How can I addSubview to UIButton in Interface Builder

Question

Like I said, I add a UIButton in Interface Builder, I want add a UILabel、UIImageView as the button's subviews, but I can't add any object on it in IB. IS anybody know how to do this? Thank you very much.

I can use code to achieve that, but I want achieve it in IB, so I can use it in any class I want.

Reprise

Don't you need to use a custom UILabel subclass for this? – Juliennejuliet

Answer 1

I have done this before by adding a UIView (instead of the UIButton) then add the UIButton and UILabel to the UIView. The tap from the UIButton still works and you have a label too. You can also add anything else like this.

Yonder

This seems the simplest, it requires no code and does not affect layout, save the extra framing view. The custom button approach did not work for me. – Validity

But then the button does not show the highlighted state. When user clicks on it, it doesn't look like it's a button because it doesn't get highlighted. Is there a way to maintain that highlight? Or create it somehow? – Uninhibited

Another advantage of this approach is you can still connect segues to it, and it's all in interface builder. – Galligan

Answer 2

I normally achieve this by

1. Create a new UIView in Interface Builder and set it to be the same size and location that you want your button to have
2. Add your subviews to that UIView
3. Set the UIView's class to UIButton in the Indentity Inspector

Your UIView now works exactly like a UIButton

M

Didn't work here. The action linked to the UIButton never get called. – Tempietempla

Excellent, this is the winner. Can be enabled/disabled as usual like a regular button, and is IB only. I'm guessing that Colas didn't enable UserInteraction. – Eustache

There is a side effect of doing this. The element in the storyboard file stays as a <view> ... </view> but with a CustomClass="UIButton". This means that ctrl click - drag doesn't allow creation of segues in Interface Builder. I verified this by changing the <view> tag to <button> and Segues can be made, but then the subviews aren't visible. – Galligan

So I just added a button that is the same size as the UIView. All works fine. See the top answer – Galligan

This didn't work for me either (I was a bit premature with my upvote). I was sure to check 'User Interaction Enabled' for the UIView, and uncheck it for the subviews, but it still wouldn't call the linked action. I had more luck with Fogmeister's solution. – Marienthal

Answer 3

instead of UIButton, add the UILabel and UIImageView to UIView and then add a tap action to it.

EDIT 1:

it's easy to change make a highlighted color effect, use the following code:

- (void) onViewTap:(id)sender
{
    [UIView animateWithDuration:0.1
                          delay:0
                        options:UIViewAnimationOptionCurveEaseOut
                     animations:^{
                         _view.backgroundColor = [UIColor blueColor];
                     }

                     completion:^(BOOL finished){
                         _view.backgroundColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
                     }];

    //write tap actions below
}
- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    _view.userInteractionEnabled = YES;
    UITapGestureRecognizer* tap = [[UITapGestureRecognizer alloc] initWithTarget:self action:@selector(onViewTap:)];
    [_view addGestureRecognizer:tap];
}

Hypertension

Thanks Mhdali,that's a good idea,I've tried that before,and found I can't let the UIView looks like the status of the UIButton does,like when I touchdown the UIButton,the UIButton show highlighted color...And I really want to use the property of the UIButton. – Reprise

Answer 4

Make your UIButton custom button, then add the UILabel on it,then the you will benefit from the UIButton properties and actions,hope this help you

Periostitis

sorry man,can't do that,thanks all the same. I created a new .xib file, in this IB,I only created a UIButton,like I said,I want put a UILabel and a UIImageView as the UIButton's subview. Mhdali and Fogmeister help me deal with this problem. – Reprise

This approach didn't work for me - IB would still not let me nest labels. (FWIW) – Validity