Currently the code I need to modify uses a tabBarController with a single selection inside it which takes the user back to the root view, but because it is a tabBar then the whole of the tab is selectable and I need it so only the button positioned in the middle of the tab bar is selected.
I am fairly new to this but know it is not a tabBar that is needed here but something else, maybe just place a button there. Any help would be fantastic. I would post the code up but I am unsure which section would be required. I hope I made myself clear enough :)
Rowley
Tab bars are for switching among different views. If all you want is a home button, a tab bar would not be a good choice. You could use either a simple UIButton, or possibly a tool bar -- though the tool bar is generally used when there is more than one action the user might take.
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I am working on a mobile version for my company's web app. The structure of this application requires uitableviews with a tab bar on the bottom and a navigation bar up top to return to the previous view. As you drill down in the application the tab bar items change at each level allowing selection of different views pertaining to that specific level in the app. I need a way to implement this with a navigation bar on top that navigates back to the previous screen on every tab in said tab bar when a back button is clicked on any of the tabs.
for example: let's say i start out with an items tab and a simple about tab. When i click items it drills down to a new view called subitems and the tabs for this view are subitems, favorites, details, and notes. I want the navigation bar to go back to the previous screen when i click the back button on any one of these four tabs.
Is this at all possible? I can't seem to find anything related to this type of structuring within an app. any help/examples would be greatly appreciated.
I know that a negative answer always sounds bad, but I tried to do the same a few months ago and I could not find a way of doing it using the standard UITabBarController/UITabBar. Take also a look at this question/answer.
The good news is that it is not that difficult to implement from scratch a tab bar controller that can be pushed on a navigation stack. There are also several examples around, one is BCTabBarController. GtabBar is another example.
I actually found a way to do it you just have to implement the navigation bar's leftbarbuttonitem instead of the traditional back button. Then I just created a method that is invoked when the back button is pushed this updates the navigation stacks of all four views within the tab bar and sets the tab bar items accordingly to match with the previous views we are navigating back to. . . so long story short...it is possible.
I'm building an iPhone app and I'm sort of confused about which approach should I choose for views and controllers.
I would like to have a tabbar at the bottom with three options. I would also like to have a main view displayed when the app shows (along with the tabbar) but I don't want this view to be part of the tabbar options.
So, when the app begins, the tabbar has no option selected but the main view displayed. When a tabbar options is selected, in its top bar it should display a back button to the main view. When the back button is pressed, the main view display again with no tabbar option selected.
Which approach should I choose?
Hope it makes sense.
Thanks.
I understand what you're trying to do, but you shouldn't do that. I don't like that design at all. You should have one navigation controller for each tab.
You should probably read Apple's Human Interface Guidelines as it's possible they would reject your App if they thought such an implementation with a TabBarController was confusing.
As an alternative, you could possibly have the "main view" as you call it accessible with a button in the Navigation bar at the top and then add that to all three tabs. Not necessarily a better design but you probably wouldn't be breaking the guidelines.
A better alternative might be to use a UIToolBar at the bottom instead of the Tab bar which has the three buttons spawning your views modally which can then be dismissed as you suggest.
Remember though, your App's users have built up a knowledge of how App's are generally supposed to navigate, feel and control so you should think carefully before deciding to go against that.
Firstly, I think you should reconsider giving your Main View it's own tab. That way it's a no-brainer for the user to return to that screen. BUT, if you STILL don't like that idea, read on...
The UITabBarController has the unfortunate side effect of not being able to be removed once created (even if you delay it's creation by instantiating it programmatically).
SO...
Option 1: Make your MainView a modalPresentation sub-view, displaying it ON TOP of one of the views in your tab bar (hiding the tabs until you're ready to show them again).
Option 2: Give a subview of your first tab a...
mySubViewController.hidesBottomBarWhenPushed=YES;
This will make the UITabBarController disappear temporarily (just on that view, until you're ready to show the tabs again).
Both options seem kinda messy to me, but they are possible. Depends on how well you execute them, I suppose.
Hope this helps!
You could add the main view as another tab.
OR
You present the main view modally when the app starts over the tab bar views.
The first option would be used more if the view holds the same kind of content as the tabs, for example if the app was an online store, the tabs would be Categories, Search and Recently Added, with what you call the "main view" being the Home page (showing offers or something). (So all the views/tabs would be showing products on the store)
The second option would be more if the content of the main view is different to the tabs.
Keeping with the online store example, if the tabs were Categories, Search and Recently added and what you call the "main view" being a login/logout screen. (so the tabs would be showing products, but the modal view ("main view") being more admin related, and it's main purpose not being to display products.
I want to create a Tab in the TabBarController but i don't want to show that on the tabBar...i mean it should be there but invisible...
like I have 5 tabs in my tabBarController and I want that my fifth Tab only is invisible...
is this possible??
There's no way to hide an individual tab. You could give it a blank icon, I suppose, but you'd still see the space where the tab is. If you had more than 5 tabs, you could arrange for this invisible tab to be on the More... tab item, so it wouldn't be immediately visible but the user could access it.
If you don't want the user to be able to access it, one has to wonder why you want to include it in the tab bar controller in the first place. Rememeber: when you find yourself fighting against the framework like this, there's usually a much better way to do what you're trying to do.
Not really—the tab-bar controller is pretty specifically implemented so that any view controller it manages can be accessed from the tab-bar UI somehow, be it on the bar itself or in the “More” section. What are you trying to accomplish?
I have a navigation app that has many screens the user navigates to. A handful of views manages these screens dynamically. What I want to try to do is add a button that will always show up on every screen the user views. I need to do this so that the user is always able to preform the action associated with the button regardless of where they are in the app.
Is it possible to achieve this by adding this button only once and having it passed between views like my navigation bar is? Or do I just have to man up and add this button and its functionality to every single view file I have?
Thanks
I would say it probably depends on what the button does. If the button is generic to all views, meaning it affects all views the same exact way so no customization for a given view is needed, then a way to do this would be to include the function in the App Delegate or as a subclass to your Navigation controller.
You can then use the rightBarButtonItem to always show the same button and just access that method. You would just have to add code for the rightBarButtonItem in each viewDidLoad (but they'd all be the same).
I did something similar to this with an "Upgrade" button on one project. Since all the button does is launch the AppStore to the paid version, it's independent of all views and I can place it anywhere.
You can put the button on the navigation bar if you want. Alternately, the more generic way to do this would be to split your single view into two views. One is small and only contains your button but always stays on the screen. The second is your workspace and you swap in and out the views that are displaying the current content. You'll note that this is the way the navigation controls and tab-bar controls work.
The last way to do this would be to put different buttons, in the same place, on each view and have them all trigger the same action. As far as the user is concerned this looks like the same button. Disadvantage here is that you can't alter the button across all views in a simple manner.
I want to show more tahn four tab bar item on tab bar controller by scrolling tab bar . is it possible in iphone if it is.. please give the exact solution.??
Hoping your positive response
The iPhone SDK creates a kind of "favourites" option automatically, so the user can drop their favourite icon to the tabbar..
Maybe you can extend the UITabbar and implement a "scrolling/swiping" mechanism, but I suggest you not to do that. This because swiping on a menu (tabbar) can be really annoying for the end user and they probably drag their "most-use" icons to the tabbar so don't worry about that. My advise: Save your time, and put it into more interesting features for your app instead of spending hours figuring out how to make a scrolling tabbar...
You can also make your own UIView and "duplicate" the tabbar, so it looks like a tabbar but it actually isn't, but again that's a complete different approach...