UIButton with hold down action and release action

Avner Barr picture Avner Barr · Oct 7, 2013 · Viewed 32.7k times · Source

I want to create a UIButton that can be held down, when held down it calls the "hold down" action once. when it is released, calls the "hold was release" action.

This code isn't working correctly because the touch can move inside the button and the events aren't triggered in correct order

[button handleControlEvent:UIControlEventTouchDown withBlock:^{
        [self performMomentaryAction:PXActionTypeTouchDown];
    }];
[button handleControlEvent:UIControlEventTouchUpInside withBlock:^{
        [self performMomentaryAction:PXActionTypeTouchUp];
    }];

handle control events is based on UIBUtton+block implementation

Answer

Shankar BS picture Shankar BS · Oct 7, 2013

try this

  UIButton *aButton = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeRoundedRect];
  aButton.frame = CGRectMake(xValue, yValue, 45, 45);
  [aButton addTarget:self action:@selector(holdDown) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchDown];
  [aButton addTarget:self action:@selector(holdRelease) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];


 - (void)holdDown
  {
     NSLog(@"hold Down");
  }

  - (void)holdRelease
  {
      NSLog(@"hold release");

  }

for NSPratik's case: u can use the event UIControlEventTouchUpOutside If user long press button and after some time, instead of releasing the finger, user will move his/her finger out of the bounds of button. just add one more event.

  UIButton *aButton = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeRoundedRect];
  aButton.frame = CGRectMake(xValue, yValue, 45, 45);
  [aButton addTarget:self action:@selector(holdDown) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchDown];
  [aButton addTarget:self action:@selector(holdRelease) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];
  [aButton addTarget:self action:@selector(holdReleaseOutSide) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpOutside]; //add this for your case releasing the finger out side of the button's frame

 //add this method along with other methods 
  - (void)holdReleaseOutSide
  {
     NSLog(@"hold release out side");
  }

Swift Version

 var  aButton:UIButton = UIButton.buttonWithType(UIButtonType.Custom) as UIButton
 aButton.frame = CGRectMake(xValue,yValue, 45, 45)
 aButton.setTitle("aButton", forState: UIControlState.Normal)
 aButton.backgroundColor = UIColor.greenColor()
 aButton.addTarget(self, action: Selector("holdRelease:"), forControlEvents: UIControlEvents.TouchUpInside);
 aButton.addTarget(self, action: Selector("HoldDown:"), forControlEvents: UIControlEvents.TouchDown)
 self.addSubview(aButton)

 //target functions   
 func HoldDown(sender:UIButton)
 {
    print("hold down")
 }

 func holdRelease(sender:UIButton)
 {
    print("hold release")
 }