Adding Text Message to an ActionSheet

John Muchow — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 06:18:06 +0000

The ActionSheet supports one line of text, the title, which as the name implies, is displayed across the top of the Alert. See the image below for an example.

There is an undocumented method that you can call to add another line of text just below the title. The setMessage method accepts an NSString and will display the text in a font slightly larger than the title.

What follows is a short example to create an ActionSheet with an additional message displayed.

UIActionSheet *options = [[UIActionSheet alloc] 
          initWithTitle:@"HomeBrewing Styles" 
          delegate:self
          cancelButtonTitle:@"I Can't Decide"
          destructiveButtonTitle:nil
          otherButtonTitles:@"English", @"American", @"Imperial", nil];
[options setMessage:@"Select a Style of IPA:"];
[options showInView:self.view];

The output of the code above is shown in the figure that follows.

Alert with TextFields

John Muchow — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 07:08:09 +0000

Note: Although applications in the App Store have used this approach, Apple has also rejected applications that use this technique as it does access private APIs.

In a recent discussion with the UI designers for an upcoming iPhone application, I was asked if it’s possible to create an Alert that would overlay the splash screen, prompting for a username and password.

My original response (based on searching the documentation) was a regrettable, no. However, after some digging I did come upon an undocumented method inside the UIAlertView: addTextFieldWithValue. What follows is a screenshot of how you might use this feature:

The code for the alert example follows. Notice how you can create a pointer to the UITextFields and modify its attributes, very cool.

In the .h file

1 2	UITextField textfieldName; UITextField textfieldPassword;

In the .m file

- (void)alertView:(UIAlertView *)alertView clickedButtonAtIndex:(NSInteger)buttonIndex
{
  // Clicked the Submit button
  if (buttonIndex != [alertView cancelButtonIndex])
  {
    NSLog(@"Name: %@", textfieldName.text);
    NSLog(@"Name: %@", textfieldPassword.text);
  }
}
 
...
 
- (void) someMethod
{
  UIAlertView *alert = [[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:@"Please Login" message:@""
        delegate:self cancelButtonTitle:@"Cancel"  otherButtonTitles:@"Submit", nil];
 
  [alert addTextFieldWithValue:@"" label:@"User Name"];
  [alert addTextFieldWithValue:@"" label:@"Password"];
 
  // Username
  textfieldName = [alert textFieldAtIndex:0];
  textfieldName.keyboardType = UIKeyboardTypeAlphabet;
  textfieldName.keyboardAppearance = UIKeyboardAppearanceAlert;
  textfieldName.autocorrectionType = UITextAutocorrectionTypeNo;
 
  // Password
  textfieldPassword = [alert textFieldAtIndex:1];
  textfieldPassword.clearButtonMode = UITextFieldViewModeWhileEditing;
  textfieldPassword.keyboardType = UIKeyboardTypeNumbersAndPunctuation;
  textfieldPassword.keyboardAppearance = UIKeyboardAppearanceAlert;
  textfieldPassword.autocorrectionType = UITextAutocorrectionTypeNo;
  textfieldPassword.secureTextEntry = YES;
 
  [alert show];
}

[iPhoneiOS dev:tips]; » Undocumented

Adding Text Message to an ActionSheet

Alert with TextFields