Every video tutorial and book I have read displays the following code to add a UIView to the UIWindow.
[window addSubview:self.viewController.view];
My understanding of the above code is that a "View" (which is an instance of a UIView) is added to the window (Which is an instance of UIWindow). Let me break it down (According to my understanding):
window (UIWindow)
addSubview (method to add a View to a window)
Self.viewController.view (simply returns an instance of a "view" which is already instantiated within the UIViewController class.
The first problem I have is that I could not find the method "addSubview" in the UIWindow class reference document on apples site. However somebody kindly pointed out to me that UIWindow inherits addsubview method from UIView. thats all fine, but why do all the book and online documents state that the addsubview method adds a view to the window - but how can that be? really confused. Can somebody please explain step by step what this code is doing? If UIWindow inherits the addsubview method of UIView then how can it go back up the inheritance tree? really lost. What I really need is small example code with diagrams of what is happening step by step. would be REALLY greatfull. many thanks
Think of a window as a view that's associated directly with a screen or drawing object.
In the above example window.view is not correct. a window does not contain a view, it is a view with additional behavior.
Assuming that you are loading a UIViewController from a NIB file, the view associated with the viewController will be instantiated by accessing the view. So ...
You might see code like
MyViewController *vc = [MyViewController alloc]initWithNibName:#"MyNibFile" bundle:nil]autorelease];
[window addSubView:vc.view];
[window makeKeyAndVisible];
View is simply a super class of Window so any public view method is available to you.
Generally the window in your AppDelegate object is instantiated when the MainWindow.xib file is loaded.
You should see something like
#property(nonatomic, retain) IBOutlet UIWindow *window;
in your AppDelegate header file . (The IBOutlet directive tells the initialize the window object when the nib file is loaded.
Just remember, a UIWindow is simply a UIView with additional behaviors and data.
Hope this helps.
"However somebody kindly pointed out to me that UIWindow inherits addsubview method from UIView. thats all fine, but why do all the book and online documents state that the addsubview method adds a view to the window - but how can that be? really confused. Can somebody please explain step by step what this code is doing? If UIWindow inherits the addsubview method of UIView then how can it go back up the inheritance tree?"
That's it. I think you are not understanding what inheritance is. The metaphor is "is a". A UIWindow "is a" UIView. It has everything a UIView has, and more. One thing a UIView has is the ability to addSubview. Therefore a UIWindow has that ability too. It doesn't need any other UIView to do it for it. It is a UIView. It can do it itself.
try
[window.view addSubview:self.viewController.view];
That is off the top of my head, so it may not be completely accurate.
Related
I'm adding a subview to my primary iPad UIViewController, and within that subview I need to reference said view controller in order to play a video using that controller.
Can anyone help me out with the way that should be done, and possibly a code example?
Thank you in advance.
Regards,
Ed
EDIT (A LITTLE BIT MORE INFO):
This subview is a view from a uiviewcontroller class that is designed for the iPhone. It's a table that loads a video when a row is pressed. The movieplayer loads the video within the referenced viewcontroller (which is why I want to reference the iPad view controller from within the subview). The view is basically used within an iPad app in it's same form.
This sounds like an architecture problem. It's not up to your view to tell something to play a sound. That's a controller's job. It's up to your view to tell "someone" that it was touched, or slid, or whatever the user has done. "Someone" (who is watching) will then perform the correct response to that.
To do this, your view should generally take a target, and possibly and action. Look at how UIControl (for example, UIButton) informs other objects that it has been activated. The observer (controller) then reacts accordingly.
EDIT
The view should not load a video. A view controller should load the video and install it into the correct view. The only job the view has is to tell its view controller that it has been pressed. UITableView handles this automatically with the UITableViewDelegate method tableView:didSelectRowAtIndexPath:. If you're not using a UITableView, you should still follow this pattern. The view accepts has a delegate and tells the delegate (controller) that something was selected. Then the controller updates the views with the new data.
You probably already have the main view living in a property of your application delegate (it is commonly assigned via the application's .xib file, look in the app delegate's applicationDidFinishLaunching: method, where it adds the main view as a subview to the window, something like:
[window addSubview:primaryController.view];
[window makeKeyAndVisible];
).
So anywhere in your app where you need to access the main view, you can do:
[(MyAppDelegateType*)([UIApplication sharedApplication].delegate).primaryController somePrimaryControllerMethod];
Edit: while this will work, I agree with Rob Napier that this isn't the best way to do it, architecture-wise.
You could just use [yourSubview superview] to get the superview.
Can't you just add a property to the view like this:
#property (nonatomic, assign) UIViewController *parentViewController;
And on initialization of the view (from within the UIViewController), set the property:
UIView *customView = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0.0f, 0.0f, 320.0f, 460.0f)];
customView.parentViewController = self;
And from then on you should be able to call the parentViewController from within the view.
Edit: Rob Napier has a good point, it's probably a better idea to set a target and selector from within the view instead of a view controller. This way you should be able to hook up methods directly with the view. The properties would look like this:
#property (nonatomic assign) id target;
#property (nonatmic, assign) SEL selector;
And perhaps add a designated initializer to your view:
- (id)initWithFrame:(CGRect)aFrame target:(id)aTarget selector:(SEL)aSelector
{
self = [super initWithFrame:aFrame];
if (self)
{
self.target = aTarget;
self.selector = aSelector;
}
return self;
}
I am writing a library to be used by developers for the iPhone (similar to the way that OpenFeint is implemented) and I am trying to create a ViewController with an associated XIB so that I can instantiate it in my code with
SplashScreenViewController *splashScreenViewController = [[SplashScreenViewController alloc] init];
UIWindow *topApplicationWindow = [self getTopWindow];
[topApplicationWindow addSubview:splashScreenViewController.view];
However, while this works with simple controls (UIButtons, etc), nothing shows up with my SplashScreenViewController. SplashScreenViewController is very simple:
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
#interface SplashScreenView : UIViewController {
}
#end
and the implementation is empty. In my View XIB (SplashScreenView.xib), I have tried setting the File's Owner's class to SplashScreenViewController which didn't work, then I tried it the way I've seen it done in OpenFeint which is to add a View Controller in IB and make the main UIView a child of it and make it of class SplashScreenViewController instead. That also does not work (does not display).
I'm wondering if anyone has a good idea for what I might be missing, or if someone can recommend a walkthrough for creating new ViewControllers the way that I'm attempting to.
Thanks!
Try 2 things :
Call initWithNibName not just init. Maybe the OpenFeint you were talking about were overriding the init to call initWithNibName , that's why you don't see it.
Set SplashScreenViewController as your file owner, and connect his view outlet to your
view in IB.
Hope it helps.
Instead of [splashScreenViewController alloc], try [SplashScreenViewController alloc]. I'm surprised you didn't get a compiler warning.
I found a strange behavior, and would like to be explained what assertion I am making that is wrong.
In an AppDelegate class of a freshly created WindowBased project, I am adding a UIViewController to the window.
I can do it two different ways:
- with an IBOutlet. In IB, I simply instanced an UIViewController, set its class to TestViewController and connected it (scenario A of the code).
- creating the UIViewController with code (scenario B).
- (void)applicationDidFinishLaunching:(UIApplication *)application {
#define USE_IBOUTLET YES // Comment this line to switch to scenario B
#ifdef USE_IBOUTLET
// Scenario A
[window addSubview:theTestViewController.view];
[window makeKeyAndVisible];
#endif
#ifndef USE_IBOUTLET
// Scenario B
TestViewController *theTestViewControllerProgrammatically;
theTestViewControllerProgrammatically = [[TestViewController alloc] initWithNibName:nil bundle:nil];
// According to Apple: "It is a good idea to set the view's frame before adding it to a window.", so let's do it
[theTestViewControllerProgrammatically.view setFrame:[[UIScreen mainScreen] applicationFrame]];
[window addSubview:theTestViewControllerProgrammatically.view];
[window makeKeyAndVisible];
#endif
}
As I did not do any customization of the object in IB, I should have the same behavior in both scenario.
Scenario A, using the IBOutlet works as expected.
But the scenario B has the following problems:
- The view is not at the right position (20 pixels to high, and covered by the status bar).
- The view doesn't resize properly (for example, try to toggle the In Call Status bar)
Why?
Zip archive of the project here if you want to reproduce the problem: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1899122/code/ProtoWindowBasedStrangeness.zip
This is going to sound really silly after my long-winded answers, but the problem you're having is simple to fix (programatically).
This line:
[theTestViewController.view setFrame:[[UIScreen mainScreen] applicationFrame]];
Should actually be:
[theTestViewControllerProgrammaticaly setFrame:[[UIScreen mainScreen] applicationFrame]];
You were setting the frame for the VC set by IB, not by the one you created programatically.
Anyway - it's worth noting that all my comments still apply! There are still a few things you'll have to do programmatically if you don't use IB's controller objects (for example, setting up the navigation bar items)
Paul
I have been having a very similar problem to you in that I noticed VC objects are not all created equal! The problem I'm having is setting the navigation bar items, I just can't seem to do it when File's Owner is a view controller object that I instantiate programatically. It only works if I unarchive IB's controller objects.
I downloaded your project and had a play around with it, and it got me thinking some more about what might be going on. I think I can provide a reasonable answer, but not sure if there is a simple solution...
What I believe is going on is that Apple have created these controller objects in IB that are slightly more specialised. One suggestion this might be true is that IB VC objects have an attribute you can set that has no direct corresponding property for a UIViewController class that I can see, so IB's controller objects may have some additional functionality that non-IB UIViewController subclasses can't take advantage of. Given that objects in an .xib are complete 'freeze-dried' objects, Apple may have included all kinds of private attributes we can't see or use in their IB versions of them - this may have some effect on how the objects are initialised.
For example, in your MainWindow.xib, select the IB VC object and you can set attributes on it from the Inspector Palette, such as "Resize View From NIB". If you un-check this and re-run your app, you'll see the VC appear exactly as it does in scenario B. As you can't check this item when from the File's Owner attributes (even though it is as a UIViewController), you're unable to take advantage of whatever is being done by the view controller to give you the behaviour you want.
The result of this is that when you use TestViewController.xib to initialise your VC object in code, none of the IB specific attributes of a VC are set, therefore a bog-standard UIViewController is created, and so things like the "Resize View From NIB" attribute and setting up the navigation items have to be implemented yourself.
I've not yet found a way to take advantage of the functionality that IB's view controllers have when I instantiate them using initWithNibName:bundle:nibBundle (I'm guessing it's all private stuff we can't access), but hopefully this might have given you a starting point...
Of course, I could be completely wrong and someone will make me look like a complete idiot!
Paul
Probably in case B that view is not aware of the presence of a status bar. You need to resize it accordingly and adjust its position to take the status bar into account. That is done by changing the frame (size) and bounds (location) properties of a UIView.
Okay I just typed this whole question out and then managed to delete it. Sigh. Anyway, standard disclosure that I have searched everywhere and banged my head on the keyboard and can't figure this out.
I'm building a basic app based on the utility application template (with a MainViewController and FlipsideViewController). Side note: I still don't understand the purpose of MainView and FlipsideView in this scheme so if someone can explain it that wouldn't be too terrible :D
Anyway, at the bottom of both of these views I want to have a toolbar. It was easy enough to add that to a given view with IB, but I want the toolbar to have its own controller and model because I want to keep its state consistent across the two views. Accordingly I'd like to load that view from a nib but it seems I'm doing something wrong. I followed the advice here: NSViewController and multiple subviews from a Nib but obviously borked it up so more insight would be appreciated.
I did the following things:
I created ToolBarViewController which is basically empty but is the file owner of ToolBar.xib. Inside ToolBar.xib I have a view with a frame the size of the toolbar and inside that a toolbar. In MainView.xib I've got a view element of the same size which is wired up to toolBarView found in the code below...
In MainViewController.h:
#import "ToolBarViewController.h"
#interface MainViewController : UIViewController <FlipsideViewControllerDelegate, MKMapViewDelegate> {
...
ToolBarViewController *toolBarViewController;
IBOutlet UIView *toolBarView;
}
...
#property(nonatomic, retain) ToolBarViewController *toolBarViewController;
#property(nonatomic, retain) IBOutlet UIView *toolBarView;
In MainViewController.m:
#synthesize toolBarViewController;
#synthesize toolBarView;
- (void)loadView
{
[super loadView];
toolBarViewController = [[ToolBarViewController alloc] initWithNibName:#"ToolBar" bundle:nil];
[[toolBarViewController view] setFrame:[toolBarView frame]];
[[self view] replaceSubview:toolBarView with:[toolBarViewController view]];
}
When I build and run I get the warning for the last line above that 'UIView' may not respond to 'replaceSubview:with' and on running it the following exception is thrown:
*** -[MainView replaceSubview:with:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x450c540
Can anyone explain what I'm doing wrong? Thanks!å
There is no such method as [UIView replaceSubview:with:]. That's an NSView method. You should have gotten a warning about this when you compiled.
To do the same thing, you'd need to use [[self view] insertSubview:aboveSubview:] and then [toolbarView removeFromSuperview].
That said, I'm not certain if this is how you want to mess with the toolbar. I'd probably try something more like:
self.toolbarItems = [toolbarViewController toolbarItems];
That's because there's no such UIView's replaceSubview:with: (there's a method like that for NSView on the Mac, though).
Remember that Objective-C warnings are usually errors ;) in general I tend to never leave them without treatment, and I even turn them into errors:
http://akosma.com/2009/07/16/objective-c-compiler-warnings/
I am new to the iPhone SDK and am trying to create 3 views and switch between them. Data will come from a server and I will basically be showing 1 view and caching the other two. So far I am just trying to create a view and display it at run-time. My code is listed below. It shows only a blank screen and I think I am missing a key concept. Any Help?
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#import "ImageViewController.h"
#interface Test5ViewController : UIViewController
{
IBOutlet UIView *rootView;
ImageViewController *curImage;
ImageViewController *nextImage;
ImageViewController *prevImage;
}
#property(nonatomic,retain) IBOutlet UIView *rootView;
#property(nonatomic,retain) ImageViewController *curImage;
#property(nonatomic,retain) ImageViewController *nextImage;
#property(nonatomic,retain) ImageViewController *prevImage;
#end
and
- (void)loadView
{
self.curImage = [[ImageViewController alloc]initWithNibName:#"ImageView" bundle:[NSBundle mainBundle]];
UIImage *pic = [UIImage imageNamed:#"baby-gorilla.jpg"];
[self.curImage assignImage:pic];
self.rootView = self.curImage.view;
}
and
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#interface ImageViewController : UIViewController
{
IBOutlet UIImageView *image;
}
-(void)assignImage:(UIImage *)screenShotToSet;
#property(nonatomic,retain) IBOutlet UIImageView *image;
#end
Welcome to the iPhone SDK!
In general, there are two ways to get any view displayed.
First, and most commonly, you use a NIB file created by the Interface Builder. This is usually the easiest way to get started and I would recommend it for what you're trying to do here. It's too lengthy to describe all the steps you need to do for what you have here, but basically start in xcode by creating a new file and selecting "user interfaces" and choose View XIB. This will create a basic NIB file (they're called NIBs rather than XIBs for historical reasons). The first step in interface builder is to change the class name of the "File's Owner" to your UIViewController subclass (Test5ViewController). You can then drop anything that IB will allow into the view window or even replace the pre-supplied view object with one of your own. And here's the trick: make sure the view outlet (supplied by the UIViewController superclass) is connected to a view. Once this is done, this view will be automatically loaded when your NIB is loaded. You can then just put your UIViewController subclass (Test5ViewController) in your MainWindow.xib NIB file to get it automatically loaded, and you're in business.
Now, the way you're doing it here is the second way. Some people like to code this way all the time and not user interface builder. And while it's definitely necessary sometimes and always more flexible, it makes you understand what is happening a bit better. There may be other things, but the main thing you're missing is that in your code above, you have nothing that is adding your view into the view hierarchy. You need to check first that you have an UIApplicationDelegate subclass and it needs to load your "root" UIViewController class. All initial project creation types in xcode do this (except Window-based application). It is code like:
[window addSubview:rootController.view];
Once this is done, if your view controller wasn't loaded by the NIB (described briefly above), your loadView method will be called, expecting you to build your own view hierarchy. Above, you created the view(s), but failed to put them in a hierarchy. You need something like:
[self.view addSubview:curImage.view];
No view will be rendered until added to the view hierarchy. Make sure to look up the UIView class in the documentation and understand the variety of ways to add and remove views to the view hierarchy.
A couple things I should warn you about:
* your code above is leaking. You need to review how objective-C properties work. There's lots on this site about it. More than I have time to write about here.
* don't create a rootView property in the case you have here. There already is one in the superclass (UIViewController). It's just 'view'. Use that for saving your root view.
I hope this helps you get started. It can be bewildering at first, but you'll soon get it going! I recommend building and rewriting and rebuilding a lot of sample code before you do your "real" application. The SDK has many great samples.