Add UITableViewController to other View - objective-c

Is it possible to embed (add as subview) a UITableViewController into another View Controller programmatically? I found a few answers here on StackOverflow but none worked for me with ARC and iOS6 SDK.
I know you can do this easily with Navigation and TabBar controllers but I am more curious about adding tableviews to a regular View controller. I need my tableview to occupy the lower part of the available screen space (I need the rest for other purposes, for which neither tab nor navigation types are suitable).
When I tried to do it, however, it did not work. I instantiated a subclassed UITableViewController, but when I added it to my self.view as a subview, the compiler said I tried to use "incompatible pointer types." Not only that, my instantiated UITableViewController does not have a .frame property, so I cannot set it dimensions, which would be the whole point of this exercise.

Building upon ogres answer, you should add the tableViewController's view as a subview, but it is not everything. The tableViewController is a viewController and it needs to know its parent and its children, to do its viewController-job correctly. I do not know any details here, but there is an entire talk about this from WWDC 2011 called "Implementing UIViewController Containment".
One problem I have experienced when only adding the view as a subview is that target actions don't seem to work. Tapping a UIButton or similar causes either a EXC_BAD_ACCESS or a unrecognized selector sent to instance.
So I recommend that you do something like this:
UIViewController *vc = //Your tableViewController
[self addChildViewController:vc]; //Important
[self.view addSubview:vc.view];
//If you want to set the frame, set the frame of the tableViewController's view
vc.view.frame = ...

yes , you can use tableview in another view without any problems
UITableViewController, but when I added it to my self.view as a subview
are you trying to add viewcontroller as subview or its view ? ( viewcontroller.view )
UITableViewController does not have a .frame property,
of course it does not have .frame property , it is a view CONTROLLER , you should see .view.frame

Related

Change self.view's class type

I have a app out for testing right now that's almost completely done - just a few bug fixes left. Unfortunately, the customer decided that they'd like the entire main page of the app to be inside of a scroll view (so that there's more room for the table at the bottom). I already have everything set up and I don't really want to move everything and change references. Is there an easy way to change the class of the main view to a scroll view? I've already tried changing the class in IB and setting the class type in the init method. If there isn't I'll probably just throw the top section of the view into a nib file and load it as a custom cell.
-EDIT- I ended up changing the class type in IB and then doing
[(UIScrollView *) self.view setScrollEnabled:YES];
[(UIScrollView *) self.view setContentSize:CGSizeMake(0,2000)];
in viewDidLoad. Thanks for the help, wish I could accept all your answers.
When you are referring to [self view], I am going to assume you mean in a view controller. The view of a view controller can be any view that derives from UIView. Thus a scrollview is completely acceptable.
I don't really want to move everything and change references.
what would you have to move? why would you have to change references? Only thing you should need to do is add a scroll view to your view controller, set the view controllers view to it, and add the current view as a subview to the new scroll view. No references need to be changed, nothing has to be moved.
Refer to loadView method in documentation of view controller.
Here is a simple (untested!) example
- (void)loadView {
UIScrollView *scrollView = [[UIScrollView alloc] init] autorelease];
//Set the properties of scrollview appropriately....
self.view = scrollView;
}
Now the root view of your view controller will be a scroll view.
Note
- As the documentation states, do not do this if you are using interface builder to initialize your views/view controller. I could not tell from your description if this was the case or not. If it is, you should be able to change the view type in interface builder.
You need to set the contentSize property of your scrollview.
Since you are using IB, the easiest way to do this is to put all your UI elements into a view and add this single view to your scroll view. In the viewDidLoad method, set the content size of the scrollview to be the same size as the view that contains all your UI.
As an aside, there are much easier ways to reference views than walking down the view hierarchy, as you seem to be doing. viewcontroller.view.something.tableview. Add a connection to the tableview from your view controller in IB and it doesn't matter where that tableview is in the view hierarchy. You'll always be able to reach it from viewcontroller.tableview, no matter how you rearrange your nibs.
I think you have to use a pointer with proper type. Example for Google Maps: let's say you changed you base view's class to GMSMapView.
MapViewController.h
#property GMSMapView *mapView;
MapViewController.m
-(void)awakeFromNib{
[super awakeFromNib];
self.mapView = (GMSMapView*)self.view;
// ... etc.
}

Replacing Storyboard Segue with pushViewController causes strange behaviour

I can't seem to figure this out for the life of me. I have a custom table view cell, in that cell I have a few buttons configured. Each button connects to other view controllers via a storyboard segue. I've recently removed these segues and put a pushViewController method in place. Transition back and forth across the various views works as expected however the destination view controller is not displaying anything! I have some code below as an example.
Buttons have this method set:
[cell.spotButton1 addTarget:self action:#selector(showSpotDetails:) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];
// etc...
[cell.spotButton4 addTarget:self action:#selector(showSpotDetails:) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];
// etc...
showSpotDetails Method contains this code:
- (void)showSpotDetails:(id)sender
{
// determine which button (spot) was selected, then use its tag parameter to determine the spot.
UIButton *selectedButton = (UIButton *)sender;
Spot *spot = (Spot *)[spotsArray_ objectAtIndex:selectedButton.tag];
SpotDetails *spotDetails = [[SpotDetails alloc] init];
[spotDetails setSpotDetailsObject:spot];
[self.navigationController pushViewController:spotDetails animated:YES];
}
The details VC does receive the object data.
- (void)viewDidLoad
{
[super viewDidLoad];
NSLog(#"spotDetailsObject %#", spotDetailsObject_.name);
}
The NSLog method below does output the passed object. Also, everything in the details view controller is as it was. Nothing has changed on the details VC. It just does not render anything ever since I removed the segue and added the pushViewController method. Perhaps I am missing something on the pushViewController method? I never really do things this way, I try to always use segues...
Any suggestions?
Welcome to the real world. Previously, the storyboard was a crutch; you were hiding from yourself the true facts about how view controllers work. Now you are trying to throw away that crutch. Good! But now you must learn to walk. :) The key here is this line:
SpotDetails *spotDetails = [[SpotDetails alloc] init];
SpotDetails is a UIViewController subclass. You are not doing anything here that would cause this UIViewController to have a view. Thus you are ending up a with blank generic view! If you want a UIViewController to have a view, you need to give it a view somehow. For example, you could draw the view in a nib called SpotDetails.xib where the File's Owner is an SpotDetails instance. Or you could construct the view's contents in code in your override of viewDidLoad. The details are in the UIViewController documentation, or, even better, read my book which tells you all about how a view controller gets its view:
http://www.apeth.com/iOSBook/ch19.html
The reason this problem didn't arise before is that you drew the view in the same nib as the view controller (i.e. the storyboard file). But when you alloc-init a SpotDetails, that is not the same instance as the one in the storyboard file, so you don't get that view. Thus, one solution could be to load the storyboard and fetch that SpotDetails instance, the one in the storyboard (by calling instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier:). I explain how to do that here:
http://www.apeth.com/iOSBook/ch19.html#SECsivc

View Controller behaves differently when set as 'initial view controller' vs. loading with presentModalViewController

My app has a map that tracks the user's location. This map will only appear under certain circumstances, and will dominate the user's attention until a particular task is complete, which is why the map isn't part of a navigation or tab bar UI.
If my map VC is set as the initial view controller in storyboard, it works fine. But if I try to load the map VC from elsewhere like this;
MapViewController *mapVC = [[MapViewController alloc] init];
[self presentModalViewController:mapVC animated:YES];
I just get a black screen.
I can confirm with NSLog that the VC is calling viewDidLoad and viewDidAppear, but the 'map' property of the VC is (null). I don't understand why (or how) I need to create the map property manually when using this technique, but it gets done for me when it is the initial VC.
The MapViewController instance in your storyboard is configured with a view hierarchy, including an MKMapView, and whatever else you did to configure that particular instance in the storyboard.
Now in this code which you show here, you are creating a completely new instance of MapViewController. It has no relationship to the instance in the storyboard other than they happen to be of the same class. So the one you create here with [[MapViewController alloc] init] has no view hierarchy (which is why you see a black screen), and none of the outlets or other configuration you may have made to the other MapViewController in your storyboard.
So what you want is to load that MapViewController that you've already set up from the storyboard. Assuming you are doing this from within a method in another view controller loaded from the same storyboard already, you can just do this:
// within some method on another vc from a scene in the same storyboard:
// given an identifier for the map view controller we want to load:
static NSString *mapVCIdentifier = #"SomeAppropriateIdentifier";
NSLog(#"Storyboard: %#",self.storyboard); // make sure this vc(self) was loaded from a storyboard
MapViewController *mapVC = [self.storyboard instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier:mapVCIdentifier];
[self presentModalViewController:mapVC animated:YES];
And then back in the storyboard, just make sure you set the identifier for this map view controller to "SomeAppropriateIdentifier".
Hope that helps.

UIModalPresentationFullScreen not working in iPad landscape mode?

I have added a ViewvController(B) as subview on ViewController(A). In ViewController A(SuperView) UIModelPresentationFullScreen working fine. But when am calling UIModelPresentationFull in ViewController B(SubView) it modelview showing in Portrait mode and that is also not fully viewed. How to solve this problem. Can any one help me please. I have tried 2 days.
This is what I tried in both the superview and subview...
picFBCapture *fbCapt = [[picFBCapture alloc] init];
//[self.navigationController pushViewController:fbCapt animated:YES];
//fbCapt.modalPresentationStyle = UIModalTransitionStyleFlipHorizontal;
fbCapt.modalTransitionStyle = UIModalPresentationFullScreen;
[self presentModalViewController:fbCapt animated:NO];
[fbCapt release];
Thanks in advance..
The problem is that if you add a view controller as a subview it's not connected to the view controller hierarchy and thus certain things doesn't work. You should avoid adding view controllers as subviews whenever possible, since this is not how Apple intend view controllers to be used, but sometimes it can't be avoided.
If this is one of those cases when it can't be avoided you should save a reference to view controller A in view controller B and then call presentModalViewController: on view controller A (that is connected to the view controller hierarchy) instead of self (view controller B, that isn't connected).
EDIT: In controller A you probably have code looking something like:
[self.view addSubview:controllerB.view];
In conjunction to this line add:
controllerB.controllerA = self;
I hope you know how to create properties, but if not here's a hint:
#property (nonatomic, assign) UIViewController *controllerA;
The rest you should be able to figure out using Google and the documentation.
You will have to handle viewController B's view in landscape by yourself. Since viewController B has been added as a subview, its view controller will not be handling its landscape orientation. The UIModalPresentationFullScreen style (landscape and portrait) will work only if viewController B is shown, ie not as subview but as a full view itself.

How do I make a reusable XIB with it's own UIViewController?

I am trying to create a reusable "picker". It is basically like a keypad of a phone. Since I will be using this a lot in my iPhone app, I have been frustrated with trying to make it appear.
It is in its own XIB file and has its own UIViewController subclass as the FileOwner.
However, when I instantiate this with:
MonthPickerViewController *mpvc
= [[MonthPickerViewController alloc] initWithNibName:#"MonthPicker"
bundle:nil];
Nothing happens on the screen. Yet is does fire the -viewWillAppear methods, etc.
So, what am I doing wrong either in code or in InterfaceBuilder that is preventing my view to appear?
Are you pushing the view controller?
[[self navigationController] pushViewController:mpvc animated:YES];
Or are you adding the view controller's view as a subView of your current view?
First, make sure you've hooked everything up right inside Interface Builder. An easy gotcha is to forget to connect the View object up to the view outlet of your UIViewController subclass.
Then, as Adam says, you need to actually display the view. Assuming you're doing this inside the code of another view controller, you'd need something like the following if you just wanted the new view to appear ontop of your current view:
[self.view addSubview:mpvc.view];
Of if you are using a navigation controller to stack views:-
[[self navigationController] pushViewController:mpvc animated:YES];