Unable to keep UIButton in selected state after TouchUpInside Event

Question

I have the need for an UIButton to maintain a pressed state. Basically, if a button is in a normal state, I want to touch the button, it highlight to its standard blue color and then stay blue after lifting my finger. I made the following UIAction and connected the buttons Touch Up Inside event to it.

-(IBAction) emergencyButtonPress:(id) sender
{
    if(emergencyButton.highlighted)
    {
        emergencyButton.selected = NO;
        emergencyButton.highlighted = NO;
    }
    else
    {
        emergencyButton.selected = YES;
        emergencyButton.highlighted = YES;
    }
}

But what happens, after I remove my finger, the button goes back to a white background. For a test I added a UISwitch and have it execute the same code:

-(IBAction) emergencySwitchClick:(id) sender
{
    if(emergencyButton.highlighted)
    {
        emergencyButton.selected = NO;
        emergencyButton.highlighted = NO;
    }
    else
    {
        emergencyButton.selected = YES;
        emergencyButton.highlighted = YES;
    }
}

In this case the button toggles to a highlighted and non-highlighted state as I would expect.

Is there another event happening after the Touch Up Inside event that is resetting the state back to 'normal'? How do I maintain the highlighted state?

score 6 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 11 '12 at 16:30

The highlighted state is applied and removed by iOS when you touch / release the button. So don't depend on it in your action method.

As one of the other answers says, set the highlighted image to be the same as the selected image, and then modify your action method:

-(IBAction) emergencyButtonPress:(id) sender 
{
    emergencyButton.selected = !emergencyButton.selected;     
}

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 11 '12 at 15:35

2

If you want something like a toggle button, customize your "selected" state to be your "pressed" state, and then write something like this:

- (IBAction)buttonTapped:(id)sender {
    [(UIButton*)sender setSelected:![sender isSelected]];
}

answered Jan 11 '12 at 15:35

phi

10,634
6
53
88

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 05 '12 at 23:35

I had this same problem, and this is what worked for me:

-(IBAction)buttonPressed:(id)sender {
if (isSelected) {
    [_button setSelected:NO];
    [_button setImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"not_selected.png"] forState:UIControlStateSelected]; 
    isSelected=NO;

}
else {
    [_button setSelected:YES];
    [_button setImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"selected.png"] forState:UIControlStateSelected];
    isSelected=YES;
}
}

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 11 '12 at 14:59

1

if you want the above code to work, you should set an image for the state selected and one (even the same) for he state highlighted.

[emergencyButton setBackgroundImage:buttonHighlightImage forState:UIControlStateHighlighted];
[emergencyButton setBackgroundImage:buttonHighlightImage forState:UIControlStateSelected];

hope it helps.

answered Jan 11 '12 at 14:59

holographix

2,497
2
32
46

Thanks for the reply. I added those lines to my viewdidload: function. Now when I press and hold the button, I see the image, but when I let the button go it goes back to white – WolfpackEE Jan 11 '12 at 15:13

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 17 '13 at 03:18

This worked for me:

- (void)tapButton:(id)sender{
    UIButton *button = sender;
    if (!button.selected){
        [self performSelector:@selector(highlight:) withObject:button afterDelay:0.0];
    }else{
        [self performSelector:@selector(removeHighlight:) withObject:button afterDelay:0.0];
    }
}

- (void)highlight:(UIButton *)button{
    button.selected = !button.selected;
    button.highlighted = YES;
}

- (void)removeHighlight:(UIButton *)button{
    button.selected = !button.selected;
    button.highlighted = NO;
}

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Feb 08 '14 at 09:06

0

Try this simple answer....

- (void)mybutton:(id)sender
{
    UIButton *button = (UIButton *)sender;
    button.selected = ![button isSelected]; // Important line
    if (button.selected)
    {
        NSLog(@"Selected");
        NSLog(@"%i",button.tag);
    }
    else
    {
        NSLog(@"Un Selected");
        NSLog(@"%i",button.tag);

    }
 }

answered Feb 08 '14 at 09:06

Rajesh Loganathan

11,129
4
78
90

Can you explain the `button.selected = ![button isSelected];` why it's important and what it's doing? – jckly Apr 24 '14 at 21:16

Bob de Graaf · Answer 7 · 2012-10-17T10:38:13.127

0

This is not possible unfortunately, as soon as you let go Apple changes the state again. One option I've used before (but not pretty) is that you use a performSelector with delay 0.1 after the button is pressed to put it again in the selected state. This did work in my case.

EDIT: If you don't want to see the blinking effect, just set the delay to 0.0

edited Oct 17 '12 at 10:38

answered Jan 11 '12 at 16:19

Bob de Graaf

2,630
1
25
43

Wow, that does work. There's a quick flash of the button from blue to white to blue. I'll have to see if that is acceptable to the end user. Thanks for the tip. – WolfpackEE Jan 11 '12 at 16:24
no problem, if it works for you, could you mark this as the correct answer? It's always nicer if all posts have answers marked :) – Bob de Graaf Jan 12 '12 at 09:31

Unable to keep UIButton in selected state after TouchUpInside Event

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