Accessing UIPopoverController for UIActionSheet on iPad

Question

On the iPad, one can show a UIActionSheet using -showFromBarButtonItem:animated:. This is convenient because it wraps a UIPopoverController around the action sheet and it points the popover's arrow to the UIBarButtonItem that is passed in.

However, this call adds the UIBarButtomItem's toolbar to the list of passthrough views - which isn't always desirable. And, without a pointer to the UIPopoverController, one can't add other views to the passthrough list.

Does anyone know of a sanctioned approach to getting a pointer to the popover controller?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

You would need to adjust on orientation change.

I have found an alternative solution, that works perfectly for me.

Stick to

- (void)showFromBarButtonItem:(UIBarButtonItem *)item animated:(BOOL)animated

In your @interface add

UIActionSheet *popoverActionsheet;

also add

@property (nonatomic, retain) UIActionSheet *popoverActionsheet;

also add

- (IBAction)barButtonItemAction:(id)sender;

So you have reference to your actionsheet from anywhere in your implementation.

in your implementation

- (IBAction) barButtonItemAction:(id)sender
{
    //If the actionsheet is visible it is dismissed, if it not visible a new one is created.
    if ([popoverActionsheet isVisible]) {
        [popoverActionsheet dismissWithClickedButtonIndex:[popoverActionsheet cancelButtonIndex] 
                                                     animated:YES];
        return;
    }

    popoverActionsheet = [[UIActionSheet alloc] initWithTitle:nil
                                                     delegate:self
                                            cancelButtonTitle:nil 
                                       destructiveButtonTitle:nil
                         otherButtonTitles:@"Save Page", @"View in Safari", nil];

    [popoverActionsheet showFromBarButtonItem:sender animated:YES];
}

in your actionsheet delegate implement

- (void)actionSheet:(UIActionSheet *)actionSheet didDismissWithButtonIndex:(NSInteger)buttonIndex
{

    if (buttonIndex == [actionSheet cancelButtonIndex]) return;

    //add rest of the code for other button indeces
}

and don't forget to release popoverActionsheet in

- (void)dealloc

I trust that this will do.

Answer 2

    if ([[[[actionSheet superview] superview] nextResponder] respondsToSelector:@selector(setPassthroughViews:)]) {
        [[[[actionSheet superview] superview] nextResponder] performSelector:@selector(setPassthroughViews:) withObject:nil];
    }

Will do the trick, this shouldn't cause any problems with the App Reviewers either as its not calling any private APIs.

It is fragile - the if statements ensures your code won't crash (just not work) in the unlikely event Apple change the underlying implementation.