Passing touch events to iOS status bar

Question

I have a UIWindow with windowLevel set to UIWindowLevelStatusBar+1. This window has a single semi-transparent view that blocks the status bar. I need to sometimes pass touch

Answer 1

As far as I understand this, you should use - (UIView *)hitTest:(CGPoint)point withEvent:(UIEvent *)event to implement that behavior. Basically, you either return self if you want to handle the touch event or [super hitTest:point withEvent:event] to let the status bar handle the touch event.

Check out the UIView Class Reference for more.

EDIT: As Jonathan mentioned, Apple might not approve this.

Answer 2

You might find this component over on github helpful.

Otherwise, Cocoa with Love blog post is really useful to read perhaps.

Answer 3

So, it seems to be doable with a custom subclass of UIWindow overriding hitTest:withEvent: that manually detects a touch in the subview, and always returns nil.

- (UIView*)hitTest:(CGPoint)point withEvent:(UIEvent *)event {
    if ([event type]==UIEventTypeTouches) {
        UIView *v=[super hitTest:point withEvent:event];
        if (customSubViewthatCoversStatusBarOnly==v) 
            //doLotsOfCoolStuff
    }

    return nil;
}

Status bar recognizes all touches, so there is no breakage with scroll-to-top, return to call, VoiceOver, etc.. And I still get to intercept taps on statusbar.

I hacked this up just now. I will probably upload an update to App Store later this week with a more mature version of this, will see how much complaining Apple will do.

EDIT - 7th April:
Was approved by Apple. Works flawlessly.