Dragging custom UIView with shadow - the size resets and shadow disappears

Question

In Xcode 5 I have created an iPhone app with 5 "letter tiles", which can be dragged around:

The tiles are implemented as Tile class utilizing Tile.xib (here fullscreen):

The tile.png is a small image without shadow:

The dragged.png is a larger image with shadow:

The latter image is displayed by touchesBegan in Tile.m:

- (void)touchesBegan:(NSSet*)touches withEvent:(UIEvent*)event
{
    _background.image = kDragged;
    [_letter setFont:[UIFont systemFontOfSize:48]];
    [_value setFont:[UIFont systemFontOfSize:20]];

    [self.superview bringSubviewToFront:self];

    [super touchesBegan:touches withEvent:event];
}

- (void)touchesEnded:(NSSet*)touches withEvent:(UIEvent*)event
{
    _background.image = kTile;
    [_letter setFont:[UIFont systemFontOfSize:36]];
    [_value setFont:[UIFont systemFontOfSize:16]];

    [super touchesEnded:touches withEvent:event];
}

- (void)touchesCancelled:(NSSet*)touches withEvent:(UIEvent*)event
{
    _background.image = kTile;
    [_letter setFont:[UIFont systemFontOfSize:36]];
    [_value setFont:[UIFont systemFontOfSize:16]];

    [super touchesCancelled:touches withEvent:event];
}

And dragging is done by using UIPanGestureRecognizer in ViewController.m:

- (IBAction)dragTile:(UIPanGestureRecognizer *)recognizer
{
    Tile* tile = (Tile*)recognizer.view;
    UIView* parent = tile.superview;

    if (recognizer.state == UIGestureRecognizerStateBegan ||
        recognizer.state == UIGestureRecognizerStateChanged) {

        CGPoint translation = [recognizer translationInView:parent];

        [tile setCenter:CGPointMake(tile.center.x + translation.x,
                                    tile.center.y + translation.y)];

        [recognizer setTranslation:CGPointZero inView:parent];
    }
}

My problem is:

When I touch a tile, its size increases and the shadow is displayed (which is okay).

But once I start dragging the tile, its size resets back to small with no shadow (which I don't understand).

I've set breakpoints at touchesEnded and touchesCancelled - and the latter is being hit, when dragging starts. But why and how to stop this?

Answer 1

As discussed in the comments, the solution to the problem is to set the cancelsTouchesInView property of UIGestureRecognizer to NO so that the touchesCancelled:withEvent: method is not called by the recognizer.

Refer to the documentation here.