How can I make a custom orientation lock action?

Question

I would like to make a custom orientation lock button for a reader app of mine, and I was thinking it wouldn't be too bad to whip up, but alas I am the one getting whipped.

To start off I do have this method:

- (BOOL)shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)interfaceOrientation {
return YES;
 }

And then I was thinking that I could handle the actual locking in an action method like this:

- (IBAction) screenLock:(id)sender{

if([UIDevice currentDevice].orientation == UIDeviceOrientationPortrait){

    [[UIDevice currentDevice] setOrientation:UIInterfaceOrientationPortrait];

}else{

            [[UIDevice currentDevice] setOrientation:UIInterfaceOrientationLandscapeRight];

}

  }

But alas, this code will not hold sway over the former that instructs the view to rotate...

Am I going about this all wrong? What is a better way to do it? I just want to have local, easy way to have my users lock the orientation of their screen. I guess it would be using a boolean value where they hit a button to lock and then hit again to unlock...

Thoughts? Thanks!!

Answer 1

shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation ripples up your view hierarchy so your logic needs to be put into your app delegate (or as the most senior ViewController that might return YES). Put a BOOL property in your appDelegate and set it via your lock button (e.g. target pointers/delegates (AppDelegate)) then in your appDelegate do something like this:

#define ROTATION_MASTER_ENABLED 1

//Setting MASTER_ROTATION_LOCK_ENABLED to 0 will stop the device rotating
//Landscape UP>landscape DOWN and Portrait UP>Portrait DOWN, 
//This is not generally desired or app store safe, default = 1

-(BOOL)compareOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)interfaceOrientation
{

    UIInterfaceOrientation actual = [[UIDevice currentDevice] orientation]; 
    if(UIInterfaceOrientationIsLandscape(interfaceOrientation) && UIInterfaceOrientationIsLandscape(actual))return YES; 
    else if(UIInterfaceOrientationIsPortrait(interfaceOrientation)&& UIInterfaceOrientationIsPortrait(actual))return YES;
    else return NO;   

}


- (BOOL)shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)interfaceOrientation
{   
    if(!MASTER_ROTATION_LOCK_ENABLED)return NO;
    else if(self.rotationEnabled || [self compareOrientation:interfaceOrientation])return YES;
    return NO;//self.rotationEnabled is a BOOL
}