I'm developing my first app using the latest version of Xcode and the iOS SDK. I'm seeing a number of options, and quick Googling has failed me so far. I have one main screen set up for my app so far (it features a search text field which displays content in another text field), and I'd like to now make a second screen. I can do this in a number of ways, like have a switch where the text field changes to a picker control and such an action changes the behaviour, OR I can just switch to another view entirely. I figure learning the second method will be more beneficial to me in the future, so I'm wondering what I should make to do that. A View? Another storyboard?
Add a view ; a view is equivalent to a page.
Storyboard is a collection of views/pages ; it helps keep views together, & then you can also organize your flows between views/pages 'within' the storyboard easily. Storyboard is like a Java/C++ package, whereas View is like a Class.
You have to add another UIViewController subclass and the XIB, and then #import it and then open it.
[self presentViewController:viewController animated:YES completion:nil];
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I have been using the storyboard to make an application and currently there are many segues and several components. This is causing a ton of lag when I try to do anything inside the storyboard. Is there a way to hide components inside the storyboard? thanks.
+1, For the potentially features to improve Xcode. Now, there is no way you can hide those views (Not that I know). But I would suggest you to,
Hide the debug areas you don't need.
Hide the document outline while working with segues.
Why?
I think in this way whenever you are making changes, system does not have to repaint those unwanted views and long document outline. Probably this will be less laggy(I don't think there is a word like this)!
Work around
Divide your segue into different meta segues and then you can call those segues from your main segue. In that way you don't have to put each connection on one file but you condense it!
And here we go the documentation for it! Now you can get the story board by different file and then initiate with the UIViewController easily. Then you can just use old ways to segue between different ViewControllers.
Apple Documentation for UIStoryboard
Demo App.
In order to achieve this, I have made a quick demo application which will help any future visitors.
https://github.com/Krutarth/LargeStoryboardManagement
Visually something like this,
You can split one huge storyboard into multiple small storyboards.
Select the view controllers that you want to move to a smaller storyboard, then
In the top menu, click Editor -> Refactor to Storyboard
Save the new storyboard with the desired name. XCode will auto generate all the required storyboard links from your large storyboard to this newly created small one.
Just as a disclaimer, I am an iOS beginner, in a pretty unique position. I'm an intern learning on the job, with a hard deadline for a test app, with specific specs. So I unfortunately don't have the luxury of learning all that I should about xCode and objective C.
Anyways, I am trying to create a navigation menu similar to the iPad's slide out menu. I've looked at plenty of sample code given in response to questions like this in the past. It all works perfectly fine, but I can't understand all of what they're doing. I think this results from being fairly bewildered by view controllers and delegates. And, since I'm supposed to be writing this all by myself, I can't just build off of their existing code.
My plan for this working is to have one main view controller, containing the navigation menu in a table view. This is hidden behind a normal UIView, until a button is pressed, at which point the normal UIView slides offscreen enough to reveal the menu. Upon selection of a menu item, the normal UIView would slide back to its original position, and be replaced by the relevant UIView, controlled by its view controller. In other words, clicking on the menu item relating to "Home" would load the homeViewController.xib, controlled by the homeViewController. This would be loaded in that normal UIView subview, on top of the tableView.
I'm able to load a view in that normal UIView as a result of a button press.
homeViewController *_homeViewController = [[homeViewController alloc]initWithNibName:#"homeViewController"];
[self frontView] = _homeViewController.view;
There may be some syntax errors in that code, since its from memory. I'm not able to access the computer with my code on it at the moment, but that's the general gist. Basically, that places the home view nib on the frontView (that normal UIView that's over the table view), but its not connected to homeViewController. Or at least I think that's the issue, when I press a button, that's correctly connected between the nib and the homeViewController.h, and only set to NSLog in the .m file, the application crashes.
Any idea how to connect this nib to its viewController when displayed in this way? Or, to create the nib in IB, without the associated .h and .m files, and use the main view controller as the homeViewController as well? Or, if my logic is inherently flawed, what SHOULD I do? Something with NavigationControllers?
EDIT:
I also tried a new approach- changing homeViewController's file owner to viewController, and connecting the button on homeViewController's action to viewController. This too caused a crash upon pressing the button. I really think the issue is with having multiple view controllers acting on screen at once, or having multiple views from separate nibs, controlled by one view controller on screen at once.
I suspect that your immediate problem is that _homeViewController is being freed as soon as you leave whatever method that code is in. To fix this, create a strong property in this class that holds the _homeViewController for as long as its view is needed and allocate it to that property rather than a local variable. That way, buttons (or whatever) that are part of that view still have a valid controller object backing them.
In the long run, pushing or presenting view controllers when you need the screen to change is a much better strategy but, as I said, the immediate problem.... :)
I am a newbie in all this as will be apparent really soon.
I am using the iOS: Application: Tabbed application template. I have placed a UIImageView in the first view and two standard rounded buttons. One button is attached to an action in the FirstView Controller which places a picture into the UIImageView. The second button is attached to an action in the AppDelegate which calls a method in the FirstViewController which in turn places a second picture into the UIImageView.
The AppDelegate method does not replace the picture. It doesn't crash… it just does not seem to do anything.
How can I manipulate the view in the First and Second View Controller from the AppDelegate?
#dasdom
Well that's one issue explained. I've been reading the theory of MVC and trying to put it into practice now. Short version is I am trying to write a Battleship app for practice. Was planning on using the first screen to setup the game pieces, prefs, etc.. and use the second screen for actual game play.
I've created another class to use as my "brain center" but I ran into the same issue of not being able to manipulate anything on the screen for the first or second views. (That's why I tried the appDelegate).
That's my life story right now… can you throw some pointers my way on how to proceed and how to solve my one of many problems?
First you shouldn't do that. The AppDelegate should only be responsible for bringing the first view onto the screen.
Second you should have a look into the Model-View-Controller design pattern. Search for it in your preferred search machine.
But I you really still want to do that you should have a look into delegation and/or notifications. For example you could send the First View Controller a notification from the AppDelegate to change the image.
I have been learning iOS development for a few days now. At this moment, I have questions over how the rootViewController is to be used. I searched the web for 3 hours yesterday looking for the answer which turned up quite a few results that never really answered my question.
I am trying to learn to program an app using code only (no storyboards/xib files). I currently am trying to understand how to properly switch between views without using the UINavigationController. In my project I have the main delegate which creates the window, initializes my main view controller (which loads the separate view as well) and adds it as the rootViewController.
My first view has a button which calls a function in its controller to switch to my next view. Here is where my question arises: Do I switch the main rootViewController to the next view or do I load the next view as a subview of the rootViewController? Is the rootViewController supposed to encase all the views for an application? (I think this is how the UINavigationController works)
I have gotten switching of the rootViewController to work in my app, but I want to make sure there isn't some other way I am suppose to manage my views.
I would not switch the rootViewController, I think that should remain stable. So you could add it as a subview, or you can present it as a modal view.
And of course, you can just change the rootViewController to point to your new view if that's how you want to do it.
I'm creating an iPad app based on a UINavigationController (with the bar hidden) so I can push and pop other viewControllers for navigation around the app. However, I am now wanting to add a section in which there are two viewControllers that I want to be able to switch between, so in other words they are side-by-side, rather than hierarchical.
Is it okay to use a UITabBarController for this? I am aware that on the iPhone it is recommended they are used only at the root level of the app, but since this is an iPad app I wondered if I could use it? Also, I guess I need to create an empty viewController, create a UITabBarController within it and set the delegate to it, then add the two viewControllers to it... So in effect I will have a viewController within another viewController, and when I have done that in the past the results have been very flaky.
Can I do it this way? The only other way I can think of doing it is to have two plan UIViews within a UIViewController, but that also means I shouldn't really put any business logic in them (bad MVC!), and not being able to will be a right pain in the a**.
Any ideas?
Thanks!
:-Joe
EDIT: I also need to be able to swipe-animate between the two VCs within the TabBarController, AND have a menubar over the top which doesn't animate... Can I do this?
Sure.
I do this kind of thing all over the place in an app I'm working on. I actually have several different types of "toolbars" that can be optionally shown at different times.
What I do is create a "parent" member in my toolbar's class - and when a button is pressed, I have the toolbar call a method in the parent class to do whatever needs to be done - (i.e. display another view).
This avoids the whole mess of creating a view inside another view (or viewcontroller inside another viewcontroller - or whatever) - the toolbar can take the button hits, but all the views are opened by the root view/controller.
Hope this helps/makes sense!