Lets say that I have 4 view controllers (call them FirstView,SecondView,ThirdView,FourthView) which are created programmatically and all are in separate files:
In AppDelegate.m didFinishLaunchingWithOptions method I have these lines of code
self.rootViewController = [[rootViewController alloc]initWithNibName:#"rootViewController" bundle:nil];
self.window.rootViewController = self.rootViewController;
In rootViewController.m loadview method I have
self.view = [[UIView alloc]initWithFrame:[UIScreen mainScreen].applicationFrame];
self.firstView = [[FirstView alloc]init];
[self.view addSubview:self.firstView.view];
That code works fine - first view is displayed.
Let's continue
In FirstView.m switchViews method
NOTE: Please see the comments in code
self.secondView = [[SecondView alloc] initWithNibName:#"SecondView" bundle:nil];
// I think here secondView is added to rootViewController - right ?
[self.view.superview addSubview:self.secondView.view];
// Here first view is removed from rootViewController - right ?
[self.view removeFromSuperview];
Here is how I add/remove views.
Is this approach correct?
Can you recommend a better solution?
I have read about UINavigationController, but I don't think it could be a solution in this case.
You say:
I have 4 views (call them FirstView ...
Then you say:
[self.view addSubview:self.firstView.view];
Which makes me think that FirstView isn't actually a UIView - as you claim it is. Instead, it's probably a UIViewController - a different beast altogether.
If my suspicion is correct - then you are "off-track" so to speak.
Going beyond that to your sample code snippet:
self.secondView = [[SecondView alloc] initWithNibName:#"SecondView" bundle:nil];
// I think here secondView is added to rootViewController - right ?
[self.view.superview addSubview:self.secondView.view];
// Here first view is removed from rootViewController - right ?
[self.view removeFromSuperview];
This is definitely not a great idea. Here's why:
First: your view controller doesn't explicitly "know" anything about the superview you are so casually inserting and removing subviews to/from - so it shouldn't do that. You may, alternatively, create your own view and insert/remove subviews from that - which would not only be perfectly acceptable but also common practice.
Second: if these are actually UIViewControllers like I think they are - then you are not properly handling hooking them up to the UIViewController event chain - which means methods on these subclasses like viewDidAppear: or viewDidUnload will not fire.
From what I see in your code, UINavigationController seems like it would help. If you don't want a navigation bar, you can definitely hide it, but the methods in UINavigationController should help you with switching views.
If your views only need to display temporarily, you could also use Modal View controllers. An example of Modal View controllers can be found here.
If you haven't already, check out the View Controller Programming Guide from Apple.
Related
I make a program that shows a table.
If people click the search I will add another view covering the original view. The original view is [BNUtilitiesQuick listnewcontroller];
[[BNUtilitiesQuick window] addSubview:[BNUtilitiesQuick searchController].view];
[[BNUtilitiesQuick searchController] viewWillAppear:YES] is indeed called. So it seems that UIView has a pointer to it's controller
However, the view that the [[BNUtilitiesQuick listnewcontroller] viewWillDisappear] is not called
Moreover, [[BNUtilitiesQuick listnewcontroller] viewWillAppear] is also not called even when the user has finished modifying search term with this code:
[self.view removeFromSuperview];
I think I may be missing something here. What exactly should I do anyway so IOs knows that the searchController.view will be covering listNewController?
This is NOT the right way to do it. If the searchController is a full screen controller you should present it modally using presentViewController or push it onto the navigation stack as #StuR suggested.
In case your search view covers only part of the listnewcontroller you should use the containment API in iOS5.
Inside listnewcontroller (parent view controller) you would write:
[self addChildViewController:self.searchController];
[self.view addSubview:self.searchController.view];
[self.searchController didMoveToParentViewController:self];
For more in-depth information check out the WWDC 2011 session video "Implementing UIViewController Containment". Also watch "The Evolution of View Controllers on iOS" from 2012 because there are some changes and deprecations in iOS6.
ViewController *viewController = [[ViewController alloc] init];
[self.navigationController pushViewController:viewController animated:YES];
I'd consider using pushViewController for adding a full screen view. addSubview is for views that don't cover the entire screen.
viewWillDisappear and viewWillAppear will only me called if you pop or push the given viewController. You are simple adding a subview with it's own viewController inside(on top) of the present viewController. As StuR said, if you want to dismiss the current ViewController you should use:
BNUtilitiesQuick *searchController = [BNUtilitiesQuick alloc] init];
[self.navigationController pushViewController:searchController animated:YES];
You can read more about ViewControllers here: http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#featuredarticles/ViewControllerPGforiPhoneOS/Introduction/Introduction.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40007457
I'm still very new to iOS developing. In fact, if there is a super noob, I would be one :p. Currently I am working on creating an IBAction button that accesses a subview. I have 2 ViewControllers, AddClientVC and NewClientVC, both with .nib files. So basically, inside my AddClientVC I implement an IBAction button with the following code:
- (IBAction)buttonPressed:(id)sender
{
UIView *transparentBG = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(-5, -5, 1500, 2500)];
transparentBG.backgroundColor = [UIColor blackColor];
transparentBG.opaque = NO;
transparentBG.alpha = 0.5;
[self.view addSubview:transparentBG];
transparentBG.center = transparentBG.center;
vc = [[NewClientVC alloc] initWithNibName:#"NewClientVC" bundle:nil];
[self.view addSubview:vc.view];
vc.view.center = self.view.center;
}
As you can see I implemented a UIView as a transparent background. Basically AddClientVC --> Transparent Background --> NewClientVC. Now I have created another IBAction button but this time inside NewClientVC as a function to dismiss the accessed subview which looks like this:
- (IBAction)saveDismiss:(id)sender
{
[self.view removeFromSuperview];
}
The problem I'm having right now is when I click the saveDismiss button it only removes the subview that I called previously on AddClientVC but it didn't remove the transparent background I have created as a UIView. So the problem is how do I implement an action which simultaneously removes my subview and the UIView transparent background I created.
I need all the help I can get :)
I'm not too sure I fully understand what you want to happen, but maybe you could try something like this?
- (IBAction)saveDismiss:(id)sender
{
[vc removeFromSuperView];
[self.view removeFromSuperview];
}
I recommend not to manage your screens by adding subviews manually but instead use
- (void)presentModalViewController: (UIViewController *)modalViewController
animated: (BOOL)animated
method on your root viewController.
Or better instantiate a UINavigationController and use push and pop methods to drill down/up your views.
See apple reference here
Do not worry about code execution speed and stay confident in apple's SDK. UIKit is optimized for best user experience. Trying to boost your code by doing inappropriate SDK use is, in my opinion, a risky strategy. ;) – Vincent Zgueb
Sorry Vincent but I don't agree with you. I reached here because I want to implement an gesture that adds a sub-view for my view, which will be the navigation of my app.
[self.view addSubview:ctrl.view];
is faster presenting the view than
[self.navigationController presentModalViewController:ctrl animated:NO]
and by the way, the solution to the topic in my case was:
[self.view sendSubviewToBack:ctrl.view];
Imagine that we have multiview apllication which is controlled by Navigation Controller. We go from the first view to second by using pushViewController method and that's not a problem but then we need to move to the third view. And the third one is a view which looks like a TabBar. How do we do that? The third view is supposed to be controlled by TabBarController, isn't it?
So how to pass the control? I declared an outlet UITabBarController * tbc and connected it to TabBarController in xib file and then i tried this in viewDidLoad:
tbc = [[UITabBarController alloc]init];
and it shows nothing.
Your help is highly appreciated
It's a bit wierd. Its more standard to have a tabBarController that switches views and some of those views may be navigation controllers. But ...
Create the UITabBarController and push it.
NSMutableArray *viewControllers = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
// create someView
[viewControllers addObject:someView];
// create someView2
[viewControllers addObject:someView2];
UITabBarController *tabController = [[UITabBarController alloc] init];
[tabController setViewControllers:viewControllers];
[[self navigationController] pushViewController:tabController animated:YES];
Then, from the tabBarContoller view, based on some action, you can choose to pop it:
[self.navigationController popViewControllerAnimated: NO];
You can wire it up in the storyboard editor in the latest version of Xcode.
However, since this is very much non-standard use of the controls, you would need a very good reason as to why you would want a UI like this.
And even then, Apple's review process might turn your app down if the interface is clunky.
Just because I am unable to find a secure way (in a sense that it can be rejected by Apple guys) to customize UITabbar, in particular UITabBarItem I am trying some workaround.
I have a main view on which I recreate a kind of UITabBar, a normal view with two buttons inside. This is (roughly) the current hierarchy:
-MainView
--placeholder(UIView)
--fakeTab (UIView)
What I want to do is, after tapping a button in fakeTab, build a UINavigationController and add it to "placeholder" view so that the fakeTab remain on top and the whole navigation happens on the placeholder level.
I already tried with this piece of code in the method that it's intercepting tap button, and it works, I can see the ipvc.view added to placeholder.
IPPlantsViewController *ipvc = [[IPPlantsViewController alloc] initWithNibName:#"IPPlantsView" bundle:[NSBundle mainBundle]];
UINavigationController *nav = [[UINavigationController alloc] initWithRootViewController:ipvc];
UIView *placeholder = [self.view viewWithTag:200];
[placeholder addSubview:ipvc.view];
But later when I call from inside ipvc, then nothing happens:
IPAttributes *ipas = [[IPFactory findPlantByIndex:indexPath.row] attrs];
[self.navigationController pushViewController:ipa animated:YES];
I find the solution myself. What I was doing wrong is to attach the ipvc controller view to placeholder. Instead of doing this:
[placeholder addSubview:nav.view];
and everything works as expected, with my fake tabbar fully customized :-)
But, as a side note, the viewWillAppear seems to be never called.
It would be interesting to know why. I partially solved by making IPPlantsViewController the delegate of the UINavigationController.
I am trying to work my way through basic iPhone programming and I have a good basic understanding of how Interface Builder works, so I decided to try my hand at doing the views programmatically. I have gone through the ViewController Apple guide and searched everywhere and I cannot seem to find a solution to my problem. This leads me to believe it is a very simple solution, but I am just really banging my head against the wall. Basically all I am trying to do is create a view that gets main window as a subview. I know that if self.view is not defined then the loadView method is supposed to be called, and everything is supposed to be set up there. Here is the current state of my code:
The delegate:
- (void)applicationDidFinishLaunching:(UIApplication *)application {
StartMenuViewController *aViewController = [[StartMenuViewController alloc] init];
self.myViewController = aViewController;
[aViewController release];
UIView *controllersView = [myViewController view];
window = [[UIWindow alloc] initWithFrame:[UIScreen mainScreen].bounds];
[window setBackgroundColor:[UIColor redColor]];
[window addSubview:controllersView];
[window makeKeyAndVisible];
}
The view controller:
- (id)init {
if (self = [super init]) {
self.title = #"Start Menu";
}
return self;
}
// Implement loadView to create a view hierarchy programmatically, without using a nib.
- (void)loadView {
UIView *startView = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:[UIScreen mainScreen].applicationFrame];
[startView setAutoresizingMask:UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleHeight|UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleWidth];
[startView setBackgroundColor:[UIColor greenColor]];
self.view = startView;
[startView release];
}
Thanks for the help in advance!
Are you sure that you're inheriting from UIViewController and not overriding the implementation of - (UIView*)view?
EDIT: More info:
UIViewController has a special implementation of the "-(UIView*) view" message so that when it's called, the loadView method is called if the view member variable is not set. So, if you provide an implementation of "- (id)view" in your subclass, (or a property named view) it will break the auto-calling of "- loadView".
Just to document a "loadView is not called" case:
I wrote a 2 UITableViewController(s) to handle detail data for a master ViewController. Since the devil was in #2, I made a simple UITableViewController for #1, and referenced it in the XIB for the "master" ViewController.
When I was done with #2, I could simply copy the code to #1, remove the complicated code, and go on with life.
But to my dismay and several days work, no matter what I did, viewLoad was not being called for my simple #1 UITableViewController.
Today I finally realised that I was referencing the UITableViewController in the XIB to the master ViewController program. - and of course, loadView was never being called.
Just to help some other dork that makes the same mistake....
Best Regards,
Charles
viewDidLoad only if the view is unarchived from a nib, method is invoked after view is set.
loadView only invoked when the view proberty is nil. use when creating views programmatically. default: create a UIView object with no subviews.
(void)loadView {
UIView *view = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:[UIScreen
mainScreen].applicationFrame];
[view setBackgroundColor:_color];
self.view = view;
[view release];
}
By implementing the loadView method, you hook into the default memory management behavior. If memory is low, a view controller may receive the didReceiveMemoryWarning message. The default implementation checks to see if the view is in use. If its view is not in the view hierarchy and the view controller implements the loadView method, its view is released. Later when the view is needed, the loadView method is invoked
again to create the view.
I would strongly recommend you use interface builder for at least your initial Window/View.
If you create a new project in XCode you should be able to select from one of many pre-defined iPhone templates that come with everything setup.
Unless I am reading this wrong, you did not associate any view with the the controller's view property like this
myViewController.view = controllersView;
So as far as Cocoa is concerned the view you are setting in the window has no controller to call loadView on. loadView is a View controller, not view, method. The view you assign to the window is not associated with any view controller. So your view controller loadView method is never called. Get it? The view you are trying to display, has no view controller associated with it.
When you use interface builder to create views you can link the UIView object you created in IB to the view property in the controller in IB which the framework automatically
But if not done in IB you have to set it