UIButton not showing highlight on tap in iOS7

Question

I've looked at a ton of posts on similar things, but none of them quite match or fix this issue. Since iOS 7, whenever I add a UIButton to a UITableViewCell or even to the footerview it works "fine", meaning it receives the target action, but it doesn't show the little highlight that normally happens as you tap a UIButton. It makes the UI look funky not showing the button react to touch.

I'm pretty sure this counts as a bug in iOS7, but has anyone found a solution or could help me find one :)

Edit: I forgot to mention that it will highlight if I long hold on the button, but not a quick tap like it does if just added to a standard view.

Code:

Creating the button:

UIButton *button = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeRoundedRect];
    button.titleLabel.font = [UIFont systemFontOfSize:14];
    button.titleLabel.textColor = [UIColor blueColor];
    [button setTitle:@"Testing" forState:UIControlStateNormal];
    [button addTarget:self action:@selector(buttonPressed:) forControlEvents: UIControlEventTouchDown];
    button.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, self.view.frame.size.width/2, 40);

Things I've Tested:

//Removing gesture recognizers on UITableView in case they were getting in the way.

for (UIGestureRecognizer *recognizer in self.tableView.gestureRecognizers) {
   recognizer.enabled = NO;
}

//Removing gestures from the Cell

for (UIGestureRecognizer *recognizer in self.contentView.gestureRecognizers) {
       recognizer.enabled = NO;
    }

//This shows the little light touch, but this isn't the desired look

button.showsTouchWhenHighlighted = YES;

Answer 1

What I did to solve the problem was a category of UIButton using the following code :

- (void) touchesBegan:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event
{
    [super touchesBegan:touches withEvent:event];


    [NSOperationQueue.mainQueue addOperationWithBlock:^{ self.highlighted = YES; }];
}


- (void) touchesCancelled:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event
{
    [super touchesCancelled:touches withEvent:event];

    [self performSelector:@selector(setDefault) withObject:nil afterDelay:0.1];
}

- (void)touchesEnded:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event
{
    [super touchesEnded:touches withEvent:event];

    [self performSelector:@selector(setDefault) withObject:nil afterDelay:0.1];
}


- (void)setDefault
{
    [NSOperationQueue.mainQueue addOperationWithBlock:^{ self.highlighted = NO; }];
}

the button reacts correctly when I press on it in a UITableViewCell, and my UITableView behaves normally as the delaysContentTouches isn't forced.

Answer 2

I tried to add this to the accepted answer but it never went through. This is a much safer way of turning off the cells delaysContentTouches property as it does not look for a specific class, but rather anything that responds to the selector.

In Cell:

for (id obj in self.subviews) {
     if ([obj respondsToSelector:@selector(setDelaysContentTouches:)]) {
          [obj setDelaysContentTouches:NO];
     }
}

In TableView:

self.tableView.delaysContentTouches = NO;

Answer 3

    - (void)viewDidLoad
{

    [super viewDidLoad];


    for (id view in self.tableView.subviews)
    {
        // looking for a UITableViewWrapperView
        if ([NSStringFromClass([view class]) isEqualToString:@"UITableViewWrapperView"])
        {
            // this test is necessary for safety and because a "UITableViewWrapperView" is NOT a UIScrollView in iOS7
            if([view isKindOfClass:[UIScrollView class]])
            {
                // turn OFF delaysContentTouches in the hidden subview
                UIScrollView *scroll = (UIScrollView *) view;
                scroll.delaysContentTouches = NO;
            }
            break;
        }
    }
}

Answer 4

Since iOS 8 we need to apply the same technique to UITableView subviews (table contains a hidden UITableViewWrapperView scroll view). There is no need iterate UITableViewCell subviews anymore.

for (UIView *currentView in tableView.subviews) {
    if ([currentView isKindOfClass:[UIScrollView class]]) {
        ((UIScrollView *)currentView).delaysContentTouches = NO;
        break;
    }
}

This answer should be linked with this question.

Answer 5

Solution in Swift, iOS8 only (needs the extra work on each of the cells for iOS7):

//
//  NoDelayTableView.swift
//  DivineBiblePhone
//
//  Created by Chris Hulbert on 30/03/2015.
//  Copyright (c) 2015 Chris Hulbert. All rights reserved.
//
//  This solves the delayed-tap issue on buttons on cells.

import UIKit

class NoDelayTableView: UITableView {

    required init(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
        super.init(coder: aDecoder)

        delaysContentTouches = false

        // This solves the iOS8 delayed-tap issue.
        // http://stackoverflow.com/questions/19256996/uibutton-not-showing-highlight-on-tap-in-ios7
        for view in subviews {
            if let scroll = view as? UIScrollView {
                scroll.delaysContentTouches = false
            }
        }
    }

    override func touchesShouldCancelInContentView(view: UIView!) -> Bool {
        // So that if you tap and drag, it cancels the tap.
        return true
    }

}

To use, all you have to do is change the class to NoDelayTableView in your storyboard.

I can confirm that in iOS8, buttons placed inside a contentView in a cell now highlight instantly.

Answer 6

Since objc is dynamic, and scrollView is the only class that responds to delaysContentTouches, this should work for both ios 7 and 8 (put it somewhere early in your tableViewController, like awakeFromNib):

for (id view in self.tableView.subviews)
    {
        if ([view respondsToSelector:@selector(delaysContentTouches)]) {
            UIScrollView *scrollView = (UIScrollView *)view;
            scrollView.delaysContentTouches = NO;
            break;
        }
}

You may also have to turn off "delaysContentTouches" in your storyboard or nib by selecting the table inside your viewController. BTW, this might not work on ios 7 if you're using a tableView inside a viewController, at least I couldn't get it to work.