display next item in plist NSmutable Array using UIbutton

Question

Dear Developers,

I am developing an iphone app that has a single View containing A UILabel. The UILabel displays strings from within a plist that is structued as follows;

Root................................................(Array)
.............Item 0.................................(Dictionary)
.........................Question...................(String)    "question 0"
.............Item 1.................................(Dictionary)
.........................Question...................(String)    "question 1"
.............Item 2.................................(Dictionary)
.........................Question...................(String)    "question 2"

The Plist is defined as an NSArray and the strings within each Dictionary are called using Constant Keys.

I now want to implement a UIButton that, when pressed, loads the next item from the plist/array into the UILabel.

I need to know specifically what this Action would look like in code because i can't find an example anywhere :(. Can anybody help with this?

j

Answer 1

Sounds like you want a UITabelView and to set up each cell as an item from your property list. This is very well documented, not only in terms of the APIs that will be required in this case, but in sample code. The table view suite for instance, is one great place to look.

Try and visualize your use case in terms of a UI, you'll see what I mean.

Answer 2

Hmm, I have my own way of doing things like this, and I'll show you how right now.

You'll want to base it off like this. You'll need 4 UIButtons for 4 words, so for 1 word its 1 button. I'll start in the .h by declaring my outlets and actions.

{
IBOutlet UIButton *Button1; 
IBOutlet UIButton *Button2; 
IBOutlet UIButton *Button3; 
IBOutlet UIButton *Button4;
IBOutlet UILabel *Label; 
}
// and now I'll do 4 actions.
-(IBAction)Button1Action;
-(IBAction)Button2Action;
-(IBAction)Button3Action;
-(IBAction)Button4Action;

In my .m, I'll start off with some code that will run immediately after the app launches. So I can just do viewDidLoad, since I can't remember the applicationDidFinish launching method off the top of my head.

-(void)viewDidLoad {
NSLog(@"Application has launched, hiding buttons 2, 3, and 4.");
[Button2 setHidden:YES];
[Button3 setHidden:YES];
[Button4 setHidden:YES];
}

Now we're going to do the actions. Separate the 4 buttons in Interface Builder, connect the buttons, then put the first button where you want it, the second button over it, third, then fourth, and so on for however many words you'll have.

-(IBAction)Button1Action {
NSLog(@"Button 1 pressed.);
[Button2 setHidden:YES];
[Button3 setHidden:YES];
[Button4 setHidden:YES];
[Button1 setHidden:NO];
Label.text = @"word number 1";
}

-(IBAction)Button2Action {
NSLog(@"Button 2 pressed.);
[Button1 setHidden:YES];
[Button3 setHidden:YES];
[Button4 setHidden:YES];
[Button2 setHidden:NO];
Label.text = @"word number 2";
}

-(IBAction)Button3Action {
NSLog(@"Button 3 pressed.);
[Button1 setHidden:YES];
[Button2 setHidden:YES];
[Button4 setHidden:YES];
[Button3 setHidden:NO];
Label.text = @"word number 3";
}

-(IBAction)Button4Action {
NSLog(@"Button 4 pressed.);
[Button1 setHidden:YES];
[Button2 setHidden:YES];
[Button3 setHidden:YES];
[Button4 setHidden:NO];
Label.text = @"word number 4";
}

And then that's pretty much it. I like to do things my way, sometimes its longer than the usual way that people do it, and sometimes its shorter. I hope this helps you.