Subclassing

suggest change

Subclassing UIControl gives us access to the following methods:

MyCustomControl.swift

import UIKit

// These are out self-defined rules for how we will communicate with other classes
protocol ViewControllerCommunicationDelegate: class {
    func myTrackingBegan()
    func myTrackingContinuing(location: CGPoint)
    func myTrackingEnded()
}

class MyCustomControl: UIControl {

    // whichever class wants to be notified of the touch events must set the delegate to itself
    weak var delegate: ViewControllerCommunicationDelegate?
    
    override func beginTrackingWithTouch(touch: UITouch, withEvent event: UIEvent?) -> Bool {
        
        // notify the delegate (i.e. the view controller)
        delegate?.myTrackingBegan()
        
        // returning true means that future events (like continueTrackingWithTouch and endTrackingWithTouch) will continue to be fired
        return true
    }
    
    override func continueTrackingWithTouch(touch: UITouch, withEvent event: UIEvent?) -> Bool {
        
        // get the touch location in our custom control's own coordinate system
        let point = touch.locationInView(self)
        
        // Update the delegate (i.e. the view controller) with the new coordinate point
        delegate?.myTrackingContinuing(point)
        
        // returning true means that future events will continue to be fired
        return true
    }
    
    override func endTrackingWithTouch(touch: UITouch?, withEvent event: UIEvent?) {
        
        // notify the delegate (i.e. the view controller)
        delegate?.myTrackingEnded()
    }
}

ViewController.swift

This is how the view controller is set up to be the delegate and respond to touch events from our custom control.

import UIKit
class ViewController: UIViewController, ViewControllerCommunicationDelegate {
    
    @IBOutlet weak var myCustomControl: MyCustomControl!
    @IBOutlet weak var trackingBeganLabel: UILabel!
    @IBOutlet weak var trackingEndedLabel: UILabel!
    @IBOutlet weak var xLabel: UILabel!
    @IBOutlet weak var yLabel: UILabel!
    
    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        myCustomControl.delegate = self
    }

    func myTrackingBegan() {
        trackingBeganLabel.text = "Tracking began"
    }
    
    func myTrackingContinuing(location: CGPoint) {
        xLabel.text = "x: \(location.x)"
        yLabel.text = "y: \(location.y)"
    }
    
    func myTrackingEnded() {
        trackingEndedLabel.text = "Tracking ended"
    }
}

Notes

Feedback about page:

Feedback:
Optional: your email if you want me to get back to you:



Table Of Contents