How do you make a subclass of UITextField?

Question

I am planning to subclass UITextField so I can customise the look and feel of textfields in my app globally. Based on the design in our mockups, textfields should have a green border which I already did for one of my textfields. (source: https://stackoverflow.com/a/5749376/334545)

I also changed placeholder color as said here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/19852763/334545

But all these are for just one textfield. I want all of my other textfields to have this so I tried subclassing by creating a new uitextfield class which I tried using. I added the methods above to MYUITextField.m's initWithFrame method:

- (id)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame
{
   self = [super initWithFrame:frame];
   if (self) {
       // Initialization code
       UIColor *greenColor = [UIColor colorWithRed:122.0/255.0 green:168.0/255.0 blue:73.0/255.0 alpha:1.0];
       UIColor *greyColor = [UIColor colorWithRed:87.0/255.0 green:87.0/255.0 blue:87.0/255.0 alpha:1.0];

       self.layer.borderColor=[greenColor CGColor];
       self.layer.borderWidth= 1.0f;

       self.attributedPlaceholder = [[NSAttributedString alloc] initWithString:@"" attributes:@{NSForegroundColorAttributeName: greyColor}];

   }
   return self;
}

Should I just change the drawRect method? Will the app be slower because of it?

Are you concerned about the speed impact of overriding a drawrect? Then not likely. But generally, overriding drawRect is the last resort for Cocoa controls. I would advise to tinker with properties before changing the drawing mechanism. — SwiftArchitect, Jul 08 '14 at 02:55

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:20

2

When using NIB, you need to tell the resource about your custom class.

Set the Custom Class to MYUITextField like so:

Select your TextField
Xcode > View > Utilities > Show Identity Inspector
In the Custom Class dropdown, pick your custom class

If using a resource, override -awakeFromNib instead of -initWithFrame::

-(void)awakeFromNib
{
    [super awakeFromNib];
    self.layer.borderColor=[[UIColor greenColor] CGColor];
    self.layer.borderWidth= 1.0f;
    self.attributedPlaceholder = [[NSAttributedString alloc]
                                  initWithString:@""
                                      attributes:@{NSForegroundColorAttributeName:
                                                   [UIColor greyColor]}];
}

See init and awakeFromNib for more details.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:20

Community

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answered Jul 08 '14 at 04:14

SwiftArchitect

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I also did this, but the changes (border color, placeholder color) aren't showing up. Do I need to do anything special like call redraw or something? – corroded Jul 08 '14 at 04:28
Yes. If using resource, override -awakeFromNib. – SwiftArchitect Jul 08 '14 at 04:37

AdamPro13 · Answer 2 · 2014-07-08T16:42:51.790

1

I believe the way you are doing it will be more efficient. -drawRect: can be called multiple times. By setting the values in -initWithFrame: you only ensure these only get set once.

That being said I am pretty sure the performance difference will be negligible.

EDIT: This is if you're doing things programmatically. If using nibs or storyboards, use the method -awakeFromNib.

edited Jul 08 '14 at 16:42

answered Jul 08 '14 at 02:56

AdamPro13

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I've done that but sadly the textfilds arent reflecting the changes I made. Do I need to do something else? In my viewcontroller, I set the custom class to "MYUITextField" and also in the MyViewController.m file . (sorry new to ios) – corroded Jul 08 '14 at 03:01
Ah, didn't see you are using nibs. – AdamPro13 Jul 08 '14 at 16:41

How do you make a subclass of UITextField?

2 Answers2