Iphone changing to another view [BEGINNER] - iphone

Hi I have a small doubt, I have 3 Nib Files:
ConfigureContacts.xib
CallContactsViewController.xib
MainWindow.xib
When Application starts I do:
[window addSubview:callContactsViewController.view];
[window makeKeyAndVisible];
So that the CallContactsViewController.xib is loaded.
Inside CallContactsViewController.xib there is a button, that when presses jumps to:
-(IBAction)configureContacts:(id)sender
{
configureContacts = [[ConfigureContacts alloc] initWithNibName:#"ConfigureContacts" bundle:nil];
[self.view addSubview:configureContacts.view];
}
The idea is that when the button is pressed it goes to the "next window" which is the other .xib file. Is this the correct way of changing through xibs ? Am I wasting memory here ?
Thanks in advance

is ConfigureContacts a ViewController subclass? (It looks like it is)
if so you would actually do something like this
-(IBAction)configureContacts:(id)sender
{
configureContacts = [[ConfigureContacts alloc] initWithNibName:#"ConfigureContacts" bundle:nil];
[self pushviewController:configureContacts animated:YES];
}
My Guess this is what you want to do.
[self.view addSubview:configureContacts.view] should work as well however it will change only part of the view and keep you on the same 'Window' so to speak.

pushViewController is a method from UINavigationController, which is used for managing hierarchical viewControllers. It sounds like that might be what you're trying to do here, in which case adding a UINavigationController to your code might be the way to go.
Alternatively, you could implement a third UIViewController that owns both CallContrats and ConfigureContacts and is responsible for switching between them.
Check out the sample code from Beginning iPhone Development 3. Specifically, check out the programs "06 View Switcher" and "09 Nav". I think they'll have the code that you're looking for.

Related

Switching view controllers without navigation controller

I'm sure this has been asked countless times, and I've seen similar questions though the answer still eludes me.
I have an application with multiple view controllers and as a good view controller does its own task. However I find myself stuck in that I can't switch from one view controller to another. I've seen many people say "use a navigation controller" but this isn't what I want to use due to the unwanted view elements that are part and parcel to view controller.
I've done the following and have had limited success. The view controller is switched but the view does not load and I get an empty view instead:
- (IBAction)showLogin:(id)sender
{
PPLoginViewController *login = [[PPLoginViewController alloc] initWithNibName:#"PPLoginViewController" bundle:nil];
PPAppDelegate *appDelegate = [UIApplication sharedApplication].delegate;
appDelegate.window.rootViewController = login;
[self.view insertSubview:login.view atIndex:0];
}
Using UINavigationController as a rootViewController is a good tone of creating iOS application.
As i understand unwanted view elements is a navigationBar? You can just hide it manually, setting:
[self.navigationController setNavigationBarHidden:YES];
And about your case, if you want to change you current viewController(targeting iOS 6), you can just present new one:
[self presentViewController:login animated:YES completion:nil];
or add child (Here is nice example to add and remove a child):
[self addChildViewController:login];
Why to set UINavigationController as a root?
1) First of all it makes your application visible viewcontrollers to be well structured. (Especially it is needed on iPhone). You can always get the stack and pop (or move) to any viewController you want.
2) Why I make always make navigation as a root one, because it makes the application more supportable, so to it will cost not so many code changes to add some features to the app.
If you create one (root) viewcontroller with a lot of children, or which presents other viewcontrolls, it will make your code really difficult to support, and make something like gode-object.
Listen to George, UINavigationController is the way to go. Your reasons for not wanting to use it are not valid.
However, the reason your code doesn't work might have to do with the unnecessary line after setting the rootViewController to the login vc.
Per Apple's documentation, setting rootViewController automatically sets the window's view to the view controller's view.

Understanding UIViewController hierarchy

Ok - my brain is being fried at the moment so any help would be appreciated.
I have multiple subclasses of UIViewController in my app. lets call them VC_A, VC_B, VC_C, VC_D.
The users interacts by touching buttons on each of the views.
So my AppDelegate adds in VC_A:
//Add the view controller's view to the window and display.
[self.window addSubview:viewController.view];
[self.window makeKeyAndVisible];
VC_A then loads VC_B by using presentModalViewController:
VC_B *tempView = [[VC_B alloc] initWithNibName:#"temploadingscreen" bundle:nil];
[self presentModalViewController:tempView animated:NO];
[tempView release];
and so until I get a hierarchy of
VC_A
- VC_B
- VC_C
- VC_D
but then when I call presentModalViewController on VC_D to take me to VC_C I want it to be a new instance of VC_C and not the original instance.
So my question is how to you go about doing this - do I need to use [self dismissModalViewControllerAnimated:NO]; to remove the old instances of the views.
Any help would be gratefully appreciated as I have done searches for this but all the tutorials and stuff use a navbar to control the navigation - and i cant use one because of the type of app. Any working code examples of properly moving between new instances of UIViewControllers would be great.
Just create a new instance with
ViewController_C *newVC_C = [[ViewController_C alloc] init]
[self presentModalViewController:newVC_C animated:NO];
[newVC_C release];
I decided to do this a different way which works perfectly for what I need.
What I did was I created the base ViewController with nothing in the xib and in the viewDidAppear method I called the other viewControllers (using presentModalViewController) based on the value of a global NSNumber.
Thus when I go to any of the other viewcontrollers rather than them call another viewController they simply set the global variable indicating which view to load and then close the current view (using dismissModalViewController).
This way each instance of the viewControllers are closed and the memory released.
I have created an example project and placed it on github https://github.com/sregorcinimod/Open
Just look in the Downloads you'll see it there

Help Menu iPhone

I have a design question/technical question about my iPhone app.
I have a pretty simple (read really really simple) single view application. And it does everything that I need it to do. However I find myself in need of a help view. And I really don't quite know what to do!
I have a simple helpButton() method in my main view controller, and I really just want to display a scrollview with a bunch of images that show what to do during the use of my app. However, should I make a new viewcontroller class? How do I call it from my method?
Really I was thinking of an unfortunately simple method, just putting a scrollview behind everything and hiding it. Then showing it when the IBAction is called. Horrible...
Sorry if this is elementary, I haven't needed to do anything more yet!
You can push a modalViewController. To do that just make a new viewController with the scrollview and associated data in it, then
MyViewController *myViewController = [[MyViewController alloc] init];
[self presentModalViewController:myViewController animated:YES];
Create an IBAction in your new viewController and a hooked up button to that action to dismiss the modalView (something like this:
IBAction done {
[self dismissModalViewControllerAnimated:YES];
}
A couple options:
1) Create a new UIView object, either programmatically, or even in your existing XIB file. Use the [self.view addSubview:view] method to display it.
2) Create a new UIViewController with its own XIB file. Use [self presentModalViewController:anaimated:] to display it.
Either way, you'll need to add something to the new view to dismiss it when you're done.

xCode - Changing views between 2 existing xib-files

I'm very new to xCode and objective-C so I wanted to make a simple textRPG.
I'm currently making a character creation process consisting of 4 xib-files. The only way I got switching views to work was to look at the utility-template. Problem is, now I have the first screen being the delegate for the second screen, being the delegate for the third screen etc. So by the end of the character creation process I can't dismiss the views because that just "steps back" through the views.
When I've searched around for a solution I've found a addSubview-method but it seems like that makes a new view, like, empty to arrange programmatically.
All I need is a simple way to switch from one loaded xib to another xib. Have I misunderstood addSubview or do I need something completely different?
(If it helps: I've worked with VB for several years, in case you notice that I missed some kind of concept concerning views and such)
Thanks in advance! :)
Use this code. It is really simple and works well.
View *view = [[View alloc] initWithNibName:#"xibNameGoesHere" bundle:nil];
view.modalTransitionStyle = UIModalTransitionStyleFlipHorizontal;
[self presentViewController:view animated:YES completion:nil];
This will switch to another xib file and the two views won't own one another. I am using it in my own game right now.
#Joakim Ok, this is the way I do it. I have a class called RootViewController : UIViewContoller, whose view I add directly to the window. Then I make a subclass of UIView i.e. MyView. All of my views then subclass MyView. I also make an enum for all my views. In RootViewController you should have a switchView:(int)view method that looks something like this:
-(void) switchView:(myView) view
{
[_currentView removeFromSuperview];
switch(view)
{
case titleView:
_currentView = [[TitleView alloc] initWithRoot:self];
break;
case homeView:
_currentView = [[HomeView alloc] initWithRoot:self];
break;
default: break;
}
[self.view addSubview:_currentView];
[_currentView release];
}
in #interface RootViewContoller define MyView *_currentView;
TitleView and HomeView both subclass MyView and have a common method -(id)initWithRoot:(RootViewController*) rvc.
To switch between views use [_rvc switchView:homeView];
Hope this helps :)
It is called UINavigationController. Idea is
1) You push corresponding 'next' controller into navigation controller each time user submits current screen. Bonus - you'll get 'back' button for free on each step of character creation.
2) After character is created you pop all character creation controllers from stack.
Please read View Controller Programming Guide for iOS before trying to 'switch views' and such. You'll save tons of time and nerves.
another idea is not to use interface builder at all. i have been working with iphone apps for two years now and found that interface builder really prolongs the time to actually make something. make your own root controller and think about the logic you need to navigate through the views.

Multiple view controllers with their own xibs, and when they load

Going through many tutorials and with the help of everyone here, I am trying to wrap my head around using multi view controllers with their own xib files.
I have one example where there is a : multiViewController and two others: aboutViewController, rulesViewController.
In both aboutViewController.m and rulesViewController.m files, I have placed the following code:
- (void)viewDidLoad {
NSLog(#"rules View did load"); // (Or About View did load, depending on the .m file)
[super viewDidLoad];
}
The mainViewController.m file contains:
-(IBAction) loadRules:(id) sender {
[self clearView];
[self.view insertSubview:rulesViewController.view atIndex:0];
}
-(IBAction) loadAbout:(id) sender {
[self clearView];
[self.view insertSubview:aboutViewController.view atIndex:0];
}
My question is, why is it when I run the application does the ViewDidLoad for both About and Rules fire? Meaning, I get the NSLog messages. Does this mean that regardless of the separate xib files, all views are loaded on start up?
My point of all this is: I want the multiViewController to be my main menu which will have separate buttons for displaying the other xib files when clicked. I had been placing my "initalize" code in the viewDidLoad but this seems wrong now as I don't want to hit until the users presses the button to display that view.
An example was to have a view that is: playGameViewController. In the viewDidLoad I was checking to see if a prior game was in progress and if so, prompt the user if they would like to resume. In the above case, when the app starts, it prompts right away (because the viewDidLoad is firing) even though I only wanted to display the main menu first.
Any explanation is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Geo...
My question is, why is it when I run
the application does the ViewDidLoad
for both About and Rules fire?
Meaning, I get the NSLog messages.
Does this mean that regardless of the
separate xib files, all views are
loaded on start up?
When you call
[self.view insertSubview:rulesViewController.view atIndex:0];
it's going to first call viewDidLoad for the initial view and then viewDidLoad once again for RulesViewController.
When your MainViewController, or any view for that matter loads, viewDidLoad is called automatically. ViewDidLoad is there in order for you to override or modify any objects in the nib, or you can create objects yourself. Views are only loaded on an as needed basis. If you were to load all your views initially when the app boots up, the user would just see a black screen until all the views are processed.
You say you are going through some tutorials, I don't know your area of expertise yet, but have you looked into navigation based apps using UINavigationController?
Just an example as your request if you want to have a button load a view you can do something like.
- (IBAction)pushSecondView:(id)sender {
SecondViewController *secondView = [[SecondViewController alloc] initWithNibName:#"SecondViewController" bundle:nil];
if (secondView != nil) {
secondView.title = #"Second View";
[self.navigationController pushViewController: secondView animated: YES];
}
}