I am creating an app using UItabBarController. I have 5 tabBar items at the bottom.
should I wrap navigationController in each item? Is that the best practice, and if not what's the best practice?
The tabs in a UITabBarController represent independent sections within an app. An example is Apple's Clock app. It has 4 tabs which are completely independent of each other.
A navigation controller represents a top-down hierarchy / stack of view controllers (meaning you start with a root view controller and then 'push' view controllers onto the stack. This almost inevitably means that it shows a 'logical flow'. You perform an action like selecting something on a view controller, which takes you into a more detailed view related to the action you performed. An example is Apple's Notes app which shows a list of folders of notes, selecting a folder pushes the screen with the list of notes in that folder onto the navigation stack, selecting a note in that list pushes the note that the user tapped on, onto the top of the list of notes.
Generally you should have tab bar controller as your app's root view controller and then each of the tabs could have a navigation controller as its root. It wouldn't usually have a tab-bar inside a navigation controller.
One case where a tab-bar could live inside a navigation controller is when a tabbed interface is presented modally.
To your question "should I wrap navigationController in each item", I think yes each tab should have a navigation controller as the root if a navigation hierarchy is required in that tab.
Hope this helps you.
Related
I’d like to have split views in several places of my iOS app, none of them as the root view controller. I understand that split views are initially designed to sit at the root of the app and provide the root navigation controller, and that Apple’s guidelines initially did not allow any workarounds. Updated guidelines state
You cannot push a split view controller onto a navigation stack. Although it is possible to install a split view controller as a child in some other container view controllers, doing is not recommended in most cases.
Now the split view pattern would really benefit my app, and I don’t want to reinvent the wheel here, so I gave it a try using a container view, mainly using the following steps:
Create a scene with a regular UIViewController.
Add a UIContainerView covering the entire screen.
Add a UISplitViewController to the storyboard, which creates a split view controller, a navigation controller, a table view controller (for the master view), and a regular view controller (for the detail view).
Create an embed segue from the container view to the split view controller.
This has a few quirks, which I hope to iron out eventually (e.g. initially showing detail view, swiping in the table view from the left on an iPad apparently tries to also back nav on the main navigation), but it basically works. So far, so good.
Now, the problem is that I have two navigation controllers: the main navigation controller at the root of my app and the navigation controller in the embedded split view. This gives me two navigation bars with independent navigation, allowing me to:
navigate back to the root of the split view using the embedded navigation controller
navigate back from the container view in the enclosing navigation controller
Besides two navigation bars not being appealing, I don’t want iPhone users to perform the second directly from the detail view. So my next steps were:
hide the navigation bar in the outer view controller
add a back navigation button to the inner navigation bar to take over the role of the main navigation bar’s back button
Left to do is the implementation for that back button that pops the container's view controller of the main navigation stack. The question is: how can I access the main navigation controller from the embedded view that has its own navigation controller (using Swift)?
Accessing the navigation stack of the parent's (containing view controller's) navigation controller turned out to be straightforward:
#IBAction func backButtonTapped(_ sender: UIBarButtonItem) {
parent?.navigationController?.popViewController(animated: true)
}
I had to face a similar kind of problem while developing my app.
My problem was, I had to display navigation controller and splitviewcontroller on side bar. Again a problem was navigation controller form splitview to navigation controller. Below are the steps which i followed
1) While creating a split view controller, I hided the navigation controller of master and detail and set it to root view, please also keep the reference of your top level navigation controller.
2) I increased the 'y' of splitview.root.window and view to accommodate custom view.
3) I created a custom view with a back button and then handled the transition with animation.
Please let me know if you want code snippets. I would have shared it now. But i have to search for it.
I've done a lot of research and read a lot about the use of Tab Bar Controllers with Split View Controllers but cannot seem to find any hint of how to solve my problem...
The following post in the Apple Developer Forum for Cocoa Touch under the heading "Place SplitViewController inside TabBarController" has so far given me the greatest lead.
As of iOS 8, embedding a Split View Controller in a tab bar controller
(or your own container view controller) is supported and expected to
'just work'. Pushing a split view controller onto a navigation stack
remains unsupported.
This appears to go against Apple Documentation including this article titled "Combined View Controller Interfaces" dated November 2014.
You can use the view controllers that the UIKit framework provides by
themselves or in conjunction with other view controllers to create
even more sophisticated interfaces. 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
I have a UITabBarController with seven tabs. Of these, five tabs lead to UISplitViewControllers and two tabs lead to UINavigationControllers.
Here is a screenshot of some of the storyboard the shows the tab bar controller leading to three of the five split view controllers...
No problem when I run for target with self.traitCollection.horizontalSizeClass = UIUserInterfaceSizeClassRegular - where the horizontal (width) dimension of the device screen is Regular (not Compact) -> running on an iPad. All seven tabs appear across the bottom tab bar and all view controllers, including split view controllers, work perfectly.
My problem?
Xcode spits an error and freezes app operation when I run for target with self.traitCollection.horizontalSizeClass = UIUserInterfaceSizeClassCompact - where the horizontal (width) dimension of the device screen is Compact -> running on iPhone or iPhone Plus. Same outcome, as expected, for both IB and on iOS device.
Error Message: Split View Controllers cannot be pushed to a Navigation Controller <UIMoreNavigationController: 0x7ffda38b0200>
I know why I've received the error. Where the horizontal size class is "Compact", the seven tabs drops to five on screen, including one (specially prepared by iOS) "More" tab. The remaining three tabs are relegated to the "More" tab that is its own navigation controller and table view controller. My storyboard is attempting to push the split view controller onto this navigation stack.
Any thoughts on a legitimate solution?
I would recommend using a custom tab bar controller with a "More" section that does not push view controllers into a navigation controller. Preferably, one that is a subclass of UITabBarController, so you can use it with Interface Builder.
My approach would be to replace the current "More" table view controller with a view controller of your own that shows a list of overflowing tabs, but does not push their corresponding view controllers into the navigation bar when displayed.
One possible strategy is to become the delegate of the UITabBarController's more navigation controller (found in the tab bar controller's moreNavigationController property). Then use a delegate method, such as navigationController:willShowViewController:animated:, to replace the content of the navigation controller's viewControllers array if the view controller to be displayed is anything but your custom "More" view controller.
I haven't tried this, but it seems like a good place to start and does not require too much knowledge of the tabview controller's internals.
I have a total of 3 views. A menu, the main view where the action happens, and a settings menu.
You can access the settings from both the menu and the main view and go back using the back button provided by the Navigation Controller.
In the main view I have hidden the NavigationBar to free some space, and there's a specific button to go back to the menu. From what I know and have read, I assume this just adds more and more views to the Navigation Stack if I keep going from the main view to the menu again and again, creating a lot of views in the stack.
I'd like someone to tell me whether my assumption is true or not, and evt. explain me the whole process behind navigating and views.
UINavigationController has a property viewControllers which is the stack of view controllers that have been pushed there.
If you use push segues in your storyboard each time you trigger this segues you push the current controller to the stack.
If you have a special logic I suggest you manage controllers programmatically.
This might clear it all.
There are basically following types of Segues to navigate to any viewController
Show (Push)
Show Detail (Replace)
Present Modally
Present as Popover
And to move back use Unwind Segue
You can read more regarding this here
Difference between navigation controller and viewcontroller?
I mean how can we decide when to use navigation controller or a normal view controller?
Just my two cents:
A UIViewController represents a single view and you can put buttons in this view controller to segue to another UIViewController. If you want to segue back to the first UIViewController, you will have to worry about putting a button in the second view controller that leads back to the first. If you are drilling down into view controllers, this can be tedious having to remember to give the user a way back to a previous view controller.
A UINavigationController does a lot of this tedious work for you. As mentioned, it contains a stack of UIViewControllers. It will create a navigation bar at the top that will allow you to easily go back up the hierarchy of view controllers.
In short, if you have a hierarchy of view controllers that you want the user to easily navigate around, inbed your UIViewControllers into a UINavigation controller.
UINavigation Controller is a combination of 2 or more view controllers,those are connected through "segue" feature of "Ios". Benefit of using Navigation Controller is that we can navigate between different screens easily with default "Back" button on each screen . We don't need to give any individual button to move back onto previous screen.
Whereas a ViewController provides a single screen & we can connect more screen using "segue" but we also have to design a "Back" button to navigate onto previous screen.
We should use Navigation Controller , in case where one option resides into another one.Like in an iPhone settings ->Mobile Data Options->Voice->4G or 3G or 2G. It's a hierarchy of menus so here navigation Controller is better option than using UIController.
We should use UiController with "segue " , in case where
we have to choose one option among multiple.Like -
Photos ->There are many folders in which , any one is selected, that are Favourites or People or Places .
Here's a very brief, high-level overview.
Whereas a UIViewController can be thought of as representing a single 'screen', UINavigationController, as the name implies, is used as a means of being able to navigate multiple 'screens'.
From the documentation:
The UINavigationController class implements a specialized view controller that manages the navigation of hierarchical content. This navigation interface makes it possible to present your data efficiently and makes it easier for the user to navigate that content. You generally use this class as-is but in iOS 6 and later you may subclass to customize the class behavior.
Please see the rest of the UINavigationController documentation here: https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/UIKit/Reference/UINavigationController_Class/index.html
Okay, Thank you everyone for helping me to find out a clear answer on this.
Navigation Controller consists of navigation bar and tool bar to move in and out from view controllers present in navigation stack.Therefore there can be many view controllers in Navigation Controller.
In view controller we don't have this facility and it represents a single screen view.
Please correct me If I am wrong.
See the Navigation Controller discussion in the View Controller Catalog.
Bottom line, a navigation controller actually is a view controller, but it just happens to be one that presents and navigates between other view controllers.
i'm curious about what's the best way to plan the controllers for my app.
i want my main screen to have 3 button.
1) should open a nav controller with details view
2) should open a controller with other buttons that lead to others controllers
3) should open a tab bar with 2 pages ( or eventually use a switch to change page instead of the tab bar)
this is the schema of what i want
http://i59.tinypic.com/2rrvrd4.png
Is it a correct schema or i should use my controllers differently? will apple reject an apple with such schema?
thanks
As #Fogmeister pointed out in the comments, going for a UITabBarController as the main interface for your app actually seems to be a more appropriate solution here.
However, you can go with the interface that you described, but then you should keep in mind that with your current setup, you are not only using UINavigationController in the first case, but your whole navigation system is still built upon UINavigationController in the following way:
Your app has one instance of UINavigationController.
Your initial UIViewController (the one with the three buttons), is the rootViewController of your UINavigationController.
You can navigate to the other view controllers using [self.navigationController pushViewController:newViewController] (or performSegue if you prefer using Storyboards).
In the case of your third view controller, you are pushing a UITabBarController onto the navigation controller's view controller stack, this UITabBarController needs to be initialized with the two view controllers that it is going to display before it gets pushed onto the stack.