iOS 5 Create a custom view - iphone

I was wondering what is the best approach in creating a view such as the one on the left hand side of the following link?
I know how to make apps that use the templates in the storyboard but kind of lost on the guideline when it comes to creating custom views. Does it all get created at runtime using code? Do I need to add one subview per section (Gift, Birthday,...) to my main view? any general approach for creating such a view is appreciated.

At the top level it looks like they have a UIToolbar and a UITableView or a UIScrollView. They have used some custom graphics in the toolbar; possibly they have implemented their own toolbar class.
The table view is probably using a custom UITableViewCell subclass. It is using variable height rows (by defining the tableView:heightForRowAtIndexPath: method in the delegate). They might just be using a scroll view instead of a table view, but I'll assume it's a scroll view for this discussion.
Each cell has appears to have at least three subviews: one to draw the cell's title bar, one to draw the cell's contents, and a UIPageControl to draw the page dots under the contents.
The contents part of the cell looks like it's probably a scroll view, with some subviews to draw images (UIImageView) and labels (UILabel). The subviews of the scroll view are quite different for the different table view cells.
You could lay out an interface like this using nibs. I'd probably use four nibs: one for the top-level with the toolbar and the table view, one nib for the table view cell, one nib for the gift layout (which has a UILabel over a UIImageView), and one nib for the person/date
layout (which has a UIImageView to the left of three UILabels).
You need to set some properties in code. For example, suppose you have one nib for the overall layout of a table view cell. It probably has a view hierarchy like this:
UITableViewCell (or subclass)
UIView to provide the colored stripe across the top
UIImageView for the icon
UILabel for the title (“Browse Gifts”, “Birthdays”, etc.)
UIButton for the disclosure indicator
UIView to provide the white background with shadow
UIScrollView to hold the main content of the cell
UIPageControl
When you load this nib to use for your “Browse Gifts” cell, you need to set the shadow properties of the white background view's layer, because you can't do that in the nib. You need to set the color of the stripe, the icon, and the title text of the cell on the appropriate views. You need to add content to the scroll view (which probably involves loading another nib once for each content item). You need to set the number of pages on the page control.

Related

View with uitableview, tabbar and more objects

I'm developing an app and I need a view with these elements:
- UITableView
- UITextField and UIButton
- TabBar
As you can guess, I am developing a chat, but when I put the elements in the .xib, I can't show de layer: UITextField and UIButton. If I put them without a view, they dont appear.
If I put a view under the table, and in that view I put the text and the button I get this error: http://pastebin.com/CKfxijz9 (I put the error there because it's to long)
Thanks in advance
There are some ways of dealing with that, depending on how it should behave. Some of them are:
Provide a table footer or header view that holds the button and
the text field.
Nest the table view into another view. The table
view and the view containing the button and text fielt are on the
same level within the view hierarchy. They are rather siblings than
sub- and superview to each other.
Use a UISlider instead of a table. (However, I personally would use the table.)
Here's an approach I've used in the past (not sure if it's best practice, but it works).
Add your button and textfield to a new view (let's call it, bottomView)
Add bottomView to the superview of your tableview
Set the frame of your bottom view so that it fits to the bottom of the screen (this will make it so your tableview will scroll, but keep your bottomView always attached to the bottom of your mainview)

Custom UITableViewCell with Storyboard

My goal is to create a custom UITableViewCell which contains 2 UILabels. One is the title and one is the detail. The detail label should allow for 3 rows of text.
So I went on and created a custom table view cell in storyboard. I also created a subclass of UITableViewCell and linked the two together.
I the added two UILabel to the cell in storyboard and placed them where i wanted them to be and linked them to their coresponding outlets in teh subclass. Since the content of the labels varies I wanted to align the text vertically to the top. As I understand the only way to do this is by calling the sizeToFit method on the label. I execute this under in the sub class of UITableViewCell:
-(void)layoutSubviews {
[super layoutSubviews];
[self.detailTextLabel sizeToFit];
}
So far everything seems fine and the text in the detailTextLabel is aligned as it should. Although when i satrt interacting with the cell, for example slide my finger over it so the delete button appears, the detailTextLabel will change size to the size that was set in storyboard. This causes the text to be misaligned. Similar things happen when i select the cell and change to another view and the return to the table view via a tab bar
My question is: Is there any way of creating this custom cell differently using storyboard or is my only alterative to create everything programtically?
Regard, Christian
Maybe you should take a look at this if you still want to vertically align your text in your UILabel without sizeToFit (who will resize it when you will interact with your cell).
About your question, I think you can create your custom cell from a xib file like this.

Custom UITableViewCell for a grouped table view

I have a grouped table view.
I'm trying to create a custom cell using interface builder, however when I'm putting a label, or a view as a subview for the cell, and stretching it to the entire cell, when I run the app the label goes beyond the cell's dimensions.
Any reason why it would do that ?
I tried to play with the resizing mask to no avail.
When the table is plain, there's no problem.
I guess I'm doing something wrong, cause it's not suppose to be that complicated.
I don't have much experience in creating UITableViewCells with IB, but I would recommend adding your subviews programmatically using a UITableViewCell subclass. Your issue is that the subviews are added directly to the UITableViewCell view, and the left and right margin are part of that view.
The UITableViewCell subview that represents the actual "active" space (the white part of the cell) is contentView. If you add a subview to contentView, then it shouldn't appear outside it. In other words, CGPointZero of contentView is the top left point of the white space.

Why can't I place a UIActivityIndicatorView on a UITableView by using Interface Builder?

I can place a UIActivityIndicatorView on a UIWindow or a UIView by using Interface Builder like as follows.
(source: hatena.ne.jp)
But I can't place a UIActivityIndicatorView on a UITableView by using Interface Builder.
What's the reason? Are there any ways?
I can place it on a UITableView programmatically.
(source: hatena.ne.jp)
Make the UITableView and the UIActivityIndicatorView both subviews of a parent UIView. You can then place the indicator view atop the table view.
The reason is because UITableView expects to be in charge of all of every one of its subviews for layout purposes. IB doesn't let you put subviews in a UITableView because while it is technically possible it is not supported.
In any case, the activity indicator would scroll up and down with the table, so even if you add it at the right place if the table is scrolled down, you could scroll it off the screen if you're not careful about deactivating user interaction while the indicator is showing.
When I need to show a generic activity indicator on the screen over everything, I use my own version of the UIProgressHUD. The UIProgressHUD is a private internal class, so I don't use that, I just made my own that does the same thing. It makes a view with a black background at 50% opacity and rounded corners, and I add a progress indicator and optionally a label to it, then I just add that view to the main window. Thus, no need for another UIView to encapsulate both, and you're not putting it in the table, which isn't supported (unless you put it within a cell within the table view).

Is it possible to access a UITableView's ScrollView In Code From A Nib?

Right now I am creating a UITableView in a FlipsideView nib. I don't seem to be able to change the background of the table view from within interface builder. I can fix this by creating an outlet and then setting the background. However, I want to give the scroll view rounded corners in order to create a look similar to the iPhone weather/stock app table views. Is there a way to access the scroll view's property in code so that I can set the rounded corners?
A UITableView doesn't have a UIScrollView, it is a UIScrollView. UITableView is a subclass of UIScrollView as can be seen it the documentation. Any properties of functionality of UIScrollView you want to access can be directly accessed via the table view.
Similarly, UITableViewDelegates are all UIScrollViewDelegates.
You can add a corner radius to any view's layer. It would look something like this:
theTableView.layer.cornerRadius = 10.0f; // Or whatever radius you wanted to set
I believe you'll need to link to the QuartzCore framework and import the QuartzCore.h header, too.
This will round the corners of the table similar to how they appear in the flipside of Weather.app.
If I'm not mistaken, the table views for the Stocks and Weather applications are simply single-section grouped table views (UITableViews initialized with the UITableViewStyleGrouped style). You shouldn't need to customize anything about the table view's UIScrollView properties to generate this same rounded-corner effect.