I was trying to work on a layer-hosting View in Objective-C as per the documentation
view.layer = [CALayer new]; // Create a layer-hosting view as opposed to a layer-backed view
view.wantsLayer = YES;
I go on to use this layer-hosting view to support a hierarchy of layers by appending further layers using addSubLayer.
Now my query is whether it's possible to view these children/hosted CALayers in the Debug View Hierarchy? I only see the NSViews but not the hosted layers. I was seeking something akin to what's available in Visual Studio as the Live Visual Tree where it shows both the platform views and the Visual layers.
XCode Version: 11.3
Yes you can, when in the Debug View Hierarchy, click on Editor -> Show Layers, like so:
This feature was made possible from Xcode 11.4 onwards: https://twitter.com/hrrsn/status/1225168226507612161
So unfortunately you will need to upgrade your Xcode 11.3.
Related
I'm trying to display a Sprite Kit View inside my app's window (not taking up the full screen)
For that i used the SKView element available in the Xcode library
My Storyboard
Xcode allowed me to select a scene available in the project, i selected the scene, at that won't display
Selected Scene
I ended up making an #property with the scene linked in my Main ViewController and then loaded the scene from there and used the presentView function, but it will still not display
ViewController.h/.m
I also made sure Core Animation Layer was enabled for my view but that did nothing too.
I'm sure i'm missing very important steps into making it work and display, but since i'm on it for hours and won't progress at all, i wanted to know if you guys could help me, Thanks!
Since I've learned Objective C I've only used the SpriteKit project template. I've had a tiny bit of exposure to iOS development and I'm looking to use AppKit elements (buttons, etc) in an OS X SpriteKit project for menu creation, overlays or having more flexibility in terms of placing items on the screen. Is this possible and if so, how? Would it be something along the lines of layering views (NSView overtop of an SKView) or something like that?
It's basically the same as iOS. You can use NSWindowController and NSViewController to hold an SKView and place elements above the view.
In my case I actually just ended up using Sprite Kit for all of the UI because I didn't want to have to mange two separate interfaces.
I recommend that you don't use the Sprite Kit template but instead use the default Cocoa App Template because it uses newer interface technologies that will make designing your interface easier and more similar to iOS.
I'm trying to create a view hierarchy similar to what you'd expect in a media playback viewer like the QuickTime Player:
+ Host View
+ Video Controls (NSView layer-backed)
+ Video View (NSView layer-hosted)
+ AVPlayerLayer
Since layer-hosted views cannot contain subviews, the video controls view is a sibling of the video view and simply ordered-front so that it's on top of the video view.
This current view hierarchy appears to be working fine for me, but I remain a bit confused over whether it's officially "supported" because of the overlapping, sibling views (the video controls view always overlaps the video view).
This Stack Overflow question: Is there a proper way to handle overlapping NSView siblings? offers conflicting information regarding overlapping sibling views.
I would assume the more 'correct' way to handle this is for the video controls to be a subview of the video view, which is only possible of I change the video view from being a layer-hosted view to a layer-backed view.
By default a layer-backed view uses a basic CALayer as its backing store, but NSView exposes makeBackingLayer to allow you to return a custom layer such as an AVPlayerLayer.
By doing that, and moving the controls view to be a subview of this layer-backed video view, things also appear to work properly but now there's an AVPlayer object that is directly modifying the contents of the AVPlayerLayer. That seems to be contrary to the requirement that in a layer-backed view, you should never modify the contents of the layer without going through the NSView using something like drawRect or updateLayer.
This seems to leave me with two choices, neither of which appears 'correct' based on my interpretation of the document:
Option 1:
Layer-hosted view for the AVPlayerLayer
Overlapping sibling view for the controls view.
Option 2:
Layer-back view with an AVPlayerLayer via makeBackingLayer
AVPlayer that directly modifies the contents of the AVPlayerLayer
Controls view as a subview of the video view
I'm inclined to think that option #2 is the more correct way and that in this scenario, it's OK for the AVPlayer to directly modify the contents of the AVPlayerLayer even though it's in a layer-backed view, but I'm not certain and would be curious if others have any thoughts or experiences with a setup like this.
Apple has some old (ancient in computer terms, 2007!) code that doesn't even compile in Xcode 6 without some tweaks. It shows some controls that are overlaying a QuickTime movie layer. Download it here: https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/samplecode/CoreAnimationQuickTimeLayer/Introduction/Intro.html .
It's hard to say that just because they provided source code that it's considered a best practice, but I would suggest you just build it the way you think is best. This is not one of those areas so heavily developed on that a best practice is likely to exist. For me personally it makes the most sense to use overlapping sibling views as to ensure that you don't mess with the video rendering. Whether that's the right way or not is probably somewhat subjective. You can maybe access one of the old quicktime developers mailing lists or even ask on the Apple developer forums. At the end of the day though you should probably just stick with the method that makes the most sense to you since you're likely to be the one to maintain or build upon it in the future.
I am trying to build a custom segue for an iOS app that utilizes images on the top and bottom of the screen (like a header and footer) that will slide up/down (out), transition to the next page, then slide back in. I found a simple tutorial that does the animation that I would like to use, but I am stuck trying to implement it into a segue.
Is this possible? If so, how? I have barely found any documentation on what I would like to do, and I am royally stuck!
Thanks in advance.
Animation tutorial: http://www.raywenderlich.com/2454/how-to-use-uiview-animation-tutorial
iOS 7
What you're asking about is possible with new APIs. However, iOS 7 is currently under NDA. Please avoid asking iOS 7 related questions on Stack Overflow until the SDK, Toolchain, and OS go final. Ask this question on the iOS Developer Forums. When iOS 7 becomes public, I'll edit this answer to describe how to do it.
Meanwhile (since you're a registered developer), I can point you to a few resources that may be of interest (you may need to sign in to access them).
WWDC Videos
The video titled Building User Interfaces for iOS 7 introduces the new Segue animations and techniques. The part of interest is around the 18:30 minute mark.
The video titled Custom Transitions using View Controllers goes in depth to explain the new custom animated segues and how to use them.
Creating Custom Segues - Pre-release documentation
Posts about Segue's on the Dev Forums - Just search the Developer Forums
iOS 5 - 6
Creating custom segues in earlier versions of iOS (5.0 and up) is fairly straightforward, unlike iOS 7 - the animations can't really interact with views within your ViewController and they aren't as dynamic.
To setup a custom segue, you'll need to first create a subclass of uistoryboardsegue (Documentation Here). Override the perform method and add your own animation and drawing code:
- (void)perform {
//Add your own animation code here, then present the View Controller using that custom animation
[[self sourceViewController] presentModalViewController:[self destinationViewController] animated:NO];
}
Now that you've subclassed UIStoryboardSegue and created your own animation, you'll need to connect the segue in Interface Builder.
Create the Segue by Control-Dragging from the source view controller to the destination view controller.
Select custom from the list
Name the Segue by setting its Identifier (this way you can also call the segue using the performSegueWithIdentifier:sender:) method. Then set the Segue Class to the name of your UIStoryboardSegue subclass.
I am starting to develop an iPad app I have a couple of questions:
For UISplitViewController, how do I change the detail view controller (the one on the right with the controller on the left hand side)? Or do I need to have a Navigation Controller and continuously push view controllers?.
I have a UITableViewCell that's designed for landscape mode. Do I have to setup a separate one for portrait mode?
Is there a way I can zoom out in Interface builder so I can see the entire iPad layout (I am using XCode 4.0.2)
Thanks!
1. You can change the two controllers by changing the viewControllers property of your UISplitViewController. If you want to keep the one on the left, you could do
[splitVC setViewControllers:[NSArray arrayWithObjects:[splitVC.viewControllers objectAtIndex:0], myNewViewController, nil]];
Though I believe that won't animate the transition. For this, you could use a classical view controller as your right-hand view, and do the transitions inside of it.
2. No need to do a separate design if you've set your subviews’ AutoresizingMasks appropriately. See the documentations on this, it's quite handy for this kind of situation.
3. Dunno, I have a huge monitor, I'll leave this one to others :p