Question

in my app I have a toolbar and at a certain point I want to disable or enable some buttons. What is the easiest way to do so? How can I access items property of UIToolbar?

Here is my code:

-(void)addToolbar {     NSMutableArray *buttons = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];       //Define space     UIBarButtonItem *flexibleSpaceItem;      flexibleSpaceItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithBarButtonSystemItem: UIBarButtonSystemItemFlexibleSpace target:nil action:NULL];       //Add 'new' button     UIBarButtonItem *newButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc]                                   initWithTitle:@'New' style:UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered target:self action:@selector(new_clicked)];     [buttons addObject:newButton];     [newButton release];      //Add space     [buttons addObject:flexibleSpaceItem];      //Add 'make active' button     UIBarButtonItem *activeButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc]                                   initWithTitle:@'Make Active' style:UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered target:self action:@selector(make_active_clicked)];     [buttons addObject:activeButton];     [activeButton release];      [buttons addObject:flexibleSpaceItem];      //Add 'edit' button     UIBarButtonItem *editButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc]                                   initWithTitle:@'Edit' style:UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered target:self action:@selector(edit_clicked)];     [buttons addObject:editButton];     [editButton release];      [flexibleSpaceItem release];      [toolBar setItems:buttons];     [buttons release]; } 

Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

The simplest way is to save a reference to the UIBarButtonItem as an instance variable.

# header file UIBarButtonItem *editButton; 

Then your code becomes

# .m file editButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc]                initWithTitle:@'Edit'                style:UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered                target:self                action:@selector(edit_clicked)]; [buttons addObject:editbutton]; 

Now anywhere in any instance method, disabling the button is as simple as:

editButton.enabled = NO; 

Also dont release it immediately, since this class now owns the button object. So release it in the dealloc method instead.