle:@"OK"
                                            otherButtonTitles:nil];
    [message show];
}

Answer 1

This is how I implemented in one of my apps

Inside the @interface declare your objects so you can keep track of them and add the if required

@property (nonatomic, strong) UIAlertView *myAlert;
@property (nonatomic, weak) NSTimer *myTimer;

In your code where you need to launch the alert add the following

self.myAlert = [[UIAlertView alloc]initWithTitle:@"TEST" message:@"TEST" delegate:self cancelButtonTitle:@"OK" otherButtonTitles:nil];
self.myTimer = [NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval:10.0 target:self selector:@selector(cancelAlert) userInfo:nil repeats:NO];
[self.myAlert show];

Somewhere in your code add next function to dismiss the alert and invalidate the NSTimer

- (void)cancelAlert {
[self.myAlert dismissWithClickedButtonIndex:-1 animated:YES];
}

Also remember to invalidate the timer if a button is touched.

- (void)alertView:(UIAlertView *)alertView willDismissWithButtonIndex:(NSInteger)buttonIndex {
[self.myTimer invalidate];
// Process pressed button
}

It may need some tweaks for your requirements.