iPhone modal View with parent view semi-visible?

I am adding a modal view using the following code:

[self presentModalViewController:phrasesEditor animated:YES];

How can I make the modal view semi-transparent so that the superview "shines" through?

My complete method/function looks like this:

-(IBAction)showEditPhrases:(id)sender{
    PhrasesViewController *phrasesEditor = [[PhrasesViewController alloc] initWithNibName:@"PhrasesViewController" bundle:nil];
    phrasesEditor.modalTransitionStyle = UIModalTransitionStyleCrossDissolve;
    [phrasesEditor.view setAlpha: 0.5];
    [phrasesEditor.view setBackgroundColor: [UIColor clearColor]];
    [self presentModalViewController:phrasesEditor animated:YES];
    [phrasesEditor release];
}

EDIT:

The pragmatic approach of changing the alpha will no开发者_C百科t work, apparently. How can I load a NIB into a UIView and interact with it?

I have a UIViewController now. Do I convert/modify/change it into a UIVIew and then load it, or am I supposed to do something else?

EDIT 2:

I tried [self.view addSubview:phrasesEditor.view];, but that leaves me with no way to remove the subview. Each view seems to have its own View Controller.

EDIT 3:

I thought that I should mention that the superview is inside of a view controller called iDecideViewController and the phrasesEditor has a separate View Controller.

I Had the same problem and added a property and 2 methods to a subclass of UIViewController to mimic the behavior of presentModalViewController:animated:

For mor information, see my blog post: How to display a transparent modal view controller or check out the code below:

#pragma mark - Transparent Modal View
-(void) presentTransparentModalViewController: (UIViewController *) aViewController 
                                     animated: (BOOL) isAnimated 
                                    withAlpha: (CGFloat) anAlpha{

    self.transparentModalViewController = aViewController;
    UIView *view = aViewController.view;

    view.opaque = NO;
    view.alpha = anAlpha;
    [view.subviews enumerateObjectsUsingBlock:^(id obj, NSUInteger idx, BOOL *stop) {
        UIView *each = obj;
        each.opaque = NO;
        each.alpha = anAlpha;
    }];

    if (isAnimated) {
        //Animated
        CGRect mainrect = [[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds];
        CGRect newRect = CGRectMake(0, mainrect.size.height, mainrect.size.width, mainrect.size.height);


        [self.view addSubview:view];
        view.frame = newRect;

        [UIView animateWithDuration:0.8
                         animations:^{
                             view.frame = mainrect;
                         } completion:^(BOOL finished) {
                             //nop
                         }];

    }else{
        view.frame = [[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds];
        [self.view addSubview:view];
    }






}

-(void) dismissTransparentModalViewControllerAnimated:(BOOL) animated{

    if (animated) {
        CGRect mainrect = [[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds];
        CGRect newRect = CGRectMake(0, mainrect.size.height, mainrect.size.width, mainrect.size.height);
        [UIView animateWithDuration:0.8
                         animations:^{
                             self.transparentModalViewController.view.frame = newRect;
                         } completion:^(BOOL finished) {
                             [self.transparentModalViewController.view removeFromSuperview];
                             self.transparentModalViewController = nil;
                         }];
    }


}

When you present a modal view it will actually unload the previous view so that is not what you want at all. UIView has a method called addSubview which will put the new view on top of its siblings.

Instead of:

[self presentModalViewController:phrasesEditor animated:YES];

do:

[self.view addSubview:phrasesEditor.view];

This is assuming you are already in a ViewController subclass.