I have created Storyboard with several views calling each other, now I need to create the code
I notice that XCode didn't created .h and .m controller files for each View from storyboard.
Should I create them manually?
Should I keep only one controller? (or few depending of separation of concerns on MVC)
Is there a pattern for developing this?
thanks
The usual approach is one view controller pr. screen full of content. You can imagine having one view controller for a tableview, with any sort of content, and then another view controller that presents that content in a new screen full of content if a row is pressed.
Normally when you have subviews inside of your view controllers, you wire them up in interfacebuilder. Then for instance if you want to populate a view that has a uiimageview and a uiactivityindicatorview inside it, you can control their behavior and how their populated from the view controllers code. You could also if you want something very generic and you feel that one view will probably take up a lot of code in your view controller, create a uiview subclass for it, and then set the class in interface builder.
Did this help? Please let me know if you need more clarification.
It's entirely up to you whether you have a ViewController for each view. If you have many views I would recommend it. Even if you have 2 or 3 views you probably still should. Things can get really confusing when each view has a different task but all have similar IBOutlets.
TLDR; Personally, I would say it was good practice to have a ViewController for each view if each view has a separate task.
Related
I have an WizardSequenceViewController with an IBOutlet WizardView *_wizardView. In many WizardSequenceViewController.xib file I have the view outlet connected to the File's Owner - WizardSequenceViewController. I have a subview of that view defined with the class attribute set to WizardView. I have connected that WizardView to the outlet in the File's Owner. Finally, in my WizardView.xib I have a UILabel that I have placed in the file to test if the view is being rendered. When I select the WizardSequenceViewController from my tab bar, I see the superview view but not the subview _wizardView. When I set a breakpoint in my -(id)initWithCoder method in my WizardView.m file I see it stop there, so I know that it is calling that initializer (and thus it should be using the xib to load that file). I have tried many iterations and variations to get this thing to work but I can't and I am going crazy. Does anybody have any ideas?
From Apple doc "View Controller Basics, About Custom View Controllers":
The one-to-one correspondence between a view controller and the views in its view hierarchy is the key design consideration. You should not use multiple custom view controllers to manage different portions of the same view hierarchy. Similarly, you should not use a single custom view controller object to manage multiple screens worth of content.
Note: If you want to divide a view hierarchy into multiple subareas and manage each one separately, use generic controller objects (custom objects descending from NSObject) instead of view controller objects to manage each subarea. Then use a single view controller object to manage the generic controller objects.
Maybe you can't do a view-and-subview outlet setup in a view controller. And I'm not sure assigning the subview outlet to a separate NSObject subclass would work either, because how would you present it? Could you write your subview programmatically, using initWithFrame and addSubview, instead of making it an outlet? Or, if you really want to set it up graphically, could you assign it to a separate view controller as owner? Then the top view controller will call presentModal on the sub view controller. Or, if all you need is a UILabel as a subview, just add the label to the main view?
Even I faced a similar issue. But got it resolved by following steps given in the following link. Hope it helps.
http://blog.yangmeyer.de/blog/2012/07/09/an-update-on-nested-nib-loading
In iOS5 using storyboard feature I want to create a custom container which will have 2 ViewControllers embedded in it. For Example, embed Table view controller as well as a view controller both in one ViewController.
That is, one view controller will have 2 relationship:
to table view controller
to view controller which in turn will have 4 UIImage view Or UIButton in it
Is creating this type of relationship possible using storyboard's drag drop feature only & not programmatically?
,You should only have one view controller to control the scene. However, this viewController might have two other view controllers that control particular subviews on your scene. To do this you create properties in your scene viewController, in your case one for your tableViewController and one for your view. I like to keep things together so I make both these viewControllers outlets and create them in interface builder. To create them in interface builder pull in an Object from the Object library and set its type to the relevant viewController. Hook it up to the appropriate outlet you just created in your scene's viewController - Note: this is important otherwise the viewController will be released if you are using ARC and crash your app. Then hook these viewControllers up to the view you want them to control and you are done.
Alternatively you can instantiate and hop up your viewControllers in your scenes viewController should you prefer to do this.
Hope this helps.
Edit: On reflection this is not a good idea and actually goes against the HIG you should maintain only one ViewController for each screen of content and instead try to create a suitable view class and have the single view controller deal with the interactions between the various views.
There is a way to do it that isn't too hacky. It is described at the following URL for UITabBarControllers, which you could use the first view controller in the list control the first subview, and the second one control the other. Or, you can probably adapt the code to work with UISplitViewController.
http://bartlettpublishing.com/site/bartpub/blog/3/entry/351
Basically, it works by replacing the tabbarcontroller at runtime after iOS has finished configuring it.
In a navigation based application, when I want to create and use other uiviews and uitableviews I need to create their controller and views. in an example I saw that I can simply create a new controller with .xib file, design it, and just call that xib file from my navigationcontroller.
In another example, some stuff was going on also in the mainwindow.xib and some new controllers and navigation items were added from the mainwindow.xib.
What is the difference between these methods? when and why I should need to open and edit the mainwindow.xib file to add a controller?
The mainwindow.xib is your UIWindow component which you can see as a representation of your iphone screen, it will always be there no matter what. In your examples when you are showing your view controller dirrctly that is because the controller is already a subview of your UIWindow which is the mainwindow.xib in the Interface Builder.
There really is no difference between the 2 methods, in the first one you are adding your controller as a subview progrmatically using:
[window addsubview:mynavcontroller]
And in the second one youbare doing it thru interface builder, you may use whichever method you feel more comfortable with.
You do not really need a controller to show a view, however they can be handy if you want to do any extra stuff such as rotating your view or loading certain data when the view is loading. That being said you could add your view as a subview of your window and it would still work.
MyViewController.xib has File's Owner class set to MyViewController (a subclass of UIViewController) and File's Owner view connected to a UIView containing some subviews.
OtherViewController.xib has File's Owner class set to UIViewController and File's Owner view connected to an empty UIView.
Is it possible in Interface Builder to embed MyViewController's view inside the view in OtherViewController.xib?
I tried adding an instance of MyViewController into OtherViewController.xib, but I can't drop it inside the view (because it's not a UIView) and I can't get to the view that was associated with MyViewController in MyViewController.xib (only the view controller itself, and nothing it's connected to, makes it over to OtherViewController.xib).
You probably do not want to do this. Follow the warning in the View Controller Programming Guide:
Note: If you want to divide a view hierarchy into multiple subareas and manage each one separately, use generic controller objects (custom objects descending from NSObject) instead of view controller objects to manage each subarea. Then use a single view controller object to manage the generic controller objects.
A UIViewController subclass whose view does not fill the window will not behave as you might expect. It will not receive view controller lifecycle messages, rotation messages, or have its parentView/navigation/tabBarController properties set correctly.
A UITableViewCell should not be the view for a UIViewController. It might have some controller object responsible for managing its behavior (though I suspect this behavior can probably all be contained within the cell view itself) but that controller should not inherit from UIViewController.
This has changed since some of the other answers were posted - you want to take a look at the latest documentation for UIViewController, particularly the guide section "Presenting View Controllers from Other View Controllers" and the class reference guide section "Implementing a Container View Controller". Also, there's a video from WWDC 2012 covering the topic on iTunes: Session 236 - The Evolution of View Controllers on iOS. (The video is very useful, it's not just a general overview.)
You can put it all in one xib. For example, just put it all in your MainWindow.xib.
This can be done programmaticly by adding a reference in OtherViewController to MyViewController. This is perhaps a bit messy and does in some way lead me to ask why you would want to do this but... I will trust that you know what you're doing.
Warning. Because 'Other' will contain a reference to 'My' you will want retain My inside Other. but Do not, I repeat do not retain 'Other' inside of 'My' this kind of cycle will lead to errors.
Good luck and don't forget to vote
ps if you have a little more detail I may be able to help you sort out a better design so that this sort of thing can be avoided :)
I've got a Table view and it's the child of the View ( see the IB hierarchy ) :
I want to start customizing the tableCells, so I assume I'll have to add a tableViewController . Where would I start in this instance ? the TableViewcontroller can't be a child of the MainViewController, can it ?
Cheers,
You would need to add a table view controller at the top level.
Then drag connections from the table to the controller of datasource and delegate
Then drag connections from the controller to the view for "view"
Then change the class of the controller you added (it's the last tab in the inspector) to your custom UITableViewController class (if you don't subclass it it does nothing)
Then make sure that you somehow retain the controller when the nib is loaded. Easiest way is with an IBOutlet in the file's owner.
Sorry if this is a bit general, but the specifics would consume pages. I don't recommend this approach unless you have some experience with this and know what most of the above means, in which case it's possible and sometimes desirable to do this, and good job if you do.
The easiest method, if you just want a simple table view, no special circumstances, is to use the File>New File>UITableViewController with xib for user interface, then go from there with the file it makes, but that isn't your question, so I have answered as best I can.
It would be easier to build a tableViewController class with a table inside that and add the tableViewController to the view instead of reverse-engineering it. The tableViewController will have all your delegate and datasource functions for your table fairly mapped out so you can move whatever you already have into those functions.
As for custom tableViewCells, here's a great tutorial from pragmaticstudio.com on how to do so. He walks you through all the aspects of building a tableViewController and also how to customize your cells in IB.