iOS: confused about removeFromSuperview and switching views - iphone

Question

New to iPhone development, but I've been given a big project as a first go and I'm a bit stuck.
Basically the app will start with a settings screen, then you click a button to go to a dashboard with multiple option buttons. Each button will lead to a different Navigation View with tables.
The way I've approached this is to start with a UIViewController with a button, which I've got wired up but when you hit the button and I do:
[self.view removeFromSuperview];
UIViewController *newView = [[UIViewController alloc] initWithNibName:#"Dashboard" bundle:nil];
[self.view addSubview:newView.view];
the second view isn't loading. I just get a blank screen. Do I need to make a reference in the first controller to the second?
Also, am I approaching this in the right way? As long as I removeFromSuperview will I be able to load the navigation controllers on the press of a button?
Sorry if this isn't too clear, I've been through books and lots of websites but don't seem to be able to get my head around this.
Thanks

Answer 1

There is nothing here with the new view, rather the problem is with current view. You have removed the self.view from super view.
[self.view removeFromSuperview];
So anything added to self.view will not be shown, as self.view itself is removed.

Answer 2

When presenting child controller/view from a parent controller, you should consider using presentViewController. Eventually, use dismissViewControllerAnimated when you want child to disappear and parent to reappear.
In parent view controller:
ChildViewController * child = [[ChildViewController alloc] init];
[self presentViewController:child animation:YES completion:Nil];
In child view controller, ie. in some action handler:
-(IBAction)close:(id)sender
{
[self dismissViewControllerAnimated:YES completion:Nil];
}
IMHO you should also get in the habit of naming instance variables to what they are instantiated from. In your example you name the instance newView, when it should be something like newViewController. That way you make sure you don't mix up views with view controllers.

Answer 3

[self.view removeFromSuperview];
You've removed the view from the superview
[self.view addSubview:newView.view];
But you're adding the new view to the same view that you have just removed from the superview. It's not displaying anywhere.

Answer 4

Your third line adds newView as a subview of self.view, but you just removed self.view from it's superview.
I'd suggest reading more about view controllers. You'll want to have one view controller per "screen", so one for your settings screen, one for your dashboard, one for each table, and so on. Then, manage which one is visible by pushing and popping these view controllers from the nav controller's stack.

Answer 5

This removes self.view, which will most likely destroy the object since there will be no other references to it:
[self.view removeFromSuperview];
Here you are creating an UIViewController, and adding it's view to self.view, which is probably not what you want:
UIViewController *newView = [[UIViewController alloc] initWithNibName:#"Dashboard" bundle:nil];
[self.view addSubview:newView.view];
Look into UINavigationController so that you can easily swap screens in and out with some built in animations. Here's a bit more about them. Here's a tutorial.

Answer 6

The UIViewController's view should not be removed from or added to a view hierarchy outside the control of the view controller. While you might be able to get that manipulation to work now it won't in the future.
Read up on view controllers here.
The basic idea is that you present the view controller then it will take care of manipulating the view hierarchy for you.
So a better approach to get started would be to do something like this;
[viewController1 presentModalViewController:viewController2 animated:YES];
This line of code will present viewController2 with the default modal animation (slide in from the bottom). If you'd like a different animation you can change the modalPresentationStyle to one of the constants in the UIModalPresentationStyle enum on viewController1 (note thats a viewController1, not viewController2).
If you want something more like the Clock app look into the tab bar controller. If you want something more like the Mail app look into the navigation controller.