Keep iPhone UIButton Highlighted

Question

I have the following code snippets:

@interface Foo: UIViewController {
  ...
  UIButton *myButton;
  ...
}

@implementation Foo

- (void) viewDidLoad {
  ...
  myButton.highlighted = YES;
  ...
}

When I run the app, the button is highlighted in blue (default behavior). It works as I expected.

But after pressing the button once, the button is no longer highlighted.

Then, I created an IBAction highlightButton to handle Touch Up Inside event where I explicitly call myButton.highlighted = Yes;. Unfortunately, the button highlight still does not stay.

How can I keep it highlighted in blue even after being pressed?

Would it be easier to just change the color of the button? :) — willcodejavaforfood, Feb 18 '10 at 17:10
See my question [here](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1934861/uibutton-border-and-background-image). — David Kanarek, Feb 18 '10 at 17:43
Thanks for the tip. I am not using any image. I just use text by calling "[myButton setTitle:@"Foo" forState:UIControlStateNormal]". — pion, Feb 19 '10 at 15:58
You should be able to do this anyway. My process was to take a screenshot of a blank, **highlighted** button, and set that as the background image for the **selected** state. Then instead of changing the **highlighted** property, I changed the **selected** property. You can set the background image in Interface Builder and never worry about it again, just turn on or off the **selected** property. — David Kanarek, Feb 19 '10 at 17:21

score 45 · Answer 1 · edited Nov 14 '11 at 19:39

45

The solution is to do [button setHighlighted:YES] in the next runloop:

- (void)highlightButton:(UIButton *)b { 
    [b setHighlighted:YES];
}

 - (IBAction)onTouchup:(UIButton *)sender {
    [self performSelector:@selector(highlightButton:) withObject:sender afterDelay:0.0];
}

edited Nov 14 '11 at 19:39

pablasso

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answered Sep 14 '11 at 15:10

Werner Altewischer

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Thank you Werner. Could you possibly explain why we have to set it in the next runloop ? Does the button not get redrawn when we call this particular method ? – the_critic Dec 23 '12 at 20:15
2

Problem is the iOS framework calls onTouchup (the event handler) and afterwards unhighlights the button (setHighlighted:NO). So calling setHighlighted in the event handler doesn't have any effect. – Werner Altewischer Dec 24 '12 at 11:19

score 13 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 03 '13 at 13:06

13

The simplest code is here.

dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
    [button setHighlighted:YES];
});

answered Apr 03 '13 at 13:06

mishimay

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the best option. Does not make the button flash shortly to the normal state after user raises the finger. – Vilém Kurz Jun 04 '13 at 08:23
Not to mention that this way permits you to perform this with multiple buttons in a view and keep it VERY neat. – CaptJak Nov 10 '13 at 04:12
Just wondering.. the "gdc" block here is released from memory after it's done right? – lppier Dec 04 '13 at 09:14

score 7 · Answer 3 · edited Jan 29 '13 at 18:10

7

An alternate way to run this is by sending a block to the main operation queue:

-(void)onTouchup:(UIButton*) button
{
    [NSOperationQueue.mainQueue addOperationWithBlock:^{ button.highlighted = YES; }];
}

edited Jan 29 '13 at 18:10

Snowman

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answered Oct 09 '12 at 15:39

Peter DeWeese

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3

Oh wow. How on earth would I have discovered this without StackOverflow? – Robert Atkins Dec 06 '12 at 03:43

Keep iPhone UIButton Highlighted

3 Answers3

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