In my app I would like to replace the TabBar with a ToolBar under certain conditions, similar to what happens in the Photos App when a user places it in selections mode (A toolbar with share copy, etc, buttons appear over the tab bar). How can I achieve this please?
This can be achieved by creating a new toolbar, assigning it an appropriate frame and adding it to self.tabBarController.view
I'm assuming your root view controller is a UITabBarController. Sometimes using the canned "Root" UIViewControllers is more of a hindrance than a help, especially if you want a highly custom look that does not fit into the paradigm of what the canned controllers offer. There's no reason you have to use them -- you could write your own, and do your own transition between your sub-UIViewController views onto the screen. You can use the UITabBar without the UITabBarController in your own custom UIViewController subclass, then you don't end up fighting the behavior of UITabBarController. Writing your own root ViewController can be very instructive as well -- you learn about all the things a root ViewController must do to manage the sub-ViewControllers.
Related
I have a main viewController containing three separate childViewControllers. I would like to present one of them fullscreen after tapping, but I could not find any elegant way to present an already active viewController.
Would you propose any ideas on how to make such transition?
Is there a way to reuse the childViewController without creating new instance?
Without seeing any screenshots, I would recommend changing the main view controller to be its own view controller (maybe with buttons and views separating it into 3 sections), and then after clicking a button -> go to childViewController.
I've found that for easy transitions like this, the Hero cocoapod is super easy to use and UI friendly.
Check out the Hero cocoa pod here
Good luck!
I have created an application successfully and given it a TabBar view controller that is working as i had hoped, but have run into a glitch.
On each xib i load from the tabBar I need to create sub-views that will perform tasks as this interacts with a database (or .. will). I have created my first page and the buttons that will navigate to the views within the XIB, but do not yet nkow how to navigate between views within the XIB itself.
would it be better to have seperate XIB's that load when the buttons are hit?
OR
should i create views within the XIB's for each category and switch between them?
I am still learning and have had some confusion regarding navigation as I already have the TabBar controlling the root of the application. I have been looking for tutorials, but they all seem to start at either navigation controller as the root, TabBar as the root, and nothing like I need for option 1 above.
I can add details of the app if needed, but am looking for guidance for now.
Thank you,
Silver Tiger
To navigate between views the best way is to use a navigation controller pushing/popping separate view controllers, loaded from separate nibs. UINavigationController is a subclass of UIViewController, so you can perfectly put a navigation controller for each tab. You can also use story-boarding in the new xcode 4.2, but I recommend getting comfortable with this before doing so.
I have an app planned out that needs to have a custom menu throughout the application. Its not a toolbar or anything like that so i don't think a regular UINavigationController or a UITabBarController will do the job.
What would be the best approach to creating this custom menu that appears in all views? I thought of just creating a view with the custom menu and alloc it for each view but it seems like a bit of an overkill. Extending UINavigationController might also be an option, but I'm not sure.
Would love to hear your opinions.
Thank you! :)
Shai.
The UINavigationController and the UITabBarController are pretty much always the best way to go because they have view and memory management built in. Here's what you can do:
Create a subclass of UITabBarController that hides the tab bar. See the last post on this page: http://www.iphonedevsdk.com/forum/iphone-sdk-development/4091-uitabbarcontroller-hidden-uitabbar.html Make this UITabBarController accessible on a singleton object.
Create a view for your menu and some IBActions corresponding to the menu buttons.
When a menu button is pressed, you can manually switch the tabs of the uitabbarcontroller as follows: tabBarController.selectedIndex = x;
I agree with ade. I think a popover controller added to a shared class would fit best to the iOS style (I'd put it in AppDelegate in order to have reference to it from anywhere and to avoid creating multiple instances and using only one which you will keep displaying / hiding whenever you wish to see the menu)
I can think of two options: 1. Subclass UINavigationController, hide the standard UINavigationBar's view and create your own view and put it on top of it (ugly and who knows what the results will end up like). 2. Add the menu as a subview of UIWindow so it stays on top of everything throughout the app.
I think the best way is to create a custom tool bar and use it across the app. Subclassing UINavBar is another option but not recommended by Apple so I would not go there.
I'd look into using a popover style menu such as WEPopover
I am sure this is very simple, yet I am stuck...
I have created an application and added UITabViewController (dragged in from the library in Interface Builder. My application has 3 different views, clicking on appropriate tab brings the different view. So far so good.
I want to convert one of the views to be a UINavigationController: basically a table with the option to delete rows (so UINavigationController would need to have a button "Edit" on top).
I saw many samples which would do either 1 or 2, but not both.
How would I combine it, keeping in mind that I have used provided UITabViewController and did not added UITabBar directly to the view.
Thanks
If you are using Interface Builder, you should be able to just drag and drop a navigation controller into your tab bar controller as a child controller. The next tab bar item should be generated for it automatically from that.
You can also do this programatically by just creating however many UINavigationControllers you need in an array and assigning that to the uitabbarcontroller appropriately.
I actually don't like this method of combining the UINavigationController and UITabBarController since the tab bar controller must always be visible, which can be really confusing sometimes.
Instead, I recommend you make your own custom UITabBarController (Tab bar controller inside a navigation controller, or sharing a navigation root view) which you add to the navigation controller. I personally don't know why Apple didn't do this; hopefully this is the standard way in 4.0 :)
Im a budding iphone developer, and doing my best but i have a query regarding the UINavigationController.
I have a tab bar app, with 3 tabs.
The 1st tab has five UIButtons, each loading a different "section" of the app, and each section will have a number of views.
The other tabs simply display some info.
as users select any of the UIButtons on my first tab i am using [self.view addSubview: xxxxx];
and as users navigate away from this view i use [self.view removeFromSuperview];
My question is:
Is this a bad way to do things? should i use a navigation controller? The reason i have not used one is because i wanted a custom looking UI and i understand that the navigation controller forces your design a little.
And on top of that i will be using core data to implement persistent storage.... will my way of implementing this application cause an issue with core data?
Any help regarding thsi would be highly appreciated.
Cheers
Tom
First, if you don't need a navigation controller, then don't use it. You shouldn't feel bad about it. That said, I think UINavigationController doesn't impose a specific UI on you at all. It's very easy to hide the navigation bar and implement any UI you like. The thing that UINavigationController does impose is a modular design: each view is managed by a separate view controller and takes up the full screen. Only you can answer if this design is suitable for your app. If it is and if your app is designed around a hierarchy of views, a navigation controller is probably a good choice.
As you said: when one of the five buttons is tapped the users is navigating to another view and the five buttons disappear. This is what the navigation controller is designed for and helps you manage the memory better than simply adding and removing views (depending on how many views are added/removed it might also be better on performance). As Ole points out the NavigationController is highly customizable and doesn't impose much.
A NavigationController gives you more flexibility down the road: say you want to add another hierarchy level after one of the buttons has been tapped in version 2.0. Then you will find that your MainView will be growing as you keep adding views to it. A UINavigationController keeps your code well structured and lets you extend the navigation later one.
CoreData is very flexible and UI-independent. You shouldn't have to worry about this.