iPad UIActionSheet - Not displaying the last added button

Question

I'm trying to display a UIActionSheet from my iPad. Here's the code that I'm using:

-(void) presentMenu {
    UIActionSheet *popupMenu = [[UIActionSheet alloc] initWithTitle:@"Menu" delegate:self cancelButtonTitle:@"Cancel" destructiveButtonTitle:nil otherButtonTitles:nil];
    for (NSString *option in _menuItems) {
        [popupMenu addButtonWithTitle:option];
    }
    popupMenu.actionSheetStyle = UIActionSheetStyleBlackOpaque;
    if(UI_USER_INTERFACE_IDIOM() == UIUserInterfaceIdiomPhone) {
        [popupMenu showFromTabBar:_appDelegate.tabBar.tabBar];
    }
    else if(UI_USER_INTERFACE_IDIOM() == UIUserInterfaceIdiomPad) {
        [popupMenu showFromBarButtonItem:self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem animated:YES];
    }
    [popupMenu release];
    return;
}

The iPhone version of the program displays all the buttons in _menuItems, but the iPad version just ignores the last item from that array. Does anyone know why this might be happening?

Thanks,
Teja.

Quinlan

How many items are there in _menuItems? – Mikemikel

Answer 1

Found the answer as soon as I typed out this post. Somehow removing the "Cancel" button causes both the buttons to come up. Weird.

EDIT: Although, this is really annoying because all my button indices change between the iPhone and the iPad versions (The iPhone still needs the cancel button). How do I handle this?

Quinlan

Answer 2

I think what iOS is doing is it's expecting the last button to be the cancel button (regardless of whether it is or not) and is removing it, but maybe only for iPads. This is probably because a user can tap outside the action sheet to dismiss it. The problem I have with Apple's design choice is that it may not always be evident that the dialog can or should be dismissed in that way.

For example, I am showing my action sheet by calling [actionSheet showInView:self.view]; This causes the entire view to be grayed with the action sheet displaying in the middle of the device. Users are going to--rightly, in my opinion--assume that they have to choose one of the buttons.

I understand there are other action sheet display mechanisms--like the one that displays it as a bubble attached to a bar button item--where a cancel button is obviously redundant. It would be nice if Apple allowed for more flexibility here. For my app, I am probably going to have to add a dummy button to the end of the array I'm passing into my custom constructor, knowing that iOS will hide it. If the behavior changes in a future release of iOS... well, I'll just have to address it at that time.

In your case, I recommend not using the constructor that takes cancelButtonTitle and destructiveButtonTitle. Instead, subclass UIActionSheet and add buttons manually using the method above. Then, set cancelButtonIndex and destructiveButtonIndex to the desired indices. Remember that you don't have to set those two properties; they default to -1 (no button). Also, remember to abide by the HIG regarding the position of your buttons.

Here's one of my subclass' constructors (edited for brevity), just to give you an idea:

- (instancetype)initWithTitle:(NSString *)title
                 buttonTitles:(NSArray *)buttonTitles
            cancelButtonIndex:(NSInteger)cancelButtonIndex
       destructiveButtonIndex:(NSInteger)destructiveButtonIndex
{
    self = [super initWithTitle:title delegate:nil cancelButtonTitle:nil destructiveButtonTitle:nil otherButtonTitles:nil];

    if (self)
    {
        if (buttonTitles)
        {
            [buttonTitles enumerateObjectsUsingBlock:^(id obj, NSUInteger idx, BOOL *stop)
            {
                [self addButtonWithTitle:obj];
            }];
        }
        self.cancelButtonIndex = cancelButtonIndex;
        self.destructiveButtonIndex = destructiveButtonIndex;
        if (self.cancelButtonIndex > -1)
        {
            [self addButtonWithTitle:@""];
        }
    }

    return self;
}

Cohe