Simple way to show the 'Copy' popup on UITableViewCells like the address book App

Question

Is there a simple way for subclasses of UITableViewCell to show the 'Copy' UIMenuController popup like in the Address book app (see screenshot), after the selection is held for a while?

Answer 1

The normal method is to get the UIMenuController's shared instance, set the target rect and view and call -setMenuVisible:animated:. Remeber to implement -canPerformAction:withSender: in your responder.

---

The undocumented method is to implement these 3 methods in your data source (see http://iphonedevwiki.net/index.php/UITableViewDataSource).

-(void)tableView:(UITableView*)tableView performAction:(SEL)action forRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath*)indexPath withSender:(id)sender;
-(BOOL)tableView:(UITableView*)tableView canPerformAction:(SEL)action forRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath*)indexPath withSender:(id)sender;
-(BOOL)tableView:(UITableView*)tableView shouldShowMenuForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath*)indexPath; 

Answer 2

Your UITableViewCell subclass may look like this

@interface MenuTableViewCell : UITableViewCell {
}
- (IBAction)copy:(id)sender;
- (void)showMenu;

@end


@implementation MenuTableViewCell

- (BOOL)canBecomeFirstResponder {
    return YES;
}
- (BOOL)canPerformAction:(SEL)action withSender:(id)sender
{
    if (action == @selector(copy:)) {
        return YES;
    }
    return NO;
}
- (IBAction)copy:(id)sender {
}
- (void)showMenu {
    [[UIMenuController sharedMenuController] setMenuVisible:NO animated:YES];
    [self becomeFirstResponder];
    [[UIMenuController sharedMenuController] update];
    [[UIMenuController sharedMenuController] setTargetRect:CGRectZero inView:self];
    [[UIMenuController sharedMenuController] setMenuVisible:YES animated:YES];

}

@end

And the UITableView delegate methods are like

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {

    static NSString *CellIdentifier = @"Cell";

    MenuTableViewCell *cell = (MenuTableViewCell *)[tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
    if (cell == nil) {
        cell = [[[MenuTableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:CellIdentifier] autorelease];
    }

    // Configure the cell.
    return cell;
}

- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView didSelectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
    MenuTableViewCell *cell = (MenuTableViewCell *)[tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:indexPath];
    [cell showMenu];
}