How to properly use a UIAlertAction handler in Objective-C

Question

Simply put, I would like to call a method or reference a variable from my class in a UIAlertAction handler.

Do I need to pass in a block to this handler or is there some other means to achieve this?

@interface OSAlertAllView ()
@property (nonatomic, strong) NSString *aString;
@end

@implementation OSAlertAllView

+ (void)alertWithTitle:(NSString *)title message:(NSString *)msg cancelTitle:(NSString *)cancel inView:(UIViewController *)view
{
    __weak __typeof(self) weakSelf = self;

    UIAlertController *alert = [UIAlertController alertControllerWithTitle:title message:msg
                                                                preferredStyle:UIAlertControllerStyleAlert];
    UIAlertAction* defaultAction = [UIAlertAction actionWithTitle:cancel style:UIAlertActionStyleDefault
        handler:^(UIAlertAction * action) {
            // I'd like to reference a variable or method here
            weakSelf.aString = @"Apples"; // Not sure if this would be necessary
            self.aString = @"Apples"; // Member reference type 'struct objc_class *' is a pointer Error
            [self someMethod]; // No known class method Error
        }];

    [alert addAction:defaultAction];
    [view presentViewController:alert animated:YES completion:nil];
}

- (void)someMethod {

}

Answer 1

The + at the start of your alertWithTitle... method means it is a class method. When you call it, self will be the class OSAlertAllView, not an instance of type OSAlertAllView.

---

There are two ways you could change it to make it work.

Change the + at the start of the method to a - making it an instance method. Then you would call it on an instance instead of the class.

// Old Class Method Way
[OSAlertAllView alertWithTitle:@"Title" message:@"Message" cancelTitle:@"Cancel" inView:viewController];

// New Instance Methods Way
OSAlertAllView *alert = [OSAlertAllView new];
[alert alertWithTitle:@"Title" message:@"Message" cancelTitle:@"Cancel" inView:viewController];

The other way would be to create an instance to OSAlertAllView inside of you alertWithTitle... and replace the uses of self with that object.

+ (void)alertWithTitle:(NSString *)title message:(NSString *)msg cancelTitle:(NSString *)cancel inView:(UIViewController *)view
{
    OSAlertAllView *alertAllView = [OSAlertAllView new];

    UIAlertController *alert = [UIAlertController alertControllerWithTitle:title message:msg
                                                                preferredStyle:UIAlertControllerStyleAlert];
    UIAlertAction* defaultAction = [UIAlertAction actionWithTitle:cancel style:UIAlertActionStyleDefault
        handler:^(UIAlertAction * action) {
            alertAllView.aString = @"Apples";
            [alertAllView someMethod];
        }];

    [alert addAction:defaultAction];
    [view presentViewController:alert animated:YES completion:nil];
}