In IB I have quite a few views that are shown. Many of them are hidden when the app loads, but are shown later when buttons are pressed. This is all fine, but when building this layout in IB it is extremely difficult to layout anything because there are so many overlapping views, some of which are partially transparent (ones that are set to hidden) and other are completely overlapping and covering others. This makes layout very hard.
What is the best method when laying out lots of views like this? Is there another way to break things up? Or better yet, can I hide a a view completely (like in photoshop) so that I can edit the ones underneath, then turn that layer back on?
Another option when trying to select a view that is obscured by another is the shortcut:
'ctrl' + 'shift' and click
It displays a list of all the views under the cursor.
I'm not aware of any way to hide objects in the canvas, but a useful trick for complex layouts is to double-click an item in the document tree to the left - this selects the item and puts focus on the canvas, you can the use the cursor keys to nudge it about.
This doesnt solve the problem of not being able to see things because there are, for example, five or six labels occupying the same space, but if that is the situation it may be a better idea to have a single label and change its contents in code.
I ran into this issue for an app I'm building that has an arial-view image of a park with clickable hotspots. When a hotspot is clicked a popup UIview is displayed with information about that spot in the park. I use the same VC/XIB for three parks. This makes the XIB really busy and hard to work with (i.e the same issue that you have) The detail UIViews make it hard to work with the views underneath. My workaround was to pick each detailed UIView that was hiding the part of the XIB I wanted to work on, and add 1000 to the UIView origin.x in the size inspector. This moved those UIViews enough out of the way for me to do what I needed to with the XIB. Then when I was done, I moved them back by x 1000. (I just needed to move them out horizontally to do what I needed to)
I know its clunky but given that XCode does not have a convenient way to hide portions of an XIB - it was the quickest approach I could think of!
One approach to handling overlapping items in IB is:
Ensure the groups of items that you want to hide are grouped into Views.
Give these Views names: e.g. ViewOptionA, ViewOptionB and ViewOptionC.
Can do this by clicking on name of view in the tree while it is selected and then typing new name.
When you want to hide one of those groups of items:
a) Select the View by either:
i) Clicking on it in the tree at the left or
ii) Ctrl-Shift Clicking in the layout editor and then select the view from the list.
b) In the Attributes Inspector set Alpha to 0.
When you want to unhide one of those groups of items:
As for 2) but set Alpha back to 1
[You do need to remember to unhide all views before you publish!
If you are forgetful like me then perhaps you could subclass UIView and set Alpha to 1. I haven't tried this subclassing idea yet.]
Related
I'm working with an NSOutlineView on a macOS app and it provides disclosure triangles for items that can be expanded.
I'm also creating custom NSTableCellView items rather than using basic cell items. This allows me to create the cell how I want visually.
My issue is that when they're displayed, the disclosure triangle on the left is not centered vertically.
Notice how the disclosure triangles are not aligned properly. They're a bit lower than they should be. If you scroll away and come back, sometimes, they automatically align themselves correctly. Has anyone been able to fix this issue before?
For what it's worth, I'm using the following code as well for the cells.
self.outlineView.rowHeight = CGFloat(integerLiteral: 66)
self.outlineView.usesAutomaticRowHeights = true
It's hard to figure out what the problem is without seeing how you've set up your project, but I'm going to give it shot.
First, when usesAutomaticRowHeights is set to true, the outline view uses Auto Layout to position the cell views. Thus, you need to be utilizing constraints in your Storyboard or Nib file, or things will behave strangely (see: your picture). If I had to guess, the prototype cell view you set up in Interface Builder is having its autoresizingMask translated into Auto Layout constraints (which, generally, causes a boatload of problems).
What I would do is this:
Open up the Storyboard or Nib document containing the outline view.
Locate the prototype NSTableCellView instance that contains the street name text field in the Document Outline to the left of the canvas. (If you don't see the Document Outline, you can open it by clicking the item at Editor » Show Document Outline in the main menu).
Next, see if you have any constraints in place. If you do, remove them by selecting Editor » Resolve Auto Layout Issues » Clear Constraints under the menu item "section" that's titled All Views in ${YOUR_SCENE}.
Now, depending on what you're going for, there are different ways to go about setting up constraints, but here's what I would suggest. Assuming you want the street name to be centered vertically with the disclosure triangle, I would add a vertical constraint between the text field and its parent cell view like so:
With the text field selected in the Document Outline, click the Align icon in the lower right-hand corner of Interface Builder's main canvas area (see image).
In the popover that appears, check the checkbox next to Vertically in Container.
In the text field on the right side of the popover, enter a value of “0”.
Finally, click the “Add 1 Constraint” button.
You’ll probably see a red error (or yellow warning) sign show up, as the view has now opted into Auto Layout, but it only has a metric for its vertical position. So we now need to add some constraints to describe where the text field should be positioned on the x axis. Like before, we’ll define the constraints using the popover buttons on the lower right-hand side of the canvas:
Click the Add New Constraints button (the one to the right of the Align button).
On the diagram at the top of the popover, click the faint red lines on the left and right side of the white rectangle. This is telling Interface Builder we want to add leading and trailing constraints.
Now, enter the desired padding you want on each side of the text field. In the example image, I went with “4” points on both sides, but obviously, you can use whatever value(s) you think works best with your layout.
Finally, click the “Add 2 Constraints” button.
Any warning(s) that were present should now disappear, as we've added enough constraints to describe the position of the text field. In theory, you should now be able to build and run your project, and the text fields should be aligned with the disclosure triangles. With that said, there are plenty of other reasons a layout can get finicky, and considering usesAutomaticRowHeights is a new API in macOS High Sierra (and Steve Jobs is no longer there to beat it into Apple developers to make everything Just Work™), there could be issues that I'm unaware of.
Alternatively, you can set usesAutomaticRowHeights to false and have some object (e.g. a view controller, a NSObject subclass, etc.) conform to the NSOutlineViewDelegate protocol and implement the outlineView(_:heightOfRowByItem:) method to return any arbitrary height you want for different rows. The nice thing about sizing rows this way is that you can allow certain rows to be larger or smaller, depending on the role of the corresponding item. There are lots of tutorials on this, so I won't regurgitate a half-baked explanation here, but feel free to Google “Conforming to NSOutlineViewDelegate protocol” for more info.
Anyway, try the steps above, and see if they do anything for you, and if they don't, let me know. I can go as deep into the rabbit hole with you as you need, so just ask. Good luck!
For those like me who stumbled upon this issue many years later, here's the fix that worked for me, and requires a lot less work.
NSOutlineView has a function frameOfOutlineCell(atRow:) and the documentation states: You can override this method in a subclass to return a custom frame for the outline button cell
You can override the method in order to provide a frame that's actually in the vertical center of the row. And an important point that I learned from trial and error, is that you don't even need to provide that updated frame. Not sure if this is a bug or what, but for me, just calling super.frameOfOutlineCell(atRow: row) in the function override was enough to make the disclosure indicator appear in the correct location.
So my subclass of NSOutlineView is this:
class MyOutlineView: NSOutlineView {
override func frameOfOutlineCell(atRow row: Int) -> NSRect {
super.frameOfOutlineCell(atRow: row)
}
}
That's all. Hopefully that works for others as well!
I'm trying to layout a very simple view. I've placed 4 custom buttons in the view in a grid like spacing. But when I run the app I get two of the buttons with different sizes. I've included the storyboard and simulator images here.
I would LOVE to disable constraints but cant find where to do it! I really don't want them. This is just for a simple prototype app and in the end I won't even have these buttons, I'll lay everything out in code.
I've tried dragging in 4 individual buttons AND tried just dragging in one and duplicating it to where I want. I just want them to stay where I put them! Any help would be appreciated.
-Mark
You turn it off in the File Inspector (first tab on left) -- there's a checkbox called "Use Autolayout" (it's checked by default).
I have a UITabBarController as my rootController with 8 UITabBarItems. and I want to show just 4 UITabBarItems in my screen. By default all my other tab bar items appear in a small tabBarItem called "More" and you can select the other 4. But I have seen some apps that implement a sliding UITabBarItems with a slide icon instead of a "More" icon.
How can I show just 4 at a moment, and I slide the TabBarItems, and so that I can select the other tab bar items ?
~ Something like this ~
And then I can slide to the next 4 sets by dragging
It would be helpful if someone could point me in the right direction.
There is a nifty little github project that could help you... check it out: https://github.com/iosdeveloper/InfiniTabBar
This is not currently a built-in option for UITabBarContoller.
One way to approach the problem is to add a UIGestureRecognizer to the tabBar.view, and programmatically adjust which 4 options are available on the screen. You can add an animation to make it smooth or have a little bounce as it slides.
iPhone users are usually very picky and attached to Apple's UI Guidelines. Although you can pass the Apple verification, you probably wont be able to pass users' (meaning bad reviews and ratings). So I recommend you to re-consider your tabbar structure and use "..." More instead of sliding it... You can always override stuff in code, but then they wont work smooth with InterfaceBuilder and in the end you will have more trouble than you'd expect.
If you have similar tab items merge them and use maybe a segmented control or something to visually distinguish them. Or use a central navigation screen in which you can put 9 maybe more icons in a grid...
The first solution to your problem may not always be the best way. Well, it is very rare actually...
You have to write a custom control for this.
I wrote one for showing a horizontal menu. You can probably modify that to fit your needs.
http://blog.mugunthkumar.com/coding/ios-control-mkhorizmenu/
In my iPad application there are many buttons (around 50), and I want to make a group box which contain buttons arranged by category.
I am looking for something like a C# or .NET GroupBox/Panel.
There is no Group Box / Panel Box in iPhone.
You need to manage by your self.
Use the UITableView to put all the button in on category.
http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#DOCUMENTATION/UIKit/Reference/UITableView_Class/Reference/Reference.html
It may be worthwhile to look into UIPopoverController views. These are the little popup views that appear when you click stuff. YOu could easily break your menu system into smaller parts with these.
You may draw a group panel by making two views. make a view of frame say 20,20,280,199 and then another one with frame 21,21,278,197. now put the 2nd view on the last one and change the color of last to some dark than later one. enjoy :)
remember that the should be in same hierarchy. that no one should be parent or child of any of these.
i have following buttons in my application.
Now i want to set equal spacing among all buttons.
Suppose If I am using corelDraw or Photoshop, there is always an option for align & distribute.
Here I need to distribute my objects vertically.
How is that possible in interface builder of iPhone?
Sample image is given below, in which distribution is required.
alt text http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/4146/problem13.png
I know this post is ages ago, but for the sake of simplicity (maybe) and to avoid using table views (for sure)...
In your example, if you select the first UIButton, keyword, and press option key, interface builder shows you the relative distance from the center to any other object you hover with the mouse. So if you decide the optimal distance is the one between keyword and category buttons, you can apply that distance for the rest of objects simply adding or substracting the appropriate amount of pixels from the button size inspector.
Hope it helps!
Depending on the type of object, you might do this.
Select all implied objects.
Select Editor->Embed in->Matrix;
this will place the objects regularly.
Then select the option Editor->Unembed
and the objects will keep their new positions. Hope this helps!
I dont think there an option to do it automatically, you can do some math though and get them to have equal spacing by setting their frames...
Another option is to place all of these in a table (since they look like table view cells anyway), and adjust an empty footer view height to get the spacing you want between elements.
Of course that means you don't get to view the layout in IB.
It's even simpler - Simply drag a "Flexible Space Bar Button Item" from the Object Library in Xcode into each gap. It will automatically expand to equispace your other items.
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