Question

I’m having some trouble with either a UIAlertView or UIActionSheet stealing the focus and not letting go.

To elaborate, I have a setup whereby a user presses a button. This then displays a UIAlertView with a UITextField. When the user presses the ‘Ok’ button a UIActionSheet is displayed (called from the UIAlertView delegate method) confirming something with the user. However when they press one of the buttons the UIActionSheet goes away but the focus doesn’t get returned to the main view.

I have been playing around and whatever I seem to do I always end up with my main UIView being covered with a layer like this (obviously you can seem my view through the layer). I have tried removing all subviews of the view but it didn’t have any success.

Please can someone help me out?

Here is the source code:

// This method displays the UIAlertView which contains a UITextView linked up to a
// UIPickerView.
- (IBAction)buttonPressed:(id)sender
{
    UIAlertView *deleteAlert = [[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:@"Delete Something" 
                                                          message:@"Select something to delete:" 
                                                         delegate:self 
                                                cancelButtonTitle:@"Cancel" 
                                                otherButtonTitles:@"Ok", nil];
    deleteAlert.alertViewStyle = UIAlertViewStylePlainTextInput;
    deleteAlert.tag = kDeleteAlert;
    deleteTextField = [deleteAlert textFieldAtIndex:0];
    [pickerView reloadAllComponents];
    deleteTextField.inputView = pickerView;
    [deleteAlert show];
}


// The UIAlertView delegate method is then used to display a UIActionSheet to confirm
// whether the user wants to proceed.
- (void) alertView:(UIAlertView *)alert clickedButtonAtIndex:(NSInteger)buttonIndex
{
    UIActionSheet *confirmDelete = [[UIActionSheet alloc] initWithTitle:@"Delete blah?" 
                                                               delegate:self 
                                                      cancelButtonTitle:@"No" 
                                                 destructiveButtonTitle:@"Yes" 
                                                      otherButtonTitles:nil];
    confirmDelete.actionSheetStyle = UIActionSheetStyleBlackOpaque;
    [confirmDelete showInView:self.parentViewController.tabBarController.view];
}

// Then the focus should be returned to the original view (i.e. where the first button
// was pressed to launch the UIAlertView. However the focus is still locked and the
// view appears slightly dimmed around the edges.
-(void)actionSheet:(UIActionSheet *)actionSheet clickedButtonAtIndex:(NSInteger)buttonIndex 
{
    if (buttonIndex == actionSheet.destructiveButtonIndex) 
    {
        // Do some stuff ...
    }
}

Answer 1

I think your issue is a result of the deleteAlert alert view not being dismissed when the actionSheet is called.

I sounds to me like the alert view still has focus but is in an unknown state, because it hasn’t been dismissed, but you have done something with it’s button press.

Presumably, you want to dismiss the alert view when the action sheet is presented? Then when the action sheet is dismissed, you get back to your main view? So, the order you want:

1) Present alert view

2) If a button on the alert view is pressed, it notifies it’s delegate using - (void)alertView:(UIAlertView *)alertView clickedButtonAtIndex:(NSInteger)buttonIndex

3) Dismiss the alertView - (void)dismissWithClickedButtonIndex:(NSInteger)buttonIndex animated:(BOOL)animated and present the action sheet.

3) When the action sheet is used, it calls it’s delegate method - (void)actionSheet:(UIActionSheet *)actionSheet clickedButtonAtIndex:(NSInteger)buttonIndex and within that method, dismiss it, or whatever else you need to do.

You would put all of these delegate methods in your original calling viewcontroller, conforming it to <UIAlertViewDelegate, UIActionSheetDelegate>.

You will need to make the original viewcontroller the delegate of the alert view AND the action sheet when you create them. I hope this makes sense.

More information http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/uikit/reference/UIAlertView_Class/UIAlertView/UIAlertView.html