Embedding multiple tableviews into detailview - ios5

I am very new to iOS and GUI programming in general, but I seem to be getting the hang of the very basics of it, but I'm truly stumped and could use some hand holding if possible. I am working on a master-detail iPad application. The navigation controller is working properly, but I'm having some issues with the detail view controller. It is split up into 3 separate sections vertically. The first section consists of standard controls (labels, image view, etc) and the other two sections consist of table views.
I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how to get the table views to populate any data in the tables. From what I have gathered, I need to setup a datasource and delegate for each of the table views, but I can't seem to figure out where/how to do that.
Can anyone point me in the right direction please? Thanks.

Related

Container View in Swift

My goal is to have a main view, then swipe right to go to the next view, and again for the 3rd (so 3 different view controllers, all showing different information that is related to the main view), which seems to me like one of the most common features in most apps. Creating segues to other view controllers via buttons or tabs is super easy (just click and drag), but for some reason they make this common feature stupidly complicated for something that should be just as easy as simple segues in the storyboard.
I first started out researching the page view controller, only to find out that's not what I wanted and was too annoying to work with.
I think I found out that Container View is what I need, creating child views and what not. Does anyone know a good step by step tutorial to show you how to set all this up in the storyboard, like, a dummy's guide? I'm a severe novice, so a lot of the docs people point me towards have broken links, outdated code, or might as well be ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.
Oh, and I'm learning Swift, not objective C!
It doesn't sound like you need to do anything other than use multiple view controllers to swipe through, passing data from one to the next, and so forth. I don't think using multiple views (parent / child views) is actually what you're after.
This is a very simple tutorial that will explain how to pass data through segues.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guSYMPaXLaw

Design Issue with tab bar, nav bar & segment control

This is more of a requirement than a problem.
There is a tab bar controller, in one of the controllers of the tab bar controller there is a nav controller. Below it there is a segment control, I have to display some data(which I'll get thru URL connections) in table view. On changing of segment from the segment control the content of the table will change. And the segment control changes the type of data being displayed in the table and even there UITableViewCells are different. All the three segments will display data in the table.
One possible solution is to change the data and reload the table when the segment is changed.
Other solution is to change the views (will have three different view controllers) on changing the segments and these view controllers will implement there own table delegates and will have independent table views.
First one is more efficient I suppose. Second one will keep everything(code) separate of the different segments. There are some issues though, the navigation controller is not accessible in the inner view controllers.
Can any one suggest me the best possible solution for the same?
Thanks in adv.
I looked into this quite a lot and eventually plumped for changing the data source of a single TableView. I only had two segments, cell types, fetchedResultsControllers etc. and it still made for a pretty heavy custom TableViewController. Lazy loading images, if you need to do that, is also a bit of a pain.
I didn't need to have a handle on the navigation controller for the individual table views but if that's important to you, perhaps the second approach is best. Despite the above, the first approach works pretty well having got it down. Interested in hearing any better patterns for though.

Multiple ViewController - Best Approach

I have a very large form to build in my ipad application and I'm note sure which approach( between create multiple views in or multiple viewcontrollers ) to follow. Well, I have decided to split may form in logical sections, so I want use a splitviewcontroller with a root( a tableviewcontroller with the sections) and multipleviecontrollers for each sections. When the user select a row in tableview I will show the correspondent viewcontroller. I'm saving a reference for each viewcontroller in my app_delegate and the app_delegate also is the responsible for change the viewcontrollers. Is this the best approach? There is other approach to follow? About the multiple view I was thinking to put multiple view in the same xib file and then choose based in tag as the use tap the row in rootviewcontroller's tableview.
Thanks in advance. And sorry for my bad english.. Learning!
I will say this on the subject: currently, having multiple view controllers on the screen at the same time can be problematic if you're not using one of Apple's existing classes, such as a UISplitViewController.
The main issue is that important events your view controllers will want to respond to (rotation events, etc) won't be passed down to them. It's not a huge pain, it's just something to need to take into account - you'd typically create your own parent view controller that could pass these events down to its children.
Now, you are using a split view controller, so alls well on that front. There is no provided way for detail and master controllers in a split view controller to communicate with each other, but Apple recommend you employ a standard delegation pattern. If your application is fairly simple this could certainly happen in your app delegate as you do now.
If you're targeting iOS 5 only there are some changes that are relevant regarding multiple controllers on the screen at the same time, but I can't discuss them on here because of the NDA. You should go to Apple's developer forums (devforums.apple.com) to learnmore.
Sounds like I'm trying to do the same thing as you (large insurance forms here, how about your project?) Unfortunately I can't help out as you're a bit ahead of me. I've been able to flip back and forth between 8 detail views by tapping on the 8 rows in my UITableViewController, without keeping a reference to either the current or previous one anywhere. The data I enter into various TextFields stays where it should.
I currently have a xxxViewController.h/.m and corresponding .xib file for each detail view. That's an awful lot of code, but I couldn't see any other way to do it. Now I'm having a problem getting my button pressed handlers to fire. Also I've still got to put a database behind these screens.
Were you able to overcome your issue?
Thanks,
Jeff in Alabama

Designing a tabbed tableview application for iPhone

I'm in the process of learning and designing an app for our company. At its heart, it has a list of "alarms" which when clicked on, goes to a more detailed view with a toolbar to perform tasks upon that "alarm".
I'm having a devil of a time working out how to structure this application. I have something that works currently (i'll explain it in a sec), but now I'm about to hook up the data source for the table and I'm getting myself lost.
At the main screen, there is to be a list of "alarms". This list should be able to be filtered with 3 categories (All, Category 1, Category 2) where the categories are subsets of all the "alarms". I've implemented this using a TabBarController.
Within each tab, I've got a NavigationController (to handle the navigation of between the list and the details) and it's main view is a custom UITableViewController that contains the custom table view.
As described, when you click a item, it navigates to a detailed view. This is all currently working but I'm concerned about the structure.
It's pretty obvious that I have a fair bit of duplication with the 3 different NavigationControllers, but I've read that subclassing the NavigationController is not recommened.
My questions are:
Is there a better way to structure this application? Is there a better filtering method (thats quick and easy) instead of a TabBar?
Where should the tableview datasource go? Most examples I've seen have it being created in the AppDelegate and then passed directly to the tableviewcontroller. My custom tabelviewcontroller is a couple of levels down the controller chain, how do I pass the datasource to it, or can I make the datasource "static"?
I hope that all made sense
Sounds as though you want one navigation controller and table view controller with a segmented control at the top to switch between the different data views. For an example of this kind of layout have a look at how the App Store app works when you select the Featured tab - it has a segmented control to switch between New, What's Hot and Genius.

How should I organize a project with three distinct views and no tab/tool/navbars?

I've spent too much time walking down dead ends on this project, so it's time to query the hive mind:
I am making a simple iPad game consisting of three locations which the user navigates between when an area of the screen is touched. These locations are represented by fullscreen images and there are a lot of different animations and stuff going on which makes it logical to divide each location into its own UIViewController.
The question is this: Which components should I use for handling the navigation between the locations/controllers?
UITabbarController: After finally managing to hide it away without a white bar at the bottom, I could not get selectedIndex to work in order to swap between view controllers.
UINavigationController: Does not permit more than one view controller inside, and I have three which I want to use. Is it possible to hide it away and still use it?
I could of course cram all my logic into a single UIViewController, but this seems plain wrong. Any advice or solutions for a newbie struggling towards journeymanhood would be greatly appreciated indeed!
If I well understand, everything happens like if you had three view to manage separately. If this is the case, you definitely should have three view controller. Communication between these controllers should then take place in the model. View controllers can be made aware of changes in the model through delegate in this case. If those interaction become too heavy, I suggest you create a super controller (application controller) managing the model and the three controllers.