Question

There are some discussions on how to add a UIButton to a UITableCellView in the famous

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath

method and on how to handle button clicks. I have tested them and they all more or less work fine.

I have slightly different setup. I want to add the UIButton – in fact I have several buttons positioned on different UIImageViews – hided/shown using swipe touches, within my custom UITableCellView class. To keep things simple, let’s assume there is only one UIImageView added to the cell’s view stack and one UIButton only:

This is the relevant part of my UITableViewCell implementation:

- (id)initWithStyle:(UITableViewCellStyle)style reuseIdentifier:(NSString *)reuseIdentifier
{
   self = [super initWithStyle:style reuseIdentifier:reuseIdentifier];
   if (self) {
     // sub menu
     self.tableCellSubMenu = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 320.0, 88.0)];
     [self.tableCellSubMenu setImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"cell_menu_back"]];
     [self addSubview:self.tableCellSubMenu];

     UIButton *but = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeCustom];                              
     but.frame = CGRectMake(10.0, 0, 77.0, 88.0);
     [but setImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"cell_menu_icon_plus_up"] forState:UIControlStateNormal];
     [but setImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"cell_menu_icon_plus_down"] forState:UIControlStateSelected];
     [but setImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"cell_menu_icon_plus_down"] forState:UIControlStateHighlighted];
     [but addTarget:self action:@selector(tableCellButtonPress:) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];
     [self.tableCellSubMenu addSubview:but];
     ...
     }
   return self;
}

The UIButton is added to an UIImageView, which in turn as added to the cell’s view stack. For simplicity, I configured the target for the button to “self”. In my real setup, the target is the UITableViewController where I handle the button events. I can guarantee that all the setup is working (e.g. by replacing UIImageView with UIControl, as we see later).

Unfortunately, in this configuration, a touch up inside event on the button doesn’t fire. The only function which gets called is

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath

in the controller. Usually, I place UIButtons on a UIControl view. Having said that, when I replace UIImageView with UIControl in the above code, the button event fires as expected, but then,

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath

doesn’t get called anymore. I want both.

How to get this to work?

Update 1:

I have implemented the following method in my custom UITableViewCell implementation:

- (void)touchesBegan:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event {
    CGPoint location = [((UITouch *)[touches anyObject]) locationInView:self];
    if (CGRectContainsPoint(but.frame, location)) {
      [self.touchButtonDelegate tableViewCellButtonTouched:self button:(UIButton*)but indexPath:self.touchButtonIndexPath];
    }
    [super touchesBegan:touches withEvent:event];
}

I am still using “UIImageView” to group and position several buttons.

The self.touchButtonDelegate is the UITableViewController. A more complete solution is available here.

Answer 1

UIImageViews don’t have user interaction enabled. You should be adding it to the cell itself, or another UIView.