Easy custom UITableView drawing - iphone

All,
I found the code in Matt Gallagher site ( http://cocoawithlove.com/2009/04/easy-custom-uitableview-drawing.html ) for this really neat design for a Table View... Im very new to Cocoa and Im having a hard time figuring out how to wire the darn thing in IB...
I loved the design and wanted to use something similar in a more complex structure... Nav Bar / Tab Bar with a few other views / TableView for the data in the first view... I found lots of tutorials to do that and got it working... When I tried to use that design in my project, things went crazy... in My MainWindow.xib I cant have a UIView where the arrow is pointing...
the nib looks like this:
Tab Bar Controller
Tab Bar
Nav Controller
Navigation Bar
Table View Controller
Table View
---->>>> (UIView for the backgroundImage )
Navigation Item
Tab Bar Item
UIView Controller
Tab Bar item
Window
can anyone guide me in the right direction??
Thanks !!!

It sounds like you're not having issues with the table view as much as the construction of the hierarchy around the table.
Instructions for creating the hierarchy would be as follows. I think you've diverged at around step 9:
Start with new copy of the default iPhone "View" template
Throw away the view controller class.
Open the MainWindow.xib and delete the view controller there too.
Find the controllers in the
Interface Builder library palette (they're
the yellow spheres at the top of the "Cocoa Touch" library in "Objects" mode whose icons contain
other objects).
Drag the tab view controller into
your MainWindow.xib file at the top
level.
Expand the tab view (triangle next to its name in the list view of the xib)
Drag a navigation controller into your expanded tab view (if this works, it should appear as one of the tabs along with the two view controllers that are there by default)
Expand the navigation controller
Drag a view controller (not a table view controller) into the navigation controller. It should appear as the content of the navigation controller.
Select the view controller (single click).
Press Command-4 (or select "Identity Inspector" from the "Tools" menu).
In the "Class Identity" popup menu, select EasyCustomTableController (this assumes that the current xib file is part of an Xcode project and this Xcode project already has EasyCustomTableController added to it).
Add a UIImageView to the view controller's view (this is your background image)
Add a UITableView to the view controller's view (this is your table). Add this view so it is after (and hence on top of) your image view.
There should be a tableView outlet on the view controller. Connect this to the table view.
Connect the app delegate's viewController to the tab bar controller (back in Xcode you can optionally change the type of this property to UITabViewController)
Should work.
The trick is that UITableViewController can't be used if you want the view to contain more than just a table. For this reason, you must use UIViewController and recreate the functionality that the UITableViewController adds. See here for how this is done:
http://cocoawithlove.com/2009/03/recreating-uitableviewcontroller-to.html

Thank you Matt (kind of cool that you answered)!!
I really appreciate the help... I've been messing around with it and got it to work using a UIViewController in another view (being created from the tableview)... Once I had the UITableViewController in the navigation I dropped the imageview & used a gray color; it looks great!! The initial screen has the rows big enough that scrolling is not an issue... I will go back and try to change that now...
I do have to say that IB is by far the most challenging step in app development for a newbie coming into Cocoa Touch !!! Yikes!

Related

Understanding Keynote interface: View Controller > subview nav controller > table view embedded in the nav?

I'm trying to learn new UI techniques in Swift/iOS and I'm wondering if anyone can tell me what they think is happening in this UI from iOS Keynote.
When the "paint" icon is selected at the top of the view controller, it allows the user to change the format of the selected text block. What looks like a table view then slides up from the bottom. And within this table view, clicking a cell behaves like the table view is inside a navigation controller. For example, clicking the "Font" cell seems to do a "show" segue on just the table view, and it shows another table view with a "< Back" style "< Text" bar button item in the upper left of this lower view, just above the "table view". Same thing when scrolling down and clicking "Color" (this seems to segue to a different view controller embedded in a navigation controller that's inside the lower half of the device-sized view controller).
I understand how to implement what we see in the bottom half if it were a full, device-sized view controller, but I've never seen a sample project with a navigation controller that appears as a subview inside of a larger view controller. If this is what I'm seeing, then I'm unsure how to implement it (sorry if I'm missing something obvious in the Interface Builder). Is this what is happening, and if so, how does one achieve this technique? Or if it's something else, what do you suppose is the hierarchy for this UI? Thanks for the advice!

UITabBarController functionality with UITabBar

I'm making an app with interface builder using storyboarding.
I want to have a tab bar where no item is selected. This can be accomplished by setting
TabBar.SelectedItem = null;
But if you try to do that, you get the following error:
'Directly modifying a tab bar managed by a tab bar controller is not allowed.'
So I can't use the standard UITabBarController. I've created a custom UIViewController, and added a UITabBar. Switching between tabs is working fine, and having no selection is also working as it should.
But I have no idea how to show my other view controllers from my custom view controller with the tab bar. Remember that I'm using interfacebuilder, so I can't just create my view controllers in code as new objects and add them to the view. (as suggested in UITabBar funcionality without UITabBarController)
So how do I show my own views without using the UITabBarViewController?
Edit: Still haven't found a solution, but I did a hacky fix. Simple create an other tab bar and place it on top of the original tab bar. Listen to those events and use SelectedIndex to change the view displayed. Then add some function that will select / deselect the items on your own tab bar.
In fact, even if you design your others UIViewControllers from IB, you can instantiate them from code. You'll probably have to play a bit with frame and autoresizing properties to make them fit the part of your main view you want them to display inside, but it's possible.
So, knowing that, a simple solution is to create a simple UIView (we'll call it 'tabFrame') in your main UIViewController, which fill the screen from the top of your UITabBar to the top of the screen; instantiate the UIViewController corresponding to your tabs and add their view as subview of tabFrame. Now you just have to catch item selection from tabbar to hide or show the desired subviews.
Hope I'm clear enough, else don't hesitate to question!
EDIT: pointed out this morning that in storyboarding context, you can effectively instantiate viewControllers / scene from code, but for not loosing designer settings it must NOT be done through directly calling their constructors, but through StoryBoard.InstantiateViewController("vc_identifier") calls, after having set identifiers to VCs in storyboard editor.
See http://docs.xamarin.com/ios/recipes/General/Storyboard/Storyboard_a_TableView for example

Where to write in viewcontroller using UITabBar

I have 4 different viewcontroller and these are connect with 4 tabs in UITabBar. I have to write respected code in each viewcontroller but I noticed the code which is written in each viewcontroller is not loading. Where to write code in each viewcontroller when it is loaded after selecting tabs in uitabbar?
You need to create a view controller file for each view (simply right click on the left where the files are and do New File -> UiViewController).
After that, in the Storyboard, select the view, and in the properties, change from the default view controller to the custom one you have created (this is the third icon on the right panel, under "Custom Class"). The UITabBar should handle switching the views, and your code will make the views run uniquely :)

iPhone make toolbar visible in UITableView

I have a UITableView has a subview of a UIView and I've added a toolbar on top of the UITableView so it should look like this:
However when I actually run it, it looks like this:
So for some reason the UIToolBar isn't showing up. I really don't know why, is anybody able to figure this one out? Thanks in advance.
EDIT: I've changed the simulated metrics like suggested and it still does not show up:
EDIT2: Here is a list of objects as requested by Raixer.
Alright. I have a similar setup in my app so I will show you what I did.
I setup a tab bar controller with navigation controllers in each tab (this gives me the navigation bar automatically that is why I use it). If you notice the View on the first tab is being loaded from another nib (that is what I am assuming you are doing). I did this by changing the view's class to my own view controller and then setting the name of the NIB file to load in the Inspector like this:
(source: minus.com)
Then in my other nib file I only have this:
I hope this helps.
That's because you configured your nib file without counting with the height of the Tab bar.
The toolbar's height is 49 pixels. So when the view appears all your elements are moved 49 pixels up.
You should got to IB, open your View, go to Attributes Inspector, and in simulated metrics select Tab bar for Bottom Bar.
I doubt you will succeed with this approch. UITableViewController is very picky about adding subviews to its UITableView. However, you can have your UITableView handled by a standard UIViewController (just let IB point to a custom class inheritng from UIViewController). Add the table view to the controller's view as a subview and add the toolbar to the outer view.
Then you should be able to add subviews. UITableViewController gives you some convinience and functionality. If you can live without, UIViewController is no disadvantage. If you can't, you'll have to implement it yourself.
Another alternative to get the toolbar: put your table into a UINavigationController. That one comes with a toolbar (on top).

UITabBar functionality without UITabBarController

I have this problem, I've got a navigation-based application, and on the one of the detail view i need to have UITabBar, which will display some UITableViews. Since apple documentation says "you should never add a tab bar controller to a navigation controller" it make quite a problem, i've found this sample: link text, it's working, but after picking one of the table view, the UITabBar disappears.
don't use a tab bar controller, just use a UITabBar inside your controller view and manage the switches between UITableViews yourself, either by:
loading up as many table views as you
need and stacking them (bringing the
one corresponding to the tab bar hit
to front)
switching a single table view's data
source and delegate among a few
helper objects - one per tab in your
bar. When the user clicks a tab, reset the single table view's data source then instruct it to reloadData
Now that you are not using a TabBarController for showing the tableviews (as mentioned in the link), have you made sure that the table views or any other views you are adding when a tab is tapped are correct size?
You are adding a subview or bringing it to top so the table view is probably covering your tab bar.
When they are choosing an item from your table view are you pushing a new view controller onto your navigation controller? If so, you will leave the tab bar behind!
Without some hefty hacking, you generally can't do what you're trying to do. What you'd have to do instead is to deal with adding new views yourself when a table cell is selected so the new views you add don't overlap the tab bar at the bottom. Though this will probably break the navigation controller.
Though my advice is to rethink that part of the app's ui so you don't care that the tab bar vanishes. Sorry :(