Clear UIView of drawing?

Question

I am using a subclass of UIView to draw, this subclassed view is used to get your signature on a view controller. There is a clear button which is supposed to clear the UIView except it doesn't work. Here is what I have tried.

subclass.h

@implementation subclassed uiview
{
    UIBezierPath *path;
    UIImage *incrementalImage; // (1)
}

- (id)initWithCoder:(NSCoder *)aDecoder {
    if (self = [super initWithCoder:aDecoder]) {
        [self setMultipleTouchEnabled:NO];
        [self setBackgroundColor:[UIColor clearColor]];
        path = [UIBezierPath bezierPath];
        [path setLineWidth:2.0];
    }
    return self;
}

- (void)drawRect:(CGRect)rect {
    [incrementalImage drawInRect:rect]; // (3)
    [path stroke];
}

- (void)touchesBegan:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event {
    UITouch *touch = [touches anyObject];
    CGPoint p = [touch locationInView:self];
    [path moveToPoint:p];
}

- (void)touchesMoved:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event {
    UITouch *touch = [touches anyObject];
    CGPoint p = [touch locationInView:self];
    [path addLineToPoint:p];
    [self setNeedsDisplay];
}

- (void)touchesEnded:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event // (2)
{
    UITouch *touch = [touches anyObject];
    CGPoint p = [touch locationInView:self];
    [path addLineToPoint:p];
    [self drawBitmap]; // (3)
    [self setNeedsDisplay];
    [path removeAllPoints]; //(4)
}

- (void)touchesCancelled:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event {
    [self touchesEnded:touches withEvent:event];
}

- (void)drawBitmap // (3)
{
    UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(self.bounds.size, NO, 0.0);
    //[[UIColor blackColor] setStroke];
    if (!incrementalImage) { // first draw;
        UIBezierPath *rectpath = [UIBezierPath bezierPathWithRect:self.bounds]; // enclosing bitmap by a rectangle defined by another UIBezierPath object
        [[UIColor clearColor] setFill];
        [rectpath fill]; // fill it
    }
    [incrementalImage drawAtPoint:CGPointZero];
    [path stroke];
    incrementalImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
    UIGraphicsEndImageContext();
}

@end

view controller.m

- (IBAction)clearTapped:(id)sender {
    self.subclassedView.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
    CGContextRef context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext();
    CGContextSetFillColorWithColor(context, [UIColor clearColor].CGColor);
    CGContextFillRect(context,self.subclassedView.bounds);
    CGContextClearRect(context, self.subclassedView.bounds);
    CGContextFlush(context);
    [self.subclassedView setNeedsDisplay];
}

Can anyone tell me why this doesn't work, and what I should do instead?

Answer 1

Reinitialise the path variable and force the view to draw with this newly created empty path. This gives impression of erasing the previous drawn path. In your subclass include this function,

- (void)erase {
    path   = nil;  //Set current path nil
    path   = [UIBezierPath bezierPath]; //Create new path
    [self setNeedsDisplay]; 
}

Declare this method in the .h file of your subclass. From your view controller class you need to call this method whenever you need to erase the view,

- (IBAction)clearTapped:(id)sender {
    [self.subclassedView erase];
}

Try it out.

Hope that helps!