I am wondering the following:
What is the best way to set up a searchbar that is available in all child view controllers of the navigation controller on the ipad (Hence in the entire application in my case).
A perfect example in which this is done is the IMDB application on the iPad, where each view controller with its presented views shows a search bar in the navigation bar that uses the same datasource.
I found the following post on this topic: Same UISearchBar for entire app?
However,I am not completely satisfied with the answer yet. I would like to know whether it is possible to show it in the navigation bar everywhere using either the function:
[self.navigationItem setTitleView:mySearchBar];
or:
[self.navigationItem setTitleView:mySearchBar];
searchDisplayController.displaysSearchBarInNavigationBar = YES;
at a specific location, hence not in each view controller. I thought of adding the search bar in the prepareforsegue function every time, but there must be a more convenient and nicer way.
Also, if you would suggest to work with container view controllers, how would this work with other navigation items? Can one adjust the size of the view UIsearchbar when more navigation bar items (buttons) are presented for a certain view controller?
Related
I'm trying to add UINavigationItem to my UIViewController as mentioned this answer. However the Navigation bar is not showing in my view. I tried even adding an outlet and setting the title programmatically and also adding the NavigationItem in two different places. Still it doesn't show. This view controller is embedded in a TabBarController. WHat am I missing here?
Thanks is advance.
This view controller is embedded in a TabBarController
But is it embedded, first and foremost, in a UINavigationController? If not, there will be no navigation bar that automatically appears and that automatically uses your view controller's navigation item.
If you don't want to use a UINavigationController (because you have no navigation to do), then you can add a navigation bar manually. But in that case your view controller's navigation item will not be used automatically to populate the navigation bar; you must populate it manually.
Typically, people do use a UINavigationController, even if there is no navigation to do, just to get this automatic behavior - to show the navigation bar and to populate it automatically.
[NOTE: The fact that you have told Interface Builder to show a navigation bar for this view controller, as if it were in a navigation controller, is irrelevant; that won't cause you to get any navigation bar when the app runs.]
It seems like this should be easy to figure out, but I haven't had any luck this afternoon. I threw together this quick, simplified storyboard mockup of my problem.
Basically, I would like the table view controllers below to also be in a tab bar controller (in addition to the already present navigation controller). The tabs would switch between the two table view controllers.
Right now, the view controller with the buttons acts as a sort of menu. Each button leads to one of the table view controllers. Ideally this view controller would not have the tab bar visible, and would only be reachable from back buttons on the nav bars of the table view controllers.
I've tried a few different ways of embedding into a tabbarcontrollers but none of them produce the desired result:
-I've tried selecting both table view controllers and embedding those in a tab view controller. The tabbar doesnt show up in simulator, and the 'unreachable scene' warning appears.
-I've tried embedding the initial nav controller into a tabbarcontroller. This creates a tab entry for the first 'menu' page. It also causes issues with push segues once I connect the tableviews to the tabview.
I would be fine implementing some programmatic options on top of the storyboard, I just chose storyboarding for this project since it's a relatively simple presentation of data.
What is the proper way of going about this? Thanks!
A tab bar controller needs to be the root view controller of your view hierarchy. It goes against the HIG and Apple's standards to put a tab bar controller inside of any other type of container controller.
From the Apple docs:
When deploying a tab bar interface, you must install this view as the
root of your window. Unlike other view controllers, a tab bar
interface should never be installed as a child of another view
controller.
So, the bottom line here is you need to rethink your design. One option would be to set the UITabBarController as the root view of your window, and then have each of your UITableViewControllers inside of a UINavigationController, which is placed inside of the UITabBarController. In this way, you still get the navigation bar, and stay within Apple's design guidelines (you also won't get those pesky warnings, and Apple may even be throwing an exception nowadays if you try to install a UITabBarController as anything other than the root view of the window).
I accept JMStone answer but we might get into situation where we need to put tab bar controller inside other controller especially table view controller.
Please refer Storyboard navigation controller and tab bar controller
and also the good example by Matthjin: http://cl.ly/VQLa
Hopes it help some one who want to put tab bar controller inside table view controller and wants proper navigation.
I'm working on a Universal app, using storyboards, and I've added a UISearchBar and a UISearchDisplayController to one of my table views. I've hooked it all up, and can search fine. The problem is when I push a new view controller onto the navigation stack. On the iPhone, this is fine, but on the iPad, it results in the pushed view controller being offset underneath the navigation bar (I had to manually make the navigation bar reappear so that you could get back).
Then, when you navigate back to the original table view where the search was taking place, the search is still active, but the UISearchBar is now hidden behind the navigation bar, meaning there is no way to dismiss it without deleting the query. It also means that it is not longer usable, since you can't get back in to it.
Probably best illustrated using some screenshots.
Here is how it looks when you first open the tableview:
Then doing the search is fine:
Clicking through to the next screen, we can see the issue:
And then back on the original screen, still doing the search but no search box:
Then, if I delete everything from the search box, and get rid of the overlay, I can see the search box when I scroll the table view up, but can never reach it. I can't get a reliable screen grab of that though.
I've looked everywhere for a solution but haven't been able to find one. I've tried calling [self setNeedsDisplay] and [self setNeedsLayout] in the viewDidAppear method, but that seems to have no effect. It seems to rectify itself if I change the orientation of the device, and I was trying to replicate what it would do in that situation by calling those methods.
The structure of the iPad storyboard is: SplitViewController -> Navigation Controller -> UITabBarController -> UITableViewController (contains UISearchBar etc.f) -> UITableViewController
I submitted this issue to Apple DTS, and they responded:
The structure of the iPad storyboard is: SplitViewController -> Navigation Controller -> UITabBarController -> UITableViewController (contains UISearchBar etc.f) -> UITableViewController
The fact is that your project architecture does not follow our guidelines which are:
From the Combined View Controller Interfaces section of the View Controller Catalog for iOS:
When combining view controllers, however, the order of containment is important; only certain arrangements are valid. The order of containment, from child to parent, is as follows:
Content view controllers, and container view controllers that have flexible bounds (such as the page view controller)
Navigation view controller
Tab bar controller
Split view controller
Basically, you should have a structure as follows:
SplitViewController -> UITabBarController ->Navigation Controller-> UITableViewController (contains UISearchBar etc.f) -> UITableViewController>
I am trying to create a view with a TableView in the center, NavigationBar on top, and a TabBar with 5 items. The TabBarItems will be attached to 5 different modal views. And the tableview can select an item and "navigate" to another tableview or detail view.
Following the Apple doc, I tried to create a NavigationController in a TabBarController in IB, but failed. I read all the posting regarding to this topic, and they all described a NavigationController inside one of the TabBarItem. But that is not what I want. The TabBarController and NavigationController are separate controller doing separate thing in the same view.
So I start wondering maybe it is a design issue. I should just use a NavigationController and add the TabBar as objects and not controller in the view.
Am I going the right track or is there a better way to combine NavigationController and TabBarController in IB to do the job that I want. Am I making sense?
If the tab bar is actually being used as a tab bar, it sounds like you want 5 navigation controllers, one for each tab.
If the tab bar is being used as a toolbar to hold buttons that bring up modal view controllers, push views onto the navigation controller, or other actions besides what a tab bar is intended for, use a UIToolbar instead. UINavigationController actually has toolbar support built in, just set its toolbarHidden property to NO and set the toolbarItems property on each view controller that can go inside the navigation controller to an array of appropriate UIBarButtonItems.
I'm running into a problem with an iPad app where I would like to have UINavigationControllers in both of the views within a UISplitView. I've looked through other similar questions here, but most link to a tutorial online that doesn't completely solve the problem. Here's a 2-minute walkthrough to re-create the problem I'm having:
Create a New Project in XCode, starting from the Split View-based Application template.
Add the following NSLog statement as the first line within the DetailViewController's willHideViewController method:
NSLog(#"toolbar: %#", toolbar);
If you run the application now, the log will show that the DetailViewController's toolbar is alive and well. Now...
Open MainWindow.xib and expand the SplitViewController.
Drag a Navigation Controller from the library on top of the DetailViewController.
Expand the new Navigation Controller and change the class of the UIViewController within to a DetailViewController.
Ctrl-drag from the SplitViewController to the DetailViewController and assign it as the delegate.
Save MainWindow.xib and run the app again.
At this point, the detail view has a navigation bar and an empty toolbar. If you view the logs, you should find that the toolbar is null. Why is this? Am I missing some sort of connection in Interface Builder? Is the navigation bar the problem for some reason?
Unlike the tutorial at http://www.cimgf.com/2010/05/24/fixing-the-uisplitviewcontroller-template/, I would like to keep both the navigation bar and the toolbar (preferably with the toolbar at the top when in portrait and not visible when in landscape), so that I still have a functional "Back" button when the iPad is in portrait orientation.
Does anyone have any suggestions for fixing this problem? An example project with this sort of set-up would be ideal.
You can certainly use a navigation controller on the detail view of a split view controller. In fact, the iPad Settings app uses this approach. Probably the best way to get this setup is to create a new project in Xcode 4.x and select the "Master-Detail Application" template. It will generate a split view controller with 2 navigation controllers, one for the left view and one for the right view.
To your toolbar question, to keep things simple I would put a toolbar in the bottom. You can still put bar button items on the top navigation bar, although you can only put them in the left, middle, or right. If you need lots of items on the top bar, one way is to add a toolbar to the detail view and hide the navigation bar in the viewWillAppear event of the detail view class.
Here is an example on how to hide the navigation bar and show the toolbar:
- (void) viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated {
[super viewWillAppear:animated];
self.navigationController.toolbarHidden = NO;
self.navigationController.navigationBarHidden = YES;
}
I've found the built-in UISplitViewController to behave badly when trying to combine it with most of the other built-in view controller subclasses. Matt Gemmell's MGSplitViewController is a lot more flexible and has worked pretty well for me, despite the odd glitches (though those are at least fixable as the source code is provided).