uiviewdrawinglinecgcontextref

Draw a line between two points - How to pass UIView


I am trying to draw a simple line connecting two points. I think i got the right code for that in my drawLine method. No lines appear at all and I am pretty sure it has to do with the View I am calling with and the one I want to draw on. The following code is where I build my next View in code (data coming from a web service). The View gets created just fine and all buttons and objects appear.

I am trying to add lines to the View I'm creating (Next) dynamically and not sure how to get that done. From the Errors I get (invalid context 0x0) it seems I am doing something out of order. Trying to display on a view that is not there. how than can I get this done? Any advice would be appreciated.

I realize that passing on the View might not be the right answer. I am in the midst of trial and error here.

To clarify: I am calling drawLine here:

[nextView.view addSubview:next];

Thanks,

Shai

-(void) drawView
{
CGRect rec;
CGFloat width = [UIScreen mainScreen].bounds.size.width;
CGFloat height = [UIScreen mainScreen].bounds.size.height;

UIView *next = [[UIView alloc]initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, height, width)];
next.backgroundColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
next.userInteractionEnabled = YES;
next.multipleTouchEnabled = YES;

nextView = [UIViewController alloc];
[nextView setTitle: as_objectDesc];

for (object in viewObjects)
{ // ratio based on Ipad 2 screen size conversion from the Datawindow size - alter to    support other device
    CGFloat objWidth = object.Width/3.83;
    CGFloat objHeight = object.Height/2.78;
    CGFloat objXPoint = object.positionX/3.83;
    CGFloat  objYPoint = object.positionY/2.78;

    if ([object.Shape isEqualToString:@"text"])
    {
        rec = CGRectMake(objXPoint, objYPoint, objWidth, objHeight);
        UILabel *myLabel = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:rec];
        myLabel.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
        myLabel.text = object.objectTag;
        myLabel.lineBreakMode = NSLineBreakByWordWrapping;

        if ([object.description isEqualToString:@"Header"])
        {
            myLabel.font = [UIFont systemFontOfSize:20];
        }
        else
        {
            myLabel.font = [UIFont systemFontOfSize:10];
        }
        [next addSubview:myLabel];
    }
    else if ([object.Shape isEqualToString:@"line"])
    {
        **[self drawLine:nextView.view];**
    }
    else
    {
        UIButton *myButton = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeCustom];

    if ([object.Shape isEqualToString:@"ellipse"])
    {
        UIImage * buttonImage;
        if ([object.Color isEqualToString:@"255"])
        {
            buttonImage = [UIImage imageNamed:@"redBackground.png"];
        }
        else if ([object.Color isEqualToString:@"65535"])
        {
            buttonImage = [UIImage imageNamed:@"yellowBackground.png"];
        }
        else if ([object.Color isEqualToString:@"GRAY"])
        {
            buttonImage = [UIImage imageNamed:@"graybground.PNG"];
        }
        else if ([object.Color isEqualToString:@"BLACK"])
        {
            buttonImage = [UIImage imageNamed:@"BlackBackground.png"];
        }

        [myButton setBackgroundImage:buttonImage forState: UIControlStateNormal];

        objWidth = objHeight;
        rec = CGRectMake(objXPoint, objYPoint, objWidth, objHeight);

        myButton.frame = rec;
        myButton.clipsToBounds = YES;
        myButton.layer.cornerRadius = objWidth/2;


    }
    else
    {
        rec = CGRectMake(objXPoint, objYPoint, objWidth, objHeight);
        if ([object.Color isEqualToString:@"255"])
            myButton.backgroundColor = [UIColor redColor];
        else if ([object.Color isEqualToString:@"65535"])
            myButton.backgroundColor = [UIColor yellowColor];
        else if ([object.Color isEqualToString:@"GRAY"])
            myButton.backgroundColor = [UIColor grayColor];
        else if ([object.Color isEqualToString:@"BLACK"])
            myButton.backgroundColor = [UIColor blackColor];
    }


    [[myButton layer] setBorderWidth:1.0f];
    [[myButton layer] setBorderColor:[UIColor blackColor].CGColor];

    myButton.enabled = YES;
    myButton.accessibilityHint = object.objectTag;

    myButton.titleLabel.lineBreakMode = NSLineBreakByWordWrapping;
    myButton.titleLabel.textAlignment = NSTextAlignmentCenter;
    myButton.titleLabel.font = [UIFont systemFontOfSize:13];
    [myButton setTitleColor:[UIColor blackColor] forState:UIControlStateNormal];


    [myButton addTarget:self action:@selector(btnClick:) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];

        myButton.frame = rec;

        [myButton setTitle:object.description forState:UIControlStateNormal];

        // Check if an Empty Rectangle
        NSRange test =[myButton.accessibilityHint rangeOfString:@"r_"];
        if (test.location == 0)
        {
            [next sendSubviewToBack:myButton];
            [myButton setEnabled:NO];
        }

        [next addSubview:myButton];

    }

    UIPinchGestureRecognizer *twoFingerPinch = [[UIPinchGestureRecognizer alloc]
                                                 initWithTarget:self
                                                 action:@selector(twoFingerPinch:)]
                                                ;

    [[nextView view] addGestureRecognizer:twoFingerPinch];

    [next addSubview:activityIndicator];
    [next bringSubviewToFront:activityIndicator];

}
[nextView.view addSubview:next];

[self dismissViewControllerAnimated:NO completion:nil];
[self.navigationController pushViewController:nextView animated:NO];
 }

- (void)drawLine:(UIView *) view
{
    CGFloat x1 = object.positionX;
    CGFloat y1 = object.positionY;
    CGFloat x2 = object.positionX2;
    CGFloat y2 = object.positionY2;

    CGContextRef context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext();

    if ([object.Color isEqualToString:@"255"])
       CGContextSetStrokeColorWithColor(context, [UIColor redColor].CGColor);
    else if ([object.Color isEqualToString:@"65535"])
        CGContextSetStrokeColorWithColor(context, [UIColor yellowColor].CGColor); 
    else if ([object.Color isEqualToString:@"GRAY"])
        CGContextSetStrokeColorWithColor(context, [UIColor grayColor].CGColor);
    else if ([object.Color isEqualToString:@"BLACK"])
        CGContextSetStrokeColorWithColor(context, [UIColor blackColor].CGColor);

    CGContextSetLineWidth(context, 3.0);
    CGContextBeginPath(context);
    CGContextMoveToPoint(context, x1, y1);
    CGContextAddLineToPoint(context, x2, y2);
    CGContextStrokePath(context);
}

Solution

  • I end up figuring this up days a go and thought I would share here. I might have added to much code in my question which did not help to simplify it to others (no comments).

    What this came down to is when trying to Draw a line you need to override the DrawRect Method of the UIView subclass and not the UIViewController as I did. There is no Error thrown if you call DrawRect from your UIViewController but it doesn't do anything. I missed that small detail.

    What added to the complexity of finding this out ans solving this was that I was creating all of it Programmatically and initially didn't subclass UIView at all. I ended up adding all the Points in an NSMutablearray and redrawing the lines in the following class after the newly View got created:

    #import "draw.h"
    
    @implementation draw
    @synthesize lines;
    
    - (id)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame
    {
       self = [super initWithFrame:frame];
    if (self) 
    {
    // Initialization code
    }
    return self;
    }
    
    -(void)drawRect:(CGRect)rect
    {
    
    CGContextRef context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext();
    
    for (line *myLine in lines)
    {
    
        if ([myLine.color isEqualToString:@"255"])
                 CGContextSetStrokeColorWithColor(context, [UIColor redColor].CGColor);
        else if ([myLine.color isEqualToString:@"65535"])
                    CGContextSetStrokeColorWithColor(context, [UIColor yellowColor].CGColor);
        else if ([myLine.color isEqualToString:@"GRAY"])
                    CGContextSetStrokeColorWithColor(context, [UIColor grayColor].CGColor);
        else if ([myLine.color isEqualToString:@"BLACK"])
                    CGContextSetStrokeColorWithColor(context, [UIColor blackColor].CGColor);
        int setNew = myLine.Width/4;
    
        CGContextSetLineWidth(context, (CGFloat)setNew);
        CGContextBeginPath(context);
        CGContextMoveToPoint(context, myLine.x1, myLine.y1);
        CGContextAddLineToPoint(context, myLine.x2, myLine.y2);
        CGContextStrokePath(context);
    }
    }
    @end