How to toggle view controllers using a UITabBar? - ios

Question

My goal for this project is to cycle between View Controllers using a UITabBar, without a UITabBarController, because according to Apple docs, TabBarControllers should not be pushed to UINavigationControllers, which this project uses already.
So far, I am using this UITabBar from #samuel's answer from this question. How to add UITabBar in iphone using objective c
//viewDidLoad
...
UITabBar *tabBar = [[UITabBar alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 431, 320, 50)];
[self.view addSubview:tabBar];
[[UITabBar appearance] setBarTintColor:[UIColor blackColor]];
NSMutableArray *tabBarItems = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
UITabBarItem *tabBarItem = [[UITabBarItem alloc] initWithTitle:#"Home" image:[UIImage imageNamed:#""] tag:0];
UITabBarItem *tabBarItem1 = [[UITabBarItem alloc] initWithTitle:#"Rules" image:[UIImage imageNamed:#""] tag:1];
[tabBarItems addObject:tabBarItem];
[tabBarItems addObject:tabBarItem1];
tabBar.items = tabBarItems;
tabBar.selectedItem = [tabBarItems objectAtIndex:0];
}
I am ready to cycle between View Controllers when I press the tabBarItems. What is the correct way to do this? I want to go to a View Controller named ViewController9 when the Rules tabBarItem is tapped, and then to ViewController6 when the Home tabBarItem is tapped.
Can someone please share some code? Here's what I've tried but nothing happens when the tabBarItems are pressed:
- (void)tabBar:(UITabBar *)tabBar didSelectItem:(UITabBarItem *)item {
NSInteger selectedTag = tabBar.selectedItem.tag;
NSLog(#"%ld",(long)selectedTag);
if (selectedTag == 0) {
//Do what ever you want here
NSString * storyboardName = #"MainStoryboard";
UIStoryboard *storyboard = [UIStoryboard storyboardWithName:storyboardName bundle: nil];
UIViewController * vc = [storyboard instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier:#"ViewController9"];
[self presentViewController:vc animated:YES completion:nil];
} else if(selectedTag == 1) {
NSString * storyboardName = #"MainStoryboard";
UIStoryboard *storyboard = [UIStoryboard storyboardWithName:storyboardName bundle: nil];
UIViewController * vc = [storyboard instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier:#"ViewController9"];
[self presentViewController:vc animated:YES completion:nil];
} else { //if(selectedTag == 2)
//Do what ever you want here
}
}

Answer 1

How to push a view controller using a UITabBar using Objective C?
That question doesn't make much sense if you think about it. "Push" is a stack operation, and a navigation controller manages a stack of view controllers. UITabBar isn't a view controller at all, and it doesn't manage a stack of anything, so pushing isn't an operation that's available.
My goal for this project is to cycle between View Controllers using a UITabBar, without a UITabBarController, because according to Apple docs, TabBarControllers should not be pushed to UINavigationControllers, which this project uses already.
There's a reason for that, and the reason is that navigation controllers and tab controllers offer different modes of controlling what the user sees on the screen. If a tab controller could be part of a navigation stack, the user would see the tab bar appear and disappear, when it's intended to be something that's fixed. It would create a very confusing interface.
If you use a tab bar alone to get around the fact that Cocoa Touch discourages you from creating a confusing user interface, you're going to end up with a confusing user interface. Think hard about what you're really trying to do, and if you decide you still need to do it, consider using UI elements that don't look like a tab bar so that the user doesn't expect tab bar behavior.