Dynamically load nib for iPhone/iPad within view controller - iphone

Question

I have converted an iPhone application using the wizard like thing in XCode into a universal app.
It builds fine but obviously looks a bit rubbish in some areas :)
I need to load nibs according to which device is being used. I dont wish to create my view controllers using initWithNib as I already have code to create the controllers with some data (initWithMyLovelyData) which doesnt do anything to do with nib loading.
I know to find out the device you use UI_USER_INTERFACE_IDIOM() so I tried overriding the initWithNibName within the actual view controllers themselves, assuming they get called internally somehow. But it's not working as I guess I am unsure of the syntax.
I have tried
if(ipad..) self = [super initWithNibName:#"MyIpadNib" bundle:nibBundleOrNil];
And that doesnt work :/
EDIT - I know I have massively edited this, made my question a bit more specific after doing some more research - apologies!

Answer 1

Actually, Apple does all this automatically, just name your NIB files:
MyViewController~iphone.xib // iPhone
MyViewController~ipad.xib // iPad
and load your view controller with the smallest amount of code:
[[MyViewController alloc] initWithNibName:nil bundle:nil]; // Apple will take care of everything

Answer 2

EDIT: #Adam's answer below is the correct answer.
To determine which nib to load, do the following, and scrap your initWithMyLovelyData method and use a property to set the data. You should be able to easily move all your init code into the property setter method.
MyViewController *viewController;
if (UI_USER_INTERFACE_IDIOM() == UIUserInterfaceIdiomPad) {
viewController = [[MyViewController alloc] initWithNibName:#"ipadNIB" bundle:nil];
} else {
viewController = [[MyViewController alloc] initWithNibName:#"iphoneNIB" bundle:nil];
}
viewController.myLovelyData = someData;

Answer 3

I just put these two methods in a class called IPadHelper, and use the addIPadSuffixWhenOnIPad method to conditionally pick between two nibs depending on platform
+ (BOOL)isIPad{
if (kCFCoreFoundationVersionNumber >= kCFCoreFoundationVersionNumber_iPhoneOS_3_2){
if ([[UIDevice currentDevice] userInterfaceIdiom] == UIUserInterfaceIdiomPad){
return YES;
}
}
return NO;
}
+ (NSString *)addIPadSuffixWhenOnIPad:(NSString *)resourceName{
if([IPadHelper isIPad]){
return [resourceName stringByAppendingString:#"-iPad"];
}
else {
return resourceName;
}
}
see here http://cocoawithlove.com/2010/07/tips-tricks-for-conditional-ios3-ios32.html for more explanation of the first method...

Answer 4

You can have your cake and eat it too. Just add a method that wraps initWithNibName:bundle: and adds your myLovelyData parameter:
- (id)initWithNibName:(NSString *)nibNameOrNil bundle:(NSBundle *)nibBundleOrNil myLovelyData:(id)data
{
if ((self = [super initWithNibName:nibNameOrNil bundle:nibBundleOrNil]))
{
// Custom initialization using myLovelyData
//
}
return self;
}

Answer 5

I think it will be better to create C file.
FileHelper.h
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
BOOL isIPad();
NSString *addIPadSuffixWhenOnIPad(NSString *resourceName);
FileHelper.m
#import "FileHelper.h"
BOOL isIPad() {
if (kCFCoreFoundationVersionNumber >= kCFCoreFoundationVersionNumber_iPhoneOS_3_2) {
if ([[UIDevice currentDevice] userInterfaceIdiom] == UIUserInterfaceIdiomPad) {
return YES;
}
}
return NO;
}
NSString *addIPadSuffixWhenOnIPad(NSString *resourceName) {
if(isIPad()) {
return [resourceName stringByAppendingString:#"-iPad"];
}
else {
return resourceName;
}
}