I've started developing my first game. Here some my thoughts about architecture:
Most examples use the project template based on single view and manage of control visibility by hand. In my game I've 6-7 views and I'd like use Interface Builder for some of them. There are some problems too:
If I use a single based view I'll need, for example, in "Play" button's handler to create new view with a game board and destroy previous one (the view contains that button's handler). Is it right and how can I do it?
If I use a navigation based view I'll use push/pop methods but I'll need to hide a navigation bar for game atmosphere and to do navigation by hand. Moreover, I couldn't find any example of use a navigation controller in games. Does anybody use it and how?
What can you advice me?
1) you can hide navigation bar from nib file.
2) you can remove navigation animation by setting animation by [self pushViewController:nav animated:NO];
3)if you do not want to use navigation controller , you can use view based application and through coding you can add/remove subviews and views as per need.
Related
I am new in developing iOS apps. I am trying to develop a multiple views app. My doubt is how to manage a multiple views app with View Controller, I mean, I do not want to use Navigation Controller nor Tab Controller.
My idea is to show a first View to choose the language, and after this, I want to show some different profiles in a table view. When you choose the profile, you get into a menu where you have some different functionalities (Once in this menu, I might use Navigation Controller).
My problem is that I don't know how to manage these two first views. I don't know if I have to declare them in the appDelegate, or if I can do it nesting one to other, I mean, I do the first view, and when I pressed the button, I declare the new view. Once in the new view, when I pressed a row in the table view, I make the another view.
I know it is a little bit confusing, so I hope you could understand it quite well.
EDIT:
I want to clarify that I am not using storyboards. My main doubt is what to do with all de view controllers, Do I have to declare all of them in the appDelegate? or Can I declare each view in every controller?
If you are using storyboards, you can use Segue's to navigate between the views, so you would show your first view, then you could tie a button to the next view (by control dragging in storyboard). If you want to transition programmatically you can use the performSegueWithIdentifier method. You could use the same approach to get from your tableViewController to your next viewController by using the performSegueWithIdentifier method from within the tableViewController's didSelectRowAtIndexPath delegate method (i.e. when a user taps a cell).
That should get you started. Good luck!
EDIT:
You really should be using storyboards. It's the way to do things these days. If you refuse, then the best approach is to create a container view controller that manages your "children" view controllers. You can find information on doing this, as well as the methods needed to present/remove child view controllers here:
Custom Container View Controllers
You can use navigation controller with "hidden" property.
self.navController.navigationBarHidden = YES;
If you want to have two different views and transition between them, you will want to use UIViewControllers presented modally. Here is Apple's Guide to this.
I'm making an app with interface builder using storyboarding.
I want to have a tab bar where no item is selected. This can be accomplished by setting
TabBar.SelectedItem = null;
But if you try to do that, you get the following error:
'Directly modifying a tab bar managed by a tab bar controller is not allowed.'
So I can't use the standard UITabBarController. I've created a custom UIViewController, and added a UITabBar. Switching between tabs is working fine, and having no selection is also working as it should.
But I have no idea how to show my other view controllers from my custom view controller with the tab bar. Remember that I'm using interfacebuilder, so I can't just create my view controllers in code as new objects and add them to the view. (as suggested in UITabBar funcionality without UITabBarController)
So how do I show my own views without using the UITabBarViewController?
Edit: Still haven't found a solution, but I did a hacky fix. Simple create an other tab bar and place it on top of the original tab bar. Listen to those events and use SelectedIndex to change the view displayed. Then add some function that will select / deselect the items on your own tab bar.
In fact, even if you design your others UIViewControllers from IB, you can instantiate them from code. You'll probably have to play a bit with frame and autoresizing properties to make them fit the part of your main view you want them to display inside, but it's possible.
So, knowing that, a simple solution is to create a simple UIView (we'll call it 'tabFrame') in your main UIViewController, which fill the screen from the top of your UITabBar to the top of the screen; instantiate the UIViewController corresponding to your tabs and add their view as subview of tabFrame. Now you just have to catch item selection from tabbar to hide or show the desired subviews.
Hope I'm clear enough, else don't hesitate to question!
EDIT: pointed out this morning that in storyboarding context, you can effectively instantiate viewControllers / scene from code, but for not loosing designer settings it must NOT be done through directly calling their constructors, but through StoryBoard.InstantiateViewController("vc_identifier") calls, after having set identifiers to VCs in storyboard editor.
See http://docs.xamarin.com/ios/recipes/General/Storyboard/Storyboard_a_TableView for example
My goal is to get a navigation bar like the HBO GO app on iPad. Their nav bar has a larger height and a custom background. It seems like they're using a navigation controller since when you press on a show it takes you to a new screen with a back button.
I'm wondering either
1) Can I use an instance of UINavigationBar without a NavigationController and use the navigation bar delegate to handle pushing and popping my views?
or
2)Is there another way that I can implement this?
I am currently trying to do this with a navigation controller and navigation bar but I am running into difficulties and I think its not the best way to do it. Also Apple docs specifically say not to change the frame of the navigation bar in a navcontroller.
Ideas please? Thanks in advance!
From the looks of it, the HBO Go application uses completely custom navigation controls. A basic UINavigationController-alike class is relatively straightforward to build, but you must be careful to consider that UIViewControllers are not intended to be nested on iOS <= 4 and so you will have to pass through several methods such as view{Will,Did}appear:.
I recommend starting from the ground up, as trying to heavily customize the built-in controls will only lead to further frustrations as you run into issues or limitations in their customizability.
I'd like to display some small tutorial dialogs on top of my exiting views. I want to be able to see my existing views behind these smaller views.
Do I have to use view controllers in the same I way I would me normal views, and presentmodalviewcontroller etc ?
I haven't tried making a smaller view in interface builder before.
Also, say I want to move to another one of my existing views, full screen, while in my tutorial view. How would I close my tutorial view move to the next full screen view and launch another tutorial view ?
Example code or pseudo code would be welcome.
If your tutorial dialogs are just text, you could use UIAlertView to show the information to the user, so they can just read it and click the OK button when they're done. It's a very easy way to show some text to the user.
If you need to include images or other interactive items in your tutorial dialogs, the easiest way might be for you to just have your fullscreen view's view controller create a new view and put it up. So in this case, you'd create your view in Interface Builder, and when you want to show it, instantiate it using -[UIBundle loadNibNamed:owner:options:] and add it as a subview of your main view. Of course, it may even be easier to create the tutorial view programmatically from your view controller rather than using a nib for them at all.
Regarding the question of moving on to another fullscreen view, you would probably want to look into embedding your view controllers in a UINavigationController. This would allow you to push from the first controller to the second very easily, and the user would be able to just tap the Back button to get back to the first. If you're not looking for a navigation bar type of interface, you could present the second view controller as a modal view controller by calling -[UIViewController presentModalViewController:animated:] on your main view controller. This will pop up the second view controller fullscreen, and the user can dismiss it when they're done. Check out Apple's great documentation on UINavigationController to get a feel for how to use that:
http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#featuredarticles/ViewControllerPGforiPhoneOS/NavigationControllers/NavigationControllers.html%23//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40007457-CH103-SW1
I would think that you could use existing UIViewController and simply add a new UIView that is of desired dimensions, that sits in front of other views and which is non-opaque and has alpha less than 1.
If you want a general purpose tutorial mechanism that can be placed atop any one of many UIViewControllers, then you would want to extract the navigation logic, etc.
Sorry, no code - just a few quick thoughts.
I'm just beginning to try out development for the iPhone. My requirement is very similar to thar provided by a UISegmentedControl except I need custom buttons instead of those in a UISegmentedControl.
Here's more detail:
I need one view controller which loads the first view having 3 custom buttons on the top. Below the buttons, I need to load different views (Views?) based on which button is tapped.
Is it possible to use IB to design just the lower part of the view talked about here? I want to use as much of IB I can here.
I don't understand why you can't use a UISegmentedControl here? If you drag a UISegmented control onto a Navigation Controller in IB it will be added as a "custom" button control that looks just like a UISegmentedControl. It's found in Apps like YouTube etc. You can then configure it to have three sections and connect up an IBOutlet/IBAction to it easily too.
Edit: Also, if you use a Navigation Controller, you can very easily use IB to design your other views, as that is how Navigation Controllers work - they load their subviews typically from other nibs. Therefore this would accomplish all you want.