Displaying image buttons to replicate app icons - Corona SDK - button

Question

I need to display images so that they mimic the layout of iOS app icons on the various "home" pages. I have the code written to display the various images; however, I cannot figure out how to return a value which corresponds with each individual image on a click event.
Here's my code so far:
plates = {
"fat-burning-foods.jpg",
"fresh_food.jpg",
"fat-burning-foods.jpg",
"star.png",
"fat-burning-foods.jpg",
"star.png",
"fat-burning-foods.jpg",
"fresh_food.jpg",
"fat-burning-foods.jpg",
"star.png",
"fat-burning-foods.jpg",
"fresh_food.jpg",
"fat-burning-foods.jpg",
"star.png"
}
-- The PlateId will have corosponding indexes with the plates array. It will be used to query plate information
plateId = {1,2,3,4}
plateIdRef = {}
index = 1
platesIsh = {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8}
local anX = 20
local anY = 120
for i=1, #plates do
local bufferY = 20
if index == 4 then
bufferY = 110
anX = 20
elseif index > 4 then
bufferY = 110
end
if index == 7 then
bufferY = 200
anX = 20
elseif index > 7 then
bufferY = 200
if index == 10 then
bufferY = 290
anX = 20
elseif index > 10 then
bufferY = 290
end
end
local dummyVar = math.random()
dummyVar = display.newImageRect(plates[index],80, 80)
sceneGroup:insert(dummyVar)
dummyVar.x = anX + 30
dummyVar.y = anY + bufferY
table.insert(plateIdRef, index)
function dummyVar:touch( event )
if event.phase == "began" then
local alert = native.showAlert( "Corona", event.target, { "OK", "Learn More" } )
--print( "You touched "..dummyVar)
return true
end
end
dummyVar:addEventListener( "touch", dummyVar )
anX = anX + 110
index = index + 1
end
Any ideas?

Answer 1

Ok, an example to see how it works:
local plates = {}
local function plateTouch( self, event )
local phase = event.phase
if phase == "ended" then
print( "You touched ".. self.id)
end
return true
end
for i=1, 3 do
plates[i] = display.newImageRect("test.png",80, 80)
plates[i].id = "plate " .. i
plates[i].x = 90 * i
plates[i].y = 90
plates[i].touch = plateTouch
plates[i]:addEventListener( "touch", plates[i] )
end
When you create each plate you can define an id property to know what button was pressed, also you can add any other properties you need.
You can see the API docs for touch event and see the example with table listeners.
Other approach could be object oriented solution, where you define a class to create new plates, but maybe first you need to understand the example.