MAF Locale-Aware Controls

MAF locale-aware controls are complex graphical components for presenting and editing currency, phone numbers, and address information in localized input fields.

Use these controls to request user inputs in the language and locale set for the phone. You can also read the localized user input and use it for later data processing (for example, for sending it to the back end). MAF locale-aware controls let you:

Present and obtain user information in a localized way for currencies, phone numbers, and address fields in table view cell UI elements.
Allow users to select values for input fields from a predefined list of a finite number of values, for example, selecting country names or currencies per countries.
Allow users to select the label and type of input fields from a configurable list of options, such as home, work, or private settings for phone types, or work, home, or other settings for addresses.
Allow users to enter free text information, such as amounts and phone numbers, and properly format it using MAF formatters.
Easily and dynamically customize the component’s UI elements and subviews, even at application runtime. The controls are skinnable, as they all build on MAF simple controls.
Configure value helper list entries with your custom set.
Define custom presentations for value helper lists, besides the out-of-the-box value help screen modal behavior.

The Controls
Locale-aware controls include: currency, currency value with selector, phone number, and address. The controls are implemented as extensions of the iOS UITableView cells, so to use them, add the controls to regular table views.
Dependencies and Project Setup
MAF locale-aware controls are built on top of MAF simple controls, such as MAFUILabel and MAFUITableView. The controls use the skinning infrastructure of MAFSkinManager and the formatting capabilities of MAFFormatters, so the controls depend on both the MAFUIComponents and MAFFormatters library.
Setting Up a Frame for a Sample Application
Because the controls are implemented as table view cells, the most convenient way to present them is to use a table view, or table view controller and provide the locale-aware controls as cells using the table view datasource protocol.
Creating the Controls - the Base Classes
Each locale-aware control is implemented as a UITableView cell, which is extended by MAF using the MAFTableViewCell class. The MAFTableViewCell class uses MAF skinning and MAF formatters, and provides value help functionality to table view cells.
Skinning the Controls
To add custom skinning for your locale-aware controls, load custom styles using the MAF skinning mechanism. All the MAF reusable controls include built-in MAF skinning support. By default, all skinning follows default SAP style.
Setting Value Help Options
You can directly set the collection for value helps for phone title, currency title, and address title types.

Parent topic: Developing with iOS Reusable UI Components