When I am programming a universal app, lets say I have an IBAction like so:
(IBAction)magicCode:(id)sender {
textField1.text = "TEST";
}
Do I need to create a new IBAction for each view (iPad and iPhone). I can't have textField1 twice in header file, so I am just wondering how everyone else does this. Do I need to put a textfield in the iPhone app with a different name than the one in the iPad app? Or is there some other way everyone else is doing this?
Do I need to create a new IBAction for each view (iPad and iPhone).
First, actions are typically included in view controllers, not views. I think that's probably what you meant, but I point out the difference because I've seen a lot of people get confused on this point.
When you're creating a universal app, i.e. a single app that adapts its UI to the device (iPad or iPhone/iPod Touch) on which it's running, a common strategy is to provide different view layouts that make the best use of the available screen size, but to use the same view controllers. So, for example, say you have an app with a master/detail interface. On small devices, you'd present the master part of the interface first, and when the user chooses something you'd display the detail part of the interface. On an iPad, with it's larger screen, you'd display both master and detail interfaces simultaneously in a split view. Comparing the two, the views are likely to be different, and the way the view controllers are presented is different, but the view controllers themselves should stay the same. This is a good thing, since much of the work of creating an app goes into creating the view controllers.
If your app is similar to what I've described (or if you can make it similar), then no, you don't need separate actions for iPad and iPhone because you'll be using the same view controllers in both cases. There may be times, though, when the behavior of the app on the two different devices is different enough that it makes sense to have iPad-specific and iPhone-specific view controllers. You might still be able to use the same actions by deriving each of those from a common parent class that contains the actions. If not, you'll need to have each class implement its own actions.
No, you can have the same IBAction and IBOutlet in a UIViewController dealing with textfields in two different Nibs (one for iPhone and one for iPad). That's the whole point of separation between View Controller and Views in MVC architecture.
Just use the same UIViewController as File's Owner in both the Nibs and make all the appropriate IBOutlet and IBAction connections and everything will work.
Related
I am coming from iOS background and starting to learn Cocoa. On iOS unless we have multiple targets for iPad and iPhone we usually have one Window and manage the screen using UIViewControllers. Where every new screen will most of the time will map to a UIViewController.
However on cocoa this seems to be the otherway around where a new screen/window is manage by NSWindow and it's subcomponents are managed by NSViewController. So if I have multiple window app I should have separate NSWindowController for each window.
Is this approach correct or am I having a misunderstanding ?
With iPhone SDK and Leopard SDK, they introduced view controllers, or NSViewController and UIViewController. As their names suggest what they do is to manage views
The view controllers are for managing views. Current trend in UI design is Single Window, Multiple View. What it means is that there is one Window and inside of it, different group of views designed for different purpose can be swapped in and out. So, the View Controllers handles these for programmers for well-established pattern.
Currently view controllers are very important for iPhone and iPod touch programming, because the platform is based on Single-Window and Multiple View model. However, it doesn’t seem to me that using view controller is very popular for Mac.
how about the window controller like NSWindowController? Its counterpart, UIWindowController doesn’t exist for the iPhone and iPod touch environment, because there is only one window for those environment.
Unlike view controllers, the NSWindowController is for document based programs. Well, document based program can use multiple window. So, it is reasonable to think that NSWindowController is for document based programs as Apple’s document says.
I also come from iOS and started coding Mac apps a while ago, learning mostly from Apple's documentation.
My impression is that on the desktop, you almost never need NSViewControllers (one big exception would be a window with tabs and multiple views, like the GarageBand welcome screen).
Most of the time you have one NSWindowController per window. Learn first the relation between NSWindow and NSWindowController (and NSDocument, if you are making a document-based app).
Once you got that right, start experimenting with NSViewController.
UPDATE: It seems that since the introduction of storyboards for mac apps too, Apple expects that most of the view presentation logic should be migrated from the older NSWindowController to the newer NSViewController, more in line with how an iOS app is structured. I am not very knowledgeable on exactly where to draw the line, or what kind of code should remain in the window controller (or whether it still needs to be subclassed at all).
A Window Controller creates a traditional window and has all the traditional APIs.
A View Controller can also be shown outside of another view. It then gets a window frame but does not support the full traditional Window Controller API.
In addition to custom, modal, and show, a View Controller can also be presented in the modes sheet and popover.
So, View Controller has more presentation options and a more streamlined API but probably a few limitations in cases that are covered by the traditional Window Controller.
Relevant Data:
I'm making a simple game, using OpenglES. The game itself is done, however I would like to have a main menu as well as some other screens designed in IB. So far I have a death/score screen that is displayed with a simple modelviewcontroller.
I haven't done a ton with GUI building or much programming on the platform outside of C code (posix sockets) and some examples from some books. So I'm not sure how I would go about having lots of views- usually I just use a model view, and it's gotten me along just fine so far. However I don't think that would be the best route here.
Situation:
I have a view controller that shows my main menu- the main menu branches off to the main game, a settings screen, and a high score screen. The main game is made in opengl, and I haven't made the settings view yet, but it likely will be as well. How should I switch between the views? Presenting the main view from the app delegate is as simple as setting the root view controller = newly created view controller, should I do the same thing here? If I do that can I remove the resources from the menu view controller?
Sorry if this is an extremely simple question, I just don't quite get the process.
I'm not entirely sure what you want to do, but an easy way to show a new view controller is:
SecondViewController *aSecondViewController = [[SecondViewController alloc]
initWithNibName:#"SecondView" bundle:nil];
[self presentModalViewController:aSecondViewController animated:YES];
I hope that helps.
How should I switch between the views?
In the vast majority of cases, you should be using a UINavigationController. Your initial controller would be the main menu. When you want to go into a particular section of your application, you push a new view controller onto the stack. When you want to come back out, you pop it off the stack.
Besides navigation and presenting modally that others have mentioned, another option is to swap out views. May or may not fit your app's flow but wanted to point out another option for you to consider
Best practice for switching iPhone views?
If you are already limiting the game to iOS 5 for some other reason you should look into UIStoryboard. If you don't currently require iOS5 the "simplest" way is to use table views, but that isn't a very "gamey" UI.
I am new to Objective-c, I want to ask what is the different between view controller and view such as "UITableView" and "UITableViewController"?
What happen if I use UITableView instead of UITableViewController?
Thanks
You should look up the Model-View-Controller pattern in the Apple's documentation, since it is very important for using Cocoa. Basically, the idea in Model-View-Controller is a pattern for designing your class structure. Broadly, the model is where the application's data should be kept. The view is what controls the application's appearance and the controller is the place where the two are assembled. (Ideally, the view and the model classes do not even need to know about the other's existence).
Hence, the UITableView and UITableViewController are two different classes with two different purposes. The UITableView controls the appearance of the data and the UITableViewController "controls" the view (generally by passing it the correct data for display and layout). Since this pattern shows up again and again in Cocoa programming, you should take some time to become familiar with it.
They are two different things, they cannot be substituted for the other.
iOS follows the MVC design pattern, which stands for Model-View-Controller. The two classes you mention are 2 pieces of the overall puzzle.
The View is what gets displayed on the screen. That is its responsibility. So, the TableView is responsible for telling the phone what to render on the screen.
The View is also accompanied by the Controller. The controller decides what to do when something happens (user interaction, and other events that can happen at any time). So, the TableViewController is responsible for making the table do stuff (for example, telling the TableView what data to use for displaying on the screen).
So to sum it up, they are completely different, but they work very closely together in your application (you will almost always have 1 Controller for each View.
Well, the short answer is that one is the View and one is the Controller. Combine this with your data (the Model) and you have all the parts of MVC (Model - View - Controller).
Think of it this way, the UITableViewController controls the UITableview. They are complementary and they need each other to work.
I'm just getting into desktop Cocoa development (I have experience with iOS development). If this question seems basic, forgive me.
That being said, I'm dealing with a large program with lots of calculations and functionality to deal with. There are almost a dozen views, organized with an NSTabView. Rather than dumping everything into one monstrosity of a class and creating a XIB file that brings my system to its knees (Xcode apparently isn't that efficient…who knew? :P). I'd like for each tab to be its own NSViewController with accompanying XIB; as such, I'd like to load each tab's view from the corresponding XIB.
I'm thinking of this in terms of UITabBarController, but this doesn't seem to work (there isn't an NSTabViewController as far as I could find). I'm not sure how to do this (or even if it's possible—but I can't be the only one with this issue?), and I'd appreciate any assistance. Thanks!
Update: I tried assigning the controller's view to the tab's view, but quickly realized that wouldn't get me anywhere. Is it worth creating an NSTabViewController from scratch, or is there a solution out there?
Cocoa development on the desktop has some major differences compared to iOS development. One of them is the use of view controllers - they aren't strictly necessary - and when you use them you can just stick to a generic NSViewController regardless of what kind of view it contains. All of the methods you need to control the tab view are in the NSTabView class - not the controller.
Having said that, putting 12 views in to a tabview sounds like a painful way to interact with a program. Have you thought about a source-detail type setup (think itunes or mail with their sidebars - each entry in the sidebar corresponds to a different view)?
I've ditched the tab bar, and as per sosborn's suggestion, I have used a split view—or rather I've put a table view on the side, and a custom view taking up most of the screen. Then, in my AppDelegate, I have individual controllers as ivars (I need individual controllers because there are a lot of calculations involved, and I don't want to have a monster class handling them all). They'll be lazily loaded, and the view will be assigned to the current controller's view as necessary.
Now, in my iPad application there is two orientation req. but both are so much different means it`s difficult to manage on autoShouldrotate so we can take different xib. for that. For that how to manage This both view.
If any one have references books or sites than send to me.
Thanks.
Ankit
We do this by have a view controller which has two child views, one for each orientation (and each one controlled by it's own view controller). On the didRotateFrom... methods etc, you can fade / swap between the two views. Quite simple.