Distinguish between touch and tap

Solar2D General Questions/Discussion
#1

Hey guys!

I’ve been working on some ways to make a more unique way for my menuscreen and wanted to ask you if there is some good way to distinguish between touch and tap events?

Let’s say I have a simple red square and would love to move it while touched, but to be rotated by 90° while tapped. NOTE: it should NOT be tapped while it is touched!

I thought about using a timer, but that sounds a bit like an overkill for something simple as that!
(I was also thinking about using event.numTaps (had that somewhere in my snippetJunk… actually was surprised that I couldn’t find that when searching for double Tap!)

Thanks in advance,
Chris [import]uid: 13097 topic_id: 15033 reply_id: 315033[/import]

#2

addEventListener(“touch”, touchFunc)
addEventListener('tap", tapFunc)

that doesn’t work?

i mean, its not like we have docs…oh wait :slight_smile: /JK

http://developer.anscamobile.com/reference/index/objectaddeventlistener

http://developer.anscamobile.com/reference/index/events/tap

http://developer.anscamobile.com/reference/index/events/touch
.c
[import]uid: 24 topic_id: 15033 reply_id: 55595[/import]

#3

I’ll jump in…

Okay, there are docs, but what happens if you have a touch *and* tap listener on an object?

When the user’s finger hits that object, both of them will be fired, right? So there’s no good way (that I can see off the top of my head) to determine whether the user is touching or tapping.

However, as a solution to the original problem, maybe forget about the “tap” even and go with touch. Then when the event.phase == ended you can check to see if event.x and event.y match event.xStart and event.yStart.

If they are the same then the user didn’t move the object, they just touched and released – so you could say that was a “tap” and rotate the object.

Jay
[import]uid: 9440 topic_id: 15033 reply_id: 55604[/import]

#4

Hey Carlos!

Actually I’ve been trying this, but both will be fired when the red square is pressed (correct me if I’m wrong)!

[lua]local function rotationTest(event)
if event.phase == “began” then
print(“TOUCH”)
end
end

local function rotationTestSecond(event)
print(“TAP”)
end

redSquare:addEventListener(“touch”,rotationTest)
redSquare:addEventListener(“tap”,rotationTestSecond)[/lua]

That’s why I thought about doing it that way:

(Pseudocode)
[lua]local isTap = true

local function rotationTest(event)
if event.phase == “began” then
timer.performWithDelay(100,function() isTap=false end)
elseif event.phase == “cancelled” or event.phase == “ended”
– Actually there needs to be some setFocus in here. But I was too lazy to search for an example in my snippets :>
if (isTap) then
– square was released in under 100ms -> tap
print(“TAB”)
else
print(“TOUCH”)
end
isTap = true
end
end
redSquare:addEventListener(“touch”,rotationTest)[/lua] [import]uid: 13097 topic_id: 15033 reply_id: 55605[/import]

#5

Hey J.A. Whye,

yes that’s why I thought aswell but didn’t like the attempt.
I also thought about using event.time, though it will return the time since the application launched, not since the function was fired!
I guess I’ld need to do some subtraction with system.getTimer (but everything I tried with it didn’t work (tried to count the time of how long the user touches a button and had actually to use timer.performWithDelay… grrr)
[import]uid: 13097 topic_id: 15033 reply_id: 55606[/import]

#6

Now i tried this and it gives me errors when I try to print out the value of isTap… And I have somehow no clue why:

[lua] local redSquare = display.newRect(display.contentWidth/2-50,display.contentHeight/2-50,100,100)
redSquare:setFillColor(255,80,0)

local isTap = true

local function rotationTest(event)
–print("isTap start: "…isTap)
if (event.phase == “began”) then
display.getCurrentStage():setFocus(redSquare)
redSquare.isFocus = true
timer.performWithDelay(100,function() isTap=false end)
elseif (redSquare.isFocus) then
– here we could also use your helpful inArea function J.A.Whye (found it after i did my own ._.)
if (event.phase == “moved”) then
–moved
elseif (event.phase == “cancelled”) or (event.phase == “ended”) then
display.getCurrentStage():setFocus( redSquare, nil )
redSquare.isFocus = false
if (isTap) then
– square was released in under 100ms -> tap
print(“TAB”)
else
– if hold to long -> touch
print(“TOUCH”)
end
end
– resetting the bool
–print("isTap end: "…isTap)
isTap = true
end
end
redSquare:addEventListener(“touch”,rotationTest)[/lua]

Any ideas?
I thought I’ve found a nice little workaround… [import]uid: 13097 topic_id: 15033 reply_id: 55615[/import]

#7

try this
Just tweaked your code a little bit… :slight_smile:
[lua]local redSquare = display.newRect(display.contentWidth/2-50,display.contentHeight/2-50,100,100)
redSquare:setFillColor(255,80,0)

local isTap = true
local timer1
local function rotationTest(event)
if (event.phase == “began”) then
display.getCurrentStage():setFocus(redSquare)
redSquare.isFocus = true
timer1 = timer.performWithDelay(100,function() isTap=false end)
elseif (redSquare.isFocus) then
if (event.phase == “moved”) then
–moved
elseif (event.phase == “cancelled”) or (event.phase == “ended”) then
display.getCurrentStage():setFocus( redSquare, nil )
redSquare.isFocus = false
if (isTap) then
– square was released in under 100ms -> tap
print(“TAP”)
else
– if hold to long -> touch
print(“TOUCH”)
end
isTap = true
timer.cancel(timer1)
end
end
end
redSquare:addEventListener(“touch”,rotationTest)[/lua] [import]uid: 71210 topic_id: 15033 reply_id: 55624[/import]

#8

Here’s a simple method that uses logic instead of timers or finger positions. Use it as a touch listener (don’t even bother listening for taps).

[code]local isTap – forward declare
local function touchSquare(event)
if event.phase == “began” then
isTap = true --it’s potentially a tap or a touch
–don’t do anything else yet.
elseif event.phase == “moved” then
isTap = false – finger moved, so NOT a tap
–do touch dragging functionality here

elseif event.phase == “ended” and isTap == true then --it IS a tap
–do tap functionality here

end
end
[/code]

[import]uid: 9422 topic_id: 15033 reply_id: 55652[/import]

#9

@XeonBL good work
I think its working as expected.
[lua]local redSquare = display.newRect(display.contentWidth/2-50,display.contentHeight/2-50,100,100)
redSquare:setFillColor(255,80,0)

local isTap – forward declare
local function touchSquare(event)
if event.phase == “began” then
isTap = true --it’s potentially a tap or a touch
–don’t do anything else yet.
elseif event.phase == “moved” then
isTap = false – finger moved, so NOT a tap
redSquare.x = event.x
redSquare.y = event.y

elseif event.phase == “ended” and isTap == true then
print(“tap”)
redSquare:rotate( 60 )
end
end
redSquare:addEventListener(“touch”,touchSquare)[/lua] [import]uid: 71210 topic_id: 15033 reply_id: 55656[/import]

#10

@renvis@technowand

Thanks! Didn’t thought that the timer was the problem :smiley: (maybe because it was already 2.a.m…)

@XenonBL

Thanks for your script, but it actually doesn’t do what I requiered :confused:
Let’s imagine I would have a square that should fill up with a color while it’s touched, but rotate if it will be tapped.
With your solution, if the user won’t move it’s finger while touching, it will rotate after the touch is ended.

It works now with the timer as expected :slight_smile:
I thought that my idea would work, but didn’t know if there would be a better way :confused:

Thanks guys for your help!
If you still have some ideas, let me know! [import]uid: 13097 topic_id: 15033 reply_id: 55683[/import]

#11

@xxxfanta
True, my method requires finger movement to register as a touch. That’s what I thought you meant when you said “would love to move it while touched” in your original post.

[import]uid: 9422 topic_id: 15033 reply_id: 55774[/import]