Observing pinch multi-touch gestures in a UITableView

Solution 1:

This seems to be a classic problem. In my case I wanted to intercept some events over a UIWebView which can't be subclassed, etc etc.

I've found that the best way to do it is to intercept the events using the UIWindow:

EventInterceptWindow.h

@protocol EventInterceptWindowDelegate
- (BOOL)interceptEvent:(UIEvent *)event; // return YES if event handled
@end


@interface EventInterceptWindow : UIWindow {
    // It would appear that using the variable name 'delegate' in any UI Kit
    // subclass is a really bad idea because it can occlude the same name in a
    // superclass and silently break things like autorotation.
    id <EventInterceptWindowDelegate> eventInterceptDelegate;
}

@property(nonatomic, assign)
    id <EventInterceptWindowDelegate> eventInterceptDelegate;

@end

EventInterceptWindow.m:

#import "EventInterceptWindow.h"

@implementation EventInterceptWindow

@synthesize eventInterceptDelegate;

- (void)sendEvent:(UIEvent *)event {
    if ([eventInterceptDelegate interceptEvent:event] == NO)
        [super sendEvent:event];
}

@end

Create that class, change the class of your UIWindow in your MainWindow.xib to EventInterceptWindow, then somewhere set the eventInterceptDelegate to a view controller that you want to intercept events. Example that intercepts a double-tap:

- (BOOL)interceptEvent:(UIEvent *)event {
    NSSet *touches = [event allTouches];
    UITouch *oneTouch = [touches anyObject];
    UIView *touchView = [oneTouch view];
    //  NSLog(@"tap count = %d", [oneTouch tapCount]);
    // check for taps on the web view which really end up being dispatched to
    // a scroll view
    if (touchView && [touchView isDescendantOfView:webView]
            && touches && oneTouch.phase == UITouchPhaseBegan) {
        if ([oneTouch tapCount] == 2) {
            [self toggleScreenDecorations];
            return YES;
        }
    }   
    return NO;
}

Related info here: http://iphoneincubator.com/blog/windows-views/360idev-iphone-developers-conference-presentation

Solution 2:

Nimrod wrote:

somewhere set the eventInterceptDelegate to a view controller that you want to intercept events

I didn't immediately understand this statement. For the benefit of anyone else who had the same problem as me, the way I did it was by adding the following code to my UIView subclass which must detect touches.

- (void) viewDidAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
    [super viewDidAppear:animated];

    // Register to receive touch events
    MyApplicationAppDelegate *appDelegate = (MyApplicationAppDelegate *) [[UIApplication sharedApplication] delegate];
    EventInterceptWindow *window = (EventInterceptWindow *) appDelegate.window;
    window.eventInterceptDelegate = self;
}


- (void) viewWillDisappear:(BOOL) animated
{
    // Deregister from receiving touch events
    MyApplicationAppDelegate *appDelegate = (MyApplicationAppDelegate *) [[UIApplication sharedApplication] delegate];
    EventInterceptWindow *window = (EventInterceptWindow *) appDelegate.window;
    window.eventInterceptDelegate = nil;

    [super viewWillDisappear:animated];
}


- (BOOL) interceptEvent:(UIEvent *) event
{
    NSLog(@"interceptEvent is being called...");
    return NO;
}

This version of interceptEvent: is a simple implementation of pinch-to-zoom detection. NB. Some code was taken from Beginning iPhone 3 Development by Apress.

CGFloat initialDistance;

- (BOOL) interceptEvent:(UIEvent *) event
{
    NSSet *touches = [event allTouches];

    // Give up if user wasn't using two fingers
    if([touches count] != 2) return NO;

    UITouchPhase phase = ((UITouch *) [touches anyObject]).phase;
    CGPoint firstPoint = [[[touches allObjects] objectAtIndex:0] locationInView:self.view];
    CGPoint secondPoint = [[[touches allObjects] objectAtIndex:1] locationInView:self.view];

    CGFloat deltaX = secondPoint.x - firstPoint.x;
    CGFloat deltaY = secondPoint.y - firstPoint.y;
    CGFloat distance = sqrt(deltaX*deltaX + deltaY*deltaY);

    if(phase == UITouchPhaseBegan)
    {
        initialDistance = distance;
    }
    else if(phase == UITouchPhaseMoved)
    {
        CGFloat currentDistance = distance;
        if(initialDistance == 0) initialDistance = currentDistance;
        else if(currentDistance - initialDistance > kMinimumPinchDelta) NSLog(@"Zoom in");
        else if(initialDistance - currentDistance > kMinimumPinchDelta) NSLog(@"Zoom out");
    }
    else if(phase == UITouchPhaseEnded)
    {
        initialDistance = 0;
    }

    return YES;
}

Edit: While this code worked 100% fine in the iPhone simulator, when I ran it on an iPhone device I encountered strange bugs related to the table scrolling. If this also happens to you, then force the interceptEvent: method to return NO in all cases. This means that the superclass will also process the touch event, but fortunately this did not break my code.