Where Does the Storyboard/Layout Info Get Written To? - ios

I know you can create a screen for an iOS app entirely with code. But when you use the interface builder part of Xcode, where is all of that information going? Is it being written to a file you can view?

A Storyboard itself is a file contained in your project folder, so you must create a storyboard file in Xcode in advance before using the Storyboard.
To create a storyboard file:
Press Command + N in Xcode ( or choose on File > New > File)
Then you can create a storyboard file, and you can find the file in Xcode Navigator or Finder.
If you want to check the source code of the storyboard file, just open it with text editors.

Related

Converting iOS Storyboard to tvOS [duplicate]

I have an iPhone application which has a storyboard. Now I want to provide an iPad application too. So I asked me whether there is a function which helps me convert my iPhone storyboard to an iPad storyboard.
To be specific:
Is there a similar function or is there only the manual way ?
I found out a kind of solution:
Duplicate your iPhone-Storyboard and rename it MainStoryboard_iPad.storyboard
Close Xcode and then open this file any text editor.
Search for targetRuntime="iOS.CocoaTouch"and change it to targetRuntime="iOS.CocoaTouch.iPad"
Change the code in the MainStoryboard_iPad.storyboard from:
<simulatedScreenMetrics key="destination" type="retina4"/> to
<simulatedScreenMetrics key="destination"/>
Now save everything and reopen Xcode. The iPad-Storyboard has the same contents as the iPhone-file but everyting could be disarranged.
This saved me hours - hopefully this will help you
If you had created a universal project, by default empty iPad storyboard would have been created, you just have to select iPhone storyboard select all (Command+A), copy (Command+C) and paste it on iPad storyboard. Make sure to move the entry point from the empty storyboard to newly copied storyboard before compiling.
That didn't quite work for me. I did something a little bit different.
Create a new story board file for the iPad version
Open both the new file and the file i want to copy in textwrangler (text editor)
Copied the xml text from old file to the new file between these xml tags
First Tag <scenes> <!--Contents View Controller-->
Paste Here
End Tags </class> </classes>
That worked for me. I got a new layoutout with all my outlets connected, which alone saved me a few hours.
From reading many threads on stackoverflow i discovered the solution is-
1.Duplicate your iPhone-Storyboard and rename it MainStoryboard_iPad.storyboard
2.right click on the storyboard -> “open as” -> “Source Code”.
3.Search for targetRuntime="iOS.CocoaTouch"and change it to targetRuntime="iOS.CocoaTouch.iPad"
5.Search for <simulatedScreenMetrics key="destination" type="retina4"/> and change it to to <simulatedScreenMetrics key="destination"/>
4.Now save everything and right click on MainStoryboard_iPad.storyboard “open as” ->"IOS StoryBoard"
5. you may also have to change your constraints.
Thats all you have done.
1. Create New Storyboard file with MainStoryboard_iPad.storyboard
2. Copy All the views from MainStoryboard and paste to MainStoryboard_iPad.storyboard
1 - Create your "MainStoryboard_iPad.storyboard";
2 - Right-click on you "MainStoryboard_iPhone.storyboard" and "Open as -> Source Code". Copy everything;
3- Right-click on you "MainStoryboard_iPad.storyboard" and "Open as -> Source Code". Paste everything. Now Search and change:
targetRuntime="iOS.CocoaTouch" to targetRuntime="iOS.CocoaTouch.iPad"
type="com.apple.InterfaceBuilder3.CocoaTouch.Storyboard.XIB" to type="com.apple.InterfaceBuilder3.CocoaTouch.Storyboard.iPad.XIB"
4 - Save. Now reopen but using the interface builder. You will only have to re-arrange.
This method can be used for .xib files too
This is going the other way, but I was able to do a select all & copy in my iPad storyboard (~35 scenes) and paste it into my iPhone storyboard. The scene sizes were automatically adjusted. I only saw two problems, I had to replace UISplitViewController (since it's only iPad), and the default background became transparent instead of gray (still working on fixing that properly, without manually setting the background for everything).
EDIT: It seems the default background for UITableView in the Attributes inspector is rather strange. I had to manually set the background to "Group Table View Background Color" for grouped table views, and "White Color" for non-grouped table views. It then was displayed as "Default" (I assume since it then matched a hardcoded value). -- Actually, even easier, changing from "Grouped" to "Static" and back seems to reset the default color.
Here's something that saved me hours and might help those of you with Python skills.
I've been building an app for the last two months, focused on just iPad iterating the UX with the team.
Today focused on building out iPhone version, followed the steps above (thanks!) but I didn't want to then have to resize all the ui elements from iPad dimensions in the visual storyboard editor.
So I wrote this little python jig script to scan through the storyboard file for x, y, width, height and scale everything down by by ratio 320./768. Allowed me then to just focus on fine adjustments.
Copy your iPad storyboard into a new file. (e.g. iPhoneStoryboard.storyboard)
Run the script below with the copied storyboard filename as the first parameter.
Will generate output file with suffix _adjusted.storyboard (e.g. iPhoneStoryboard.storyboard_adjusted.storyboard)
Hope it helps...
import re
import sys
import math
afile = sys.argv[1]
scale = 320./768.
number_pattern = '[-0-9]+(.[0-9]+)?'
#width_pattern = 'width="[-0-9]+( ?px)?"'
width_pattern = 'width="[-0-9]+(.[0-9]+)?( ?px)?"'
height_pattern = 'height="[-0-9]+(.[0-9]+)?( ?px)?"'
x_pattern = 'x="[-0-9]+(.[0-9]+)?( ?px)?"'
y_pattern = 'y="[-0-9]+(.[0-9]+)?( ?px)?"'
def replacescaledvalue(scale,pattern,sometext,replacefmt) :
ip = re.search(pattern, sometext, re.IGNORECASE)
if(ip) :
np = re.search(number_pattern,ip.group(0))
if(np) :
val = float(np.group(0))
val = int(math.floor(val*scale))
sval = replacefmt+str(val)+'"'#+'px"'
newtext = re.sub(pattern,sval,sometext)
return newtext
else :
return sometext
fin = open(afile)
fout = open(afile+"_adjusted.storyboard", "wt")
for line in fin:
newline = line
newline = replacescaledvalue(scale,width_pattern,newline,'width="')
newline = replacescaledvalue(scale,height_pattern,newline, 'height="')
newline = replacescaledvalue(scale,x_pattern,newline, 'x="')
newline = replacescaledvalue(scale,y_pattern,newline, 'y="')
# print newline
fout.write( newline )
fin.close()
fout.close()
For Xcode10
Just duplicate Main.storyboard
Then re-name files to Main_iPad.storyboard and Main_iPone.storyboard
Set appropriate names in .plist
4.Just select the proper .storyboard to configure
Go to your Target Summary and change devices to universal,
then go down and set the ipad version to any storyboard you like including a copied and renamed one if you like.
Just as a quick gotcha note to those who may have had my issue with this:
My issue:
The storyboard content copied over nicely to a new board file I added. However, it would not put changes over to my provisioned iPad. Noticing that I had to switch over the designated storyboard for the build target (see image) let the changes show.
I'd post an image if I had the points, but the setting is located in:
Project navigator on the left side source menu, root target of project (center pane) general tab, (second subhead) deployment info, with the iPad button tab selected.
From there, choose your storyboard under "main interface."
Thanks for the post, I hope this mention helps a snag somewhere.
Just for fun, on XCode 5.1 and iOS 7.1 I also needed to change the values of "toolVersion" and "systemVersion" to this:
toolsVersion="5023" systemVersion="13A603"
Without this, the new storyboard file wouldn't compile
Using the XCode6 Size Classes you no longer need to convert the storyboard to iPad.
The same Storyboard can be used for both the iPhone and the iPad, saving you from keeping two files up to date.
The resulting storyboard is compatible with iOS7+.
Read more about this here:
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/recipes/xcode_help-IB_adaptive_sizes/chapters/AboutAdaptiveSizeDesign.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40014436-CH6-SW1
Use size classes to enable a storyboard or xib file to work with all available screen sizes. This enables the user interface of your app to work on any iOS device.
This functionality is now built-in. For example, if one changes the project settings in Deployment Info -> Devices from iPhone to Universal, the following dialog will show up:
There is a really simple solution for Xcode versions that support size classes (Tested in Xcode 7 which is the current version at the time of writing). Check the "use size classes" checkbox on a storyboard file (File Inspector), confirm that dialog that appears. Then uncheck that same checkbox - Xcode will ask you if you want to use this storyboard with an iPhone or iPad, and convert the screens in it appropriately. No need to directly edit the storyboard file. For both iPad and iPhone, just copy the same storyboard and configure one for iPad and one for iPhone using the described method.
And Before someone suggest to use size classes - while great, they are less convenient for heavily customized UI, such as games etc
I followed this thread when I was hit with the same issue yesterday. The steps I followed
For Xcode 5.1, I had to do some cleanup of iPhone storyboard like missing reuseIdentifiers of Table cells, provide story board id for every controller, remove unused scenes.
Copy MainStoryboard_iPhone.storyboard to MainStoryboard_iPad.storyboard.
Using vi editor - changed targetRuntime="iOS.CocoaTouch" to targetRuntime="iOS.CocoaTouch.iPad"
Change the code in the MainStoryboard_iPad.storyboard from: <simulatedScreenMetrics key="destination" type="retina4"/> to <simulatedScreenMetrics key="destination"/>
Open the project in Xcode.
Changed the Deployment devices to Universal - Chose the option of NOT copying the iPhone Storyboard.
Xcode will default the Deployment Target to 7.1, took care of the deprecated functions.
To fix the misplaced view error in iPad Storyboard - Changed the Frame Layout for Controllers giving errors.
That was it.. Thanks all for your help..
The easiest and most reliable way to do this is to copy paste from your iPad storyboard.
Create a new storyboard and name it something like MainStoryboard_ipad.
Make your app a Universal app by setting the Devices property to Universal on the Summary page of the Target properties for your project.
Open your iPhone storyboard and select all and copy
Open your iPad storyboard and paste.
You'll have to go about resizing, but it can be faster than recreating the whole storyboard.
A Different Approach
Add an empty-View-Controller with Navigation-Controller in the iPad-Storyboard
Change the Class to the Class of your first ViewController used for iPhone, "fooViewController"
Add the Storyboard-Identifier in the iPhone-Storyboard "fooViewController_storyboard_identifier" for the first ViewController
Go to "fooViewController.m"
Add bool Variable bool nibWasLoadForIpad=false
Go to viewDidLoad-Method
if ( UI_USER_INTERFACE_IDIOM() == UIUserInterfaceIdiomPad && !nibWasLoadForIpad)
{
nibWasLoadForIpad=true;
UIStoryboard* Storyboard_iphone=[UIStoryboard storyboardWithName:#"Main_iPhone" bundle: nil];
fooViewController *controller = [Storyboard_iphone instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier:#"fooViewController_storyboard_identifier"];
[self.navigationController pushViewController:controller animated:YES];
self.modalPresentationStyle = UIModalPresentationCurrentContext;
}
(ps. Know problem is that the view-backgrounds will be set to white)
You should create a bug report with Apple. You can say it's a duplicate of mine (10167030) which has been open since September 2011. The frustrating thing from my point of view is that the feature existed in Xcode 3...
Thanks for the answers everybody.
I followed the above steps but when I ran the app under the simulator or my iPad it kept on just using the iPhone storyboard.
For some reason, when I changed the target device to be Universal instead of iPhone, Xcode (v5.0) didn't update the app-Info.plist file to include the iPad storyboard, so I had to manually add the following entry (using the plist editor in Xcode):
Main storyboard file base name (iPad) ==> MainStoryboard_iPad
I just change (additionally to the answer from #tharkay):
<device id="ipad9_7" orientation="landscape">
and works great !
I use this in XCode 8.3.3

Converting .xib file to storyboard

I have been searching how to convert a xib file into a storyboard file, but I can't find an answer, also I followed this tutorial but when I run the app the old .xib file is opened, no the new storyboard, my app has just two .xib files that I want to convert into storyboards, is there a way or tutorial at this date that can achieve that?
You must update your target configuration of the app. Open the General tab. In the secion Deployment Info you will find Main Interface. Choose your storyboard instead of the XIB file.

Xcode Storyboard recovery

So I lost my source storyboard file. But I still had the .ipa that I released.
So I used crunch to extract my storyboard. However, it is the Main.storyboardc version and renaming it to Main.storyboard turned it into a folder with multiple .nib files.
Is there anyway I can turn these files into a storyboard or can I use these instead?
You should be able to use the .nib files but all the logic of the storyboard is lost.
And no you can't convert this into a storyboard file as you don't have the storyboard logic recovered.
Imagine if any one can extract interface/code from a compiled application.
But you can create a new storyboard, opening the nib files and copying the interface inside your new storyboard. You only have to recreate the segues, and relink the outlets.
You can also extract the original nibs from the .ipa file :
Rename the MyApp.ipa to MyApp.zip
Extract it
Inside the extracted folder right click the MyApp.app and press "Show package contents"
Here you will have all the resources, including the nib files.

which line of code decide a iOS project use storyboard or nib or neither?

When I create a single view project in xcode, it will generate a storyboard. And I deleted this file, I can still run the program. So I'm just curious how can I change a storyboard project to a empty project in code?
Just remove entry "Main storyboard file base name" in your project plist file.

Converting Storyboard from iPhone to iPad

I have an iPhone application which has a storyboard. Now I want to provide an iPad application too. So I asked me whether there is a function which helps me convert my iPhone storyboard to an iPad storyboard.
To be specific:
Is there a similar function or is there only the manual way ?
I found out a kind of solution:
Duplicate your iPhone-Storyboard and rename it MainStoryboard_iPad.storyboard
Close Xcode and then open this file any text editor.
Search for targetRuntime="iOS.CocoaTouch"and change it to targetRuntime="iOS.CocoaTouch.iPad"
Change the code in the MainStoryboard_iPad.storyboard from:
<simulatedScreenMetrics key="destination" type="retina4"/> to
<simulatedScreenMetrics key="destination"/>
Now save everything and reopen Xcode. The iPad-Storyboard has the same contents as the iPhone-file but everyting could be disarranged.
This saved me hours - hopefully this will help you
If you had created a universal project, by default empty iPad storyboard would have been created, you just have to select iPhone storyboard select all (Command+A), copy (Command+C) and paste it on iPad storyboard. Make sure to move the entry point from the empty storyboard to newly copied storyboard before compiling.
That didn't quite work for me. I did something a little bit different.
Create a new story board file for the iPad version
Open both the new file and the file i want to copy in textwrangler (text editor)
Copied the xml text from old file to the new file between these xml tags
First Tag <scenes> <!--Contents View Controller-->
Paste Here
End Tags </class> </classes>
That worked for me. I got a new layoutout with all my outlets connected, which alone saved me a few hours.
From reading many threads on stackoverflow i discovered the solution is-
1.Duplicate your iPhone-Storyboard and rename it MainStoryboard_iPad.storyboard
2.right click on the storyboard -> “open as” -> “Source Code”.
3.Search for targetRuntime="iOS.CocoaTouch"and change it to targetRuntime="iOS.CocoaTouch.iPad"
5.Search for <simulatedScreenMetrics key="destination" type="retina4"/> and change it to to <simulatedScreenMetrics key="destination"/>
4.Now save everything and right click on MainStoryboard_iPad.storyboard “open as” ->"IOS StoryBoard"
5. you may also have to change your constraints.
Thats all you have done.
1. Create New Storyboard file with MainStoryboard_iPad.storyboard
2. Copy All the views from MainStoryboard and paste to MainStoryboard_iPad.storyboard
1 - Create your "MainStoryboard_iPad.storyboard";
2 - Right-click on you "MainStoryboard_iPhone.storyboard" and "Open as -> Source Code". Copy everything;
3- Right-click on you "MainStoryboard_iPad.storyboard" and "Open as -> Source Code". Paste everything. Now Search and change:
targetRuntime="iOS.CocoaTouch" to targetRuntime="iOS.CocoaTouch.iPad"
type="com.apple.InterfaceBuilder3.CocoaTouch.Storyboard.XIB" to type="com.apple.InterfaceBuilder3.CocoaTouch.Storyboard.iPad.XIB"
4 - Save. Now reopen but using the interface builder. You will only have to re-arrange.
This method can be used for .xib files too
This is going the other way, but I was able to do a select all & copy in my iPad storyboard (~35 scenes) and paste it into my iPhone storyboard. The scene sizes were automatically adjusted. I only saw two problems, I had to replace UISplitViewController (since it's only iPad), and the default background became transparent instead of gray (still working on fixing that properly, without manually setting the background for everything).
EDIT: It seems the default background for UITableView in the Attributes inspector is rather strange. I had to manually set the background to "Group Table View Background Color" for grouped table views, and "White Color" for non-grouped table views. It then was displayed as "Default" (I assume since it then matched a hardcoded value). -- Actually, even easier, changing from "Grouped" to "Static" and back seems to reset the default color.
Here's something that saved me hours and might help those of you with Python skills.
I've been building an app for the last two months, focused on just iPad iterating the UX with the team.
Today focused on building out iPhone version, followed the steps above (thanks!) but I didn't want to then have to resize all the ui elements from iPad dimensions in the visual storyboard editor.
So I wrote this little python jig script to scan through the storyboard file for x, y, width, height and scale everything down by by ratio 320./768. Allowed me then to just focus on fine adjustments.
Copy your iPad storyboard into a new file. (e.g. iPhoneStoryboard.storyboard)
Run the script below with the copied storyboard filename as the first parameter.
Will generate output file with suffix _adjusted.storyboard (e.g. iPhoneStoryboard.storyboard_adjusted.storyboard)
Hope it helps...
import re
import sys
import math
afile = sys.argv[1]
scale = 320./768.
number_pattern = '[-0-9]+(.[0-9]+)?'
#width_pattern = 'width="[-0-9]+( ?px)?"'
width_pattern = 'width="[-0-9]+(.[0-9]+)?( ?px)?"'
height_pattern = 'height="[-0-9]+(.[0-9]+)?( ?px)?"'
x_pattern = 'x="[-0-9]+(.[0-9]+)?( ?px)?"'
y_pattern = 'y="[-0-9]+(.[0-9]+)?( ?px)?"'
def replacescaledvalue(scale,pattern,sometext,replacefmt) :
ip = re.search(pattern, sometext, re.IGNORECASE)
if(ip) :
np = re.search(number_pattern,ip.group(0))
if(np) :
val = float(np.group(0))
val = int(math.floor(val*scale))
sval = replacefmt+str(val)+'"'#+'px"'
newtext = re.sub(pattern,sval,sometext)
return newtext
else :
return sometext
fin = open(afile)
fout = open(afile+"_adjusted.storyboard", "wt")
for line in fin:
newline = line
newline = replacescaledvalue(scale,width_pattern,newline,'width="')
newline = replacescaledvalue(scale,height_pattern,newline, 'height="')
newline = replacescaledvalue(scale,x_pattern,newline, 'x="')
newline = replacescaledvalue(scale,y_pattern,newline, 'y="')
# print newline
fout.write( newline )
fin.close()
fout.close()
For Xcode10
Just duplicate Main.storyboard
Then re-name files to Main_iPad.storyboard and Main_iPone.storyboard
Set appropriate names in .plist
4.Just select the proper .storyboard to configure
Go to your Target Summary and change devices to universal,
then go down and set the ipad version to any storyboard you like including a copied and renamed one if you like.
Just as a quick gotcha note to those who may have had my issue with this:
My issue:
The storyboard content copied over nicely to a new board file I added. However, it would not put changes over to my provisioned iPad. Noticing that I had to switch over the designated storyboard for the build target (see image) let the changes show.
I'd post an image if I had the points, but the setting is located in:
Project navigator on the left side source menu, root target of project (center pane) general tab, (second subhead) deployment info, with the iPad button tab selected.
From there, choose your storyboard under "main interface."
Thanks for the post, I hope this mention helps a snag somewhere.
Just for fun, on XCode 5.1 and iOS 7.1 I also needed to change the values of "toolVersion" and "systemVersion" to this:
toolsVersion="5023" systemVersion="13A603"
Without this, the new storyboard file wouldn't compile
Using the XCode6 Size Classes you no longer need to convert the storyboard to iPad.
The same Storyboard can be used for both the iPhone and the iPad, saving you from keeping two files up to date.
The resulting storyboard is compatible with iOS7+.
Read more about this here:
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/recipes/xcode_help-IB_adaptive_sizes/chapters/AboutAdaptiveSizeDesign.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40014436-CH6-SW1
Use size classes to enable a storyboard or xib file to work with all available screen sizes. This enables the user interface of your app to work on any iOS device.
This functionality is now built-in. For example, if one changes the project settings in Deployment Info -> Devices from iPhone to Universal, the following dialog will show up:
There is a really simple solution for Xcode versions that support size classes (Tested in Xcode 7 which is the current version at the time of writing). Check the "use size classes" checkbox on a storyboard file (File Inspector), confirm that dialog that appears. Then uncheck that same checkbox - Xcode will ask you if you want to use this storyboard with an iPhone or iPad, and convert the screens in it appropriately. No need to directly edit the storyboard file. For both iPad and iPhone, just copy the same storyboard and configure one for iPad and one for iPhone using the described method.
And Before someone suggest to use size classes - while great, they are less convenient for heavily customized UI, such as games etc
I followed this thread when I was hit with the same issue yesterday. The steps I followed
For Xcode 5.1, I had to do some cleanup of iPhone storyboard like missing reuseIdentifiers of Table cells, provide story board id for every controller, remove unused scenes.
Copy MainStoryboard_iPhone.storyboard to MainStoryboard_iPad.storyboard.
Using vi editor - changed targetRuntime="iOS.CocoaTouch" to targetRuntime="iOS.CocoaTouch.iPad"
Change the code in the MainStoryboard_iPad.storyboard from: <simulatedScreenMetrics key="destination" type="retina4"/> to <simulatedScreenMetrics key="destination"/>
Open the project in Xcode.
Changed the Deployment devices to Universal - Chose the option of NOT copying the iPhone Storyboard.
Xcode will default the Deployment Target to 7.1, took care of the deprecated functions.
To fix the misplaced view error in iPad Storyboard - Changed the Frame Layout for Controllers giving errors.
That was it.. Thanks all for your help..
The easiest and most reliable way to do this is to copy paste from your iPad storyboard.
Create a new storyboard and name it something like MainStoryboard_ipad.
Make your app a Universal app by setting the Devices property to Universal on the Summary page of the Target properties for your project.
Open your iPhone storyboard and select all and copy
Open your iPad storyboard and paste.
You'll have to go about resizing, but it can be faster than recreating the whole storyboard.
A Different Approach
Add an empty-View-Controller with Navigation-Controller in the iPad-Storyboard
Change the Class to the Class of your first ViewController used for iPhone, "fooViewController"
Add the Storyboard-Identifier in the iPhone-Storyboard "fooViewController_storyboard_identifier" for the first ViewController
Go to "fooViewController.m"
Add bool Variable bool nibWasLoadForIpad=false
Go to viewDidLoad-Method
if ( UI_USER_INTERFACE_IDIOM() == UIUserInterfaceIdiomPad && !nibWasLoadForIpad)
{
nibWasLoadForIpad=true;
UIStoryboard* Storyboard_iphone=[UIStoryboard storyboardWithName:#"Main_iPhone" bundle: nil];
fooViewController *controller = [Storyboard_iphone instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier:#"fooViewController_storyboard_identifier"];
[self.navigationController pushViewController:controller animated:YES];
self.modalPresentationStyle = UIModalPresentationCurrentContext;
}
(ps. Know problem is that the view-backgrounds will be set to white)
You should create a bug report with Apple. You can say it's a duplicate of mine (10167030) which has been open since September 2011. The frustrating thing from my point of view is that the feature existed in Xcode 3...
Thanks for the answers everybody.
I followed the above steps but when I ran the app under the simulator or my iPad it kept on just using the iPhone storyboard.
For some reason, when I changed the target device to be Universal instead of iPhone, Xcode (v5.0) didn't update the app-Info.plist file to include the iPad storyboard, so I had to manually add the following entry (using the plist editor in Xcode):
Main storyboard file base name (iPad) ==> MainStoryboard_iPad
I just change (additionally to the answer from #tharkay):
<device id="ipad9_7" orientation="landscape">
and works great !
I use this in XCode 8.3.3

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