My iPhone app has a tab bar controller at the bottom of the view - and at the moment I have three buttons on it. However, I want to add more, but to do so I need to turn the last of the three buttons into a "More..." button, because otherwise the text on the other buttons runs into each other.
I know that if you have over 5 buttons in the tab bar, then it automatically creates a more button - but is there a way to manually invoke this with the editing capabilities?
Thanks.
You do not have to manually create a "More..." button. Simply add all of the View Controllers that you need to the Tab Bar Controller and it will handle the rest.
You can set the last bar button as a "More" button even when there are only three tabs. The initialisation code for that tab bar item would be:
self.tabBarItem = [[UITabBarItem alloc] initWithTabBarSystemItem:UITabBarSystemItemMore tag:0];
Make your names shorter, or don't use a tab bar. You will have five or six view controllers, but only want two will be accessible at any given time? If two thirds of your views will be in the "more" list, why not just display all of them in a list? Then you could reclaim the space at the bottom, and no view would require have extra taps.
If you really want to do this, you should write a replacement for UITabBarController. I looked through UIKit, and even tried swizzling -_viewControllersInTabBar, but the five button limit is assumed in several places in UITabBarController, so you're better off writing your own.
You may have noticed that some iPad applications, like YouTube, have more than five tab bar items:
(source: apple.com)
How can this be, if UITabBarController is so obsessed with having no more than five view controllers? Maybe Apple added some kind of private method to UITabBarController in the 3.2 SDK that could help you. Maybe it's called something like -_setMaximumNumberOfItems: and maybe it sets an NSUInteger instance variable called _maxItems. If Apple did add such a private method, you would still need to wait for an iPhone-compatible version of 3.2 to be released, and even then, using private methods is Bad.
Change your tabs names. Not that big of a deal.
so it is not possible to even make 6 view tab bar application ?
even if the name of each is super short
let's say something like that
red red red red red
instead of yellow yellow yellow yellow yellow
Related
I'm interested if it is possible to modify the default behavior of UITabBar to display only 4 tabs total, with the 4th tab being ... More.
By default, tabbar displays up to 5 tabs with the last one being "... more", if tabbar holds more than 5 controllers. My designer expressed the idea that it may be easier for the user to navigate the app if we leave only 3 major controllers in the tab bar, with all "optional" content hidden in the more list.
Is there a default option or some tweak that I can apply to a UITabBar to change how many tabs it displays at once?
Similar to what Michael Henry suggested you can create the 4th tab as ...More but instead of using a UITableViewController why not re-draw the options at the bottom of the UITabBarController and show the next set of tabs with the first obviously being Previous...
With this methodology you'd likely have to keep track of what state your TabBar is in so that it properly influences which UIViewController is shown upon tapping a tab button on the second page of tabs.
I'm hitting this answer on an iPad or else I'd dump a code example. Sorry.
I am developing app that has multiple skins and I have a dilemma on how to implement this.
One of the solutions would be to have separate nib files for every skin, and load it depending on which skin is currently selected. Problem with this is that I can't edit navigation bar of navigation controller (which my app uses), and I have to change it's background image and back button image etc.. I came up with an idea to hide this navigation bar on every screen and replace it with custom UIView in Interface Builder which will act as navigation bar and custom back button with IBAction for popping current View Controller, so that user won't see any difference.
Is this approach acceptable and if I make it this way, will I have problems with rejection in App Store?
If you choose to hide & replace the UINavigationBar with your own UIView it's no problem as far as Apple goes.
However, I can tell you that you will have to spend some time trying to replicate some visual effects that come naturally with UINavigationBar.
For example, when you push/pop a new controller, you will see that the navigation bar title will slide & fade beautifully. The same applies for left and right bar items.
Personally I would not completely hide the UINavigationBar, but customize it. In the end it all depends on what you want, but by default the UINavigationBar is pretty customizable.
You can add your own buttons or even entire UIViews as left and right bar items. Also, you can add your own UIView as the title (with your own label, custom font or whatever) or change the background.
EDIT:
To easily customize the looks in your entire application, you can subclass UINavigationController and create your own CustomUINavigationController. Then, in viewDidLoad method you can change whatever you want to the navigation bar and this will be accessible in the entire application.
No way, what you are doing is perfect. This will work & no way it will get rejected from app store (just based on this approach). I too have explored several ways to provide skins & what you wrote seemed to be the least hassle-some. Plus its way more easier to create UI elements in Interface Builder hence the separate nib files for different skins.
I am saying this so confidently 'coz I have done the same thing & app store approved.
Best of luck.
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?
What I'd like to do is have 3 or 4 buttons on a UITabBar. All except one of these behave as normal UTabBar buttons - ie they switch between different views. But I'd like one of the tab bar buttons to perform a function - refresh the app's data - without switching views… Is this at all possible?
I suggest you use a tool bar for something like this and simply change the background of the toolbar to make it look similar of that to a tabbar and then add tabbar buttons to the toolbar button.
Although im pretty sure this will be rejected by apple, as the intended purpose for a tabbar is to change views. It has something to do with the apple guidelines about what users expect from certain UI components. and if you start switching around with the main purpose of a UITabBar it will be a confusing place in the apple application world.
PK