Is there a way to store custom colors in a file and access them from code in iOS?

Question

I am an iOS newbie but I have some experience programming for Android. I recall that in Android you could define a set of custom colors in a colors.xml file that you could use in your code, and therefore, there was no need to define a new color programmatically each time it had to be applied somewhere.

My question is: does a similar mechanism exist in iOS? I have searched throughout the Internet for a way to create custom colors once in some file and use them programmatically in my iOS app but have found nothing.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

As vokilam suggested, it is always good to create a Category using UIColor and adding your own custom colors through class methods inside the category. It is quite handy and easy to have a track of colors inside a single class. Something like:

In Xcode, File -> New --> New ---> File... Cocoa Touch -> Objective-C Category -> Next -> Select UIColor in "Category on" list --> Give a name for the category --> Next --> Create

This gives you .h and .m file... In your .h file, add a custom color method like

+(UIColor *)customLightGreenColor;

And in the .m file, you can implement the method something like (You have different options to set your colors here):

+(UIColor *)customlightGreenColor
{
    UIColor *lightGreenColor = [UIColor colorWithRed:0.5 green:0.87 blue:0.0 alpha:1.0];
    return lightGreenColor;
}

Likewise, you can add any number of colors in your category and use it in your application. Hope this gives you a heads up...

Answer 2

You can extend UIColor class with category and define and implement colors there. Like [UIColor blackColor].

In fact, you can abstract from particular color names and use method names such as primaryColor, secondaryColor, defaultTextColor, alternativeTextColor, inverseTextColor and so on.