Cocoa Touch drop down box on iPad - iphone

I am implementing an iPad app that needs to make use of a drop down box or something to filter items in a tableview.
Can anyone suggest a control? I can't use the picker view (because you can't adjust height) and the segment view can't hold enough items.

In this instance, I'd be tempted to use a UIPicker view in an UIActionSheet. (Or other similar modal dialog.)
That said, it might be more appropriate to use a Search Controller to filter the UITableView. (Really depends on the application.)

Sounds like you could just use a Search Controller to me, is your data categorisable? You could be better off just creating a hierarchy and navigating through it using a Navigation Controller to move between tableviews.

Related

Difference between table view controller and a table view placed within a viewcontroller

I am making an app and would like to direct my user once they log in into their dashboard, I have seen some apps display things in what seem like a table view controller or a view controller with a table view. I would like to display the logo up top and then a table displaying their username then about 4 more rows displaying other info then at the bottom a tab bar. What would be the best way to go about this?
any advice welcomed. If relevant I am using swift, Xcode7 and parse to handle my users
Use a UITableView. This a bit more customizable in terms of Storyboard layout. You can place UIImageViews, toolbars, and other elements all over your UIViewController. You can then put a UITableView in the exact place that would work for you, with the dimensions you need.
Of course, you could always use a UITableViewController. You could embed this controller in a variety of combinations, which would let you add tab bars or navigation bars.
The only real difference in implementation is that you have to remember to explicitly write the delegate and data source methods when using a UITableView.
For your case, I would pick whatever seems easiest to implement in your case. Probably a UITableView in my opinion.
Some differences between UITableViewController (TV) and UIViewController with TableView (VT) I know:
You can add other controls into VT and pin it to anywhere you want. TV can't do that.
You can add many same group of controls without add constraints with TV. VT you have to add constraints.
You don't want to worry about scrolling in TV with many group of controls.
With TV you can create static table cell but you can't with VT. Static table works on TableViewController only.
In your situation, I use UITableViewController with static table to achieve that.
Hope this can help.

How to make a horizontal scrollable UITabBar in iOS?

The UITabBar in my app consists of 10+ items, but the width is enough to put all 10+ items.
How to make a horizontal scrollable UITabBar in iOS ?
Thanks.
You'll have to roll your own to at least some extent.
What might work, would be to create a UITabBar view (not the controller) and embedded it in a UIScrollView. You could then use that in place of your regular Tab Bar control by adding it to your TabBarController.view/tabBarView or something. Of course you'd have to play around to get it to look right, and I'm not sure if just setting the view to something wider will actually make it display more items or not.
Of course, for best results you'd probably want to do something entirely custom.
From Apple's Developer Portal:
If you add more than five items to the viewControllers property, the tab bar controller automatically inserts a special view controller (called the More view controller) to handle the display of the additional items.
Source
Seems like you will need to make a custom tab bar.
They also said this in the next paragraph:
Although the tab bar view is a key part of your tab bar interface, you do not modify that view directly.
You might be breaking Apple's design guidelines by doing this.
You can certainly go and create a custom class of the UITabBar (embedding it into a scrollview etc.)..but why re-invent the wheel? After searching around I found several third-party classes already created that work well and are easy to use and highly customizable..In order of personal preference:
M13InfiniteTabBar -
https://github.com/Marxon13/M13InfiniteTabBar
JSScrollableTabBar -
https://github.com/jasarien/JSScrollableTabBar
InfiniTabBar -
https://github.com/iosdeveloper/InfiniTabBar

iPhone, how what I show smaller views ontop of normal view and switch between my current normal views?

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.

Wizard view for iPhone application

I want to implement a wizard view that have to apply the following requirements:
several steps (configurable)
each step has to be a stand-alone UIView
back, previous, finish buttons
indicator that must show on each step we are
It must not be some navigation-style implementation (using UINavigationController) just view which I can place somewhere on the another UIView.
Any suggestions & best practices how to implement this task?
Sounds like you want a modal view. You should just configure a view as you like and display it modally from the view controller. It will then appear above the other views and trap all touches. If you need to create the illusion of various "pages" you would need to programmatically add buttons, text fields etc and then remove them as needed.
However, you might want to rethink this design. It's all good and well to have a wizard in a dialog view on a non-mobile screen with plenty of visual real estate but you really don't have that much space on a mobile screen. If you leave the backing view visible this will rob the wizard view of most of its area. If you expand the wizard view to a useful size, you might as well use a full screen view anyway.

How can I simulate UISegmentedControl with custom buttons?

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.