Can you attach a UIGestureRecognizer to multiple views?

UITapGestureRecognizer *tapGesture = [[UITapGestureRecognizer alloc] initWithTarget:self action:@selector(tapTapTap:)];
[self.view1 addGestureRecognizer:tapGesture];
[self.view2 addGestureRecognizer:tapGesture];
[tapGesture release];

In the above code only taps on view2 are recognized. If I comment out the third line then taps on view1 are recognized. If I'm right and you can only use a gesture recognizer once, I'm not sure if this is a bug or it just needs some more documentation.


A UIGestureRecognizer is to be used with a single view. I agree the documentation is spotty. That UIGestureRecognizer has a single view property gives it away:

view

The view the gesture recognizer is attached to. (read-only)

@property(nonatomic, readonly) UIView *view

Discussion You attach (or add) a gesture recognizer to a UIView object using the addGestureRecognizer: method.


I got around it by using the below.

for (UIButton *aButton in myButtons) {

            UILongPressGestureRecognizer *longPress = [[UILongPressGestureRecognizer alloc] initWithTarget:self action:@selector(handleLongPress:)];
            longPress.minimumPressDuration=1.0;
            [aButton addGestureRecognizer:longPress];
            [longPress release];

}

Then in my handleLongPress method I just set a UIButton equal to the view of the gesture recognizer and branch what I do based upon that button

- (void)handleLongPress:(UILongPressGestureRecognizer*)gesture {
    if ( gesture.state == UIGestureRecognizerStateEnded ) {
        UIButton *whichButton=(UIButton *)[gesture view];
        selectedButton=(UIButton *)[gesture view];
    ....
}