I started programming with an View-based Application Template. Now, I figured out that I will need more Content Views (I.e. settings pages, statistics page). I don't really want to make a new project in XCode and struggle around with porting my nib file to that new one since it is pretty complex. I would just want to add that Content Views. Or would that be more work than just making a new project and porting everything into it?
It should be pretty easy to add more views to your project. Usually one creates a new nib file containing the new view, and a UIViewController (or a subclass thereof) to go alongside with it.
For modal views you can then use the presentModalViewController:animated: method of your current view-controller to show the new view.
Or use a UITabBar to let the user switch between diffrent views.
Related
I have made a tabbed application using the storyboard, and each tab has its own view controller. Currently, each tab does nothing but display an image, but I need to add some existing code to each view controller that some partners have coded up. I'm very new to xcode and swift, and am wondering how to do this. These were coded without using the storyboard, but mine was exclusively using the story board. Would I just need to copy the viewcontroller.swift onto each one that I have in my skeleton UI?
Thank you for any help.
Would I just need to copy the viewcontroller.swift onto each one that I have in my skeleton UI?
Not just copy it. There are two stages. To illustrate, let’s say that we’re going to have the code for one of your tabs in a view controller called MyViewController1. Then:
You need to declare class MyViewController1. This is usually done in a file MyViewController1.swift (though no law requires that).
You need to tell the storyboard that this view controller is a MyViewController1 (and not merely a plain vanilla UIViewController). You do that in the scene’s view controller’s Identity inspector.
I've been tasked with creating an app, but I have zero experience with iOS development. I have general programming knowledge, particularly with Java, JavaScript and PHP (I'm more a web developer than a programmer). I have dabbled with C, Xcode and various other languages and IDEs in the past, but I remember very little.
I've been following Apple's Developer Library tutorials, and I'm at around the Language stage, where I'm come to a grinding halt. While I slowly progress through learning the basics of Objective-C, there are a few things I'm very confused about regarding development in Xcode that various tutorials seem to completely skip over or just imply that you know what to do, or some just stop right before the part I'm having trouble with.
1) Storyboard - yes or no?
Is it better to start with an empty application and work with the
files or create a template (in my case a tabbed application) and work
with the storyboard?
2) If using a storyboard, do I still need to have a .xib?
Are the User Interfaces more like global templates that the view controllers implement?
If I wanted a different layout for each tab of my app, would I create a .xib for each tab, or just edit the controllers in the storyboard? Am I correct in understanding that the storyboard can have multiple instances/relationships of the same controller, in which case having .xib's would make more sense?
3) If using storyboard, where do the implementation and source files come from?
This is probably a stupid question. I know you can just add them via File -> New, but I don't know how to associate those files with a view controller. Is there a way to have the files created automatically when adding a controller into the storyboard?
Since you're just starting, you should use Storyboards because it lets you link different view controllers(pages on your app, essentially) visually and outside of code. For example, you can link your UITabbedViewController (the part that manages the content of the other tabs) to the pages that represent the content of the different tabs. Basically, your storyboard would have the tabbed view controller in a parent-child relationship with the sub-controllers. You would have one instance of each -- the tabbed view controller, managing an instance of each of the tabs' content and controller. This is the same regardless of Storyboard or xib, but you can connect this more easily in the storyboard.
You can still use a .xib(nib) file for stuff like Custom Table cells or in cases where you want to separate a view element or controller from a storyboard where there are other constraints.
In the storyboard, you subclass the controller class on the sidebar in the visual editor by entering your subclass of say UITabbedViewController in 'Custom Class'. In your file associated with 'MyTabbedController', you implement your stuff.
Great book:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/beginning-ios-6-development-david-mark/1113216077?ean=9781430245124
Good luck!
Storyboards can be appropriate for small applications, where you have ten or twenty screens. When your app contains more than that, you will just get lost in storyboard schema, where all your view controllers will visually look the same.
I prefer not to use storyboard, just separate xib files for each controller.
If you use storyboard, you can create xib files for other parts of application that is not related to SB, and view controllers that is involved in SB has their interface stored in SB, meaning you will have to design them in there, in this one huge storyboard file. I find this very uncomfortable.
As you are new to IB, I would like recommend you to take a look at Auto layout. There is no magic anymore :)
To answer on a point-by-point basis:
I typically use the "Single View" template. It provides everything you need for your first view and can take it from there. It's a clean slate but it already has that first view which will be exactly the same code in 99% of the applications you make.
No, the storyboard file is your xib. You used to have to make a new xib for each new layout, but then Apple introduced storyboards. A storyboard is basically all of your xib's in one file. Rather than make a new xib, drag a new ViewController object onto the document. You typically only have 1 storyboard file or 2 if you want to support both iPhone and iPad layouts.
I don't think you can have it create your source files automatically, but its fairly easy to connect them manually.
Select the ViewController that you want to connect to your source files by clicking on that black bar beneath it. Then go to the bar on the side and go to this panel:
There you enter the name of your custom ViewController subclass where I have put "MyViewController". Hope that helps!
I am new to iOS programming and I am working on a project which will use both XIB files and storyboard.
I have two modules in it basically. First module is made from XIB files which also runs independently. I have made another module using storyboard and I had to integrate these two independently running modules. The screen of my first module which I want to connect to my storyboard is a subclass of UIViewController and I was able to do that with the help of stackoverflow (How to load a storyboard from a XIB file?) by creating an object of UIStoryBoard. Now my application is able to go to the storyboard but I can't come back to my first module which is made up of XIB files.
Please let me know how can I connect to the same instance of the last screen of the first module through which storyboard is called so that I can move back and forth through these views easily. Connecting to the same instance of the XIB file is important because it is a chat screen and when I come back to this screen, I would like to get back to the chat where I had left it and also when I come back to the storyboard (by clicking a button on the chat screen) I have a slider on the screen which should display the value which the user must have chosen when they were on this screen last time. I guess creating a new object should give me a new screen which won't work in this situation. This kind of mechanism works well within storyboard with the use of segue where we can define both source and destination view controller.
Please help me achieve the same in my situation.
Please also check the screen shots of the XIB file and the storyboard which I want connected.
Thanks.
Convert the nib files into storyboard, it will help you easier to manage your application.
Well in your case, what i see is from nibs is that there is a navigation controller in storyboard and also there will be a root view controller navigation controller from xib files.
Well the navigation controller stack has all VCs you pushed into and you can get back it in different ways.
I have created an application successfully and given it a TabBar view controller that is working as i had hoped, but have run into a glitch.
On each xib i load from the tabBar I need to create sub-views that will perform tasks as this interacts with a database (or .. will). I have created my first page and the buttons that will navigate to the views within the XIB, but do not yet nkow how to navigate between views within the XIB itself.
would it be better to have seperate XIB's that load when the buttons are hit?
OR
should i create views within the XIB's for each category and switch between them?
I am still learning and have had some confusion regarding navigation as I already have the TabBar controlling the root of the application. I have been looking for tutorials, but they all seem to start at either navigation controller as the root, TabBar as the root, and nothing like I need for option 1 above.
I can add details of the app if needed, but am looking for guidance for now.
Thank you,
Silver Tiger
To navigate between views the best way is to use a navigation controller pushing/popping separate view controllers, loaded from separate nibs. UINavigationController is a subclass of UIViewController, so you can perfectly put a navigation controller for each tab. You can also use story-boarding in the new xcode 4.2, but I recommend getting comfortable with this before doing so.
I have been struggling a little with my first real iPhone application and wanted to get some advice on how this should be structured. I am looking for some best practices in terms of creating UI components and linking them together to create the application flow (create views/controllers programmatically vs. with Interface Builder, etc...).
Overview:
I need to show a "Login" view on application start up.
--Show "Signup" view if they click the sign up button.
Once logged in... I have a TabBarController loading 4 views. These 4 views will have to load sub-views (master-detail like).
My question is:
1) What is the best way to piece this navigation structure together? Create each view as a .xib with a corresponding ViewController? How are these glued together?
2) How should I handle the Login/Sign up navigation, no TabBar should be shown on start, but will need it after authenticating the user.
Bonus Point) Are there documented best practices for this kind of stuff? I have been hacking together some workable code, but I got very lost and want to start over doing it the correct way.
I know this may be a little confusing, all and any help is much appreciated.
EDIT: For the Login view on top of the tab bar I used this, pretty simple.
LoginViewController *loginViewController = [[LoginViewController alloc] init];
[loginViewController initWithNibName:#"Login" bundle:nil];
[self.tabBarController presentModalViewController:loginViewController animated:YES];
When you create a new tab bar based application in XCode, you are pretty much already set up the way you would like - there's a main XIB that loads views for each tab from separate XIB files. You have one XIB per tab. Note that as you change types or add tabs you need to specify the proper view controller type in both the XIB with the tab bar, and in the XIB that you use to create your view!
As for the login view, a common approach is to use the tab bar as above, but in the app delegate applicationDidFinishLaunching method present a modal view controller that shows the login screen. The modal controller hides the tab bar and everything else until they are done, then it can be dismissed.
1) What is the best way to piece this navigation structure together? Create each view as a .xib with a corresponding ViewController? How are these glued together?
Use UINavigationController and push your custom views onto the navigation stack as needed. Check out the example Navigation Controller application via Xcode's New Project option to get a feel for how this works.
2) How should I handle the Login/Sign up navigation, no TabBar should be shown on start, but will need it after authenticating the user.
Set up a view for login (I would use a UITableView with one section containing two rows for username and password, but that's my own preference). Set up a second, separate view for sign-up fields (again, I would use a UITableView for this, to keep the layout clean and consistent).
Perhaps use a view animation to pop up the tab bar after successful authentication.
Bonus Point) Are there documented best practices for this kind of stuff? I have been hacking together some workable code, but I got very lost and want to start over doing it the correct way.
You'll end up rewriting your project several times — which is a good thing. Do check out Apple's sample applications (available from the iPhone ADC site) as these contain several "best practice" ways of using several of the UIKit components. As to putting together a larger application, keep your design as simple as possible and reuse as much of Apple's UI components as possible. You can always customize later.
In my opinion, only Cocoa programming examples and very simple applications are suitable for a single nib file. Otherwise you should spread your interface components across multiple nibs. This means each nib is smaller and when loaded into memory will only load those components as necessary. This will improve performance in your application and can help logically organize your program and make it easier to debug when issues arise.
In my tabbar apps I use MainWindow.xib to contain the main window and tabbar but I break up each tab into a seperate nib for the reasons above.
Apple offers the following guidelines:
When creating your nib files, try to keep the following guidelines in mind:
Design your nib files with lazy loading in mind. Plan on loading nib files that contain only those objects you need right away.
In the main nib file for a Mac OS X application, consider storing only the application menu bar and an optional application delegate object in the nib file. Avoid including any windows or user-interface elements that will not be used until after the application has launched. Instead, place those resources in separate nib files and load them as needed after launch.
Store repeated user-interface components (such as document windows) in separate nib files.
For a window or menu that is used only occasionally, store it in a separate nib file. By storing it in a separate nib file, you load the resource into memory only if it is actually used.
For more information you can visit:
http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/LoadingResources/CocoaNibs/CocoaNibs.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/10000051i-CH4