How to Update iOS Apps to Fit Larger Screen Size - ios

I know this question might sound ridiculous, but please finish reading this thread before marking this as a duplicate question.
I've been searching for answers throughout the internet but can't seem to find a satisfying explanation & solution as I'm not very sure how things work & how to make a change.
Click me for example
In the image, the app on the left is 'un-optimized' and stretched while the app on right is 'optimized' and perfectly fit.
So how do I 'optimize' an old app to fit on larger screens, given:
• The app is built using Objective-C
• Some screens only have header(.h) & method(.m) files, meaning there is no XML Interface Builder(.XIB) files to see how the UI looks like without running it on the device.
I've tried using size classes for screens with.XIB files, but regardless of that, the app still appears to be stretched. Also, what about those that only have header & method files? Since there is no interface builder, I couldn't modify the UI in terms of size classes & constraints.
Is there a universal setting or something that I need to change and the whole app will be magically 'optimized'? Or do I have to configure a certain setting for each screen one by one?
Could someone explain to me in simple terms how this can be done?

Related

Get width and height of the device in Flutter

I need a reliable way to get the dimensions of the screen.
I know MediaQuery.of(context), but it removes the bottom padding when the bottom UI item is visible.
This appears to be impossible from within dart at the moment on Android due to flutter ignoring the bottom system UI (i.e. the buttons).
I thought this might be a bug, but if you look closely at the documentation it never states that window.physicalSize or MediaQueryData.size are the physical dimensions of the screen, but rather the size to which flutter can render. That probably makes sense, or else every single app would have to make sure to take that into account.
So what you're going to have to do is use method channels to communicate with android directly. I took a look already and there doesn't appear to be any plugins doing this, so you could wrap it up into one if you feel ambitious. But what you'll want to do is make a call to native and then get the physical screen size directly in java code. If you do that you'd probably be best off implementing it for iOS as well, although this same problem doesn't exist there (you could even do it directly in flutter with an if/else).
Luckily, someone has done this before so you can use it as an example: https://github.com/magnatronus/flutter-displaymetrics. Assuming that displayMetrics gives you the right size.
Hope that helps and sorry I don't have a simpler answer for you!

How to get iOS app to work on all iPhones? (Constraints)

I am fairly new to developing for iOS. I have a fully functioning program written in Swift and the UI was created in the scene builder on Xcode. I created an app for my work to simplify closing out the registers and other financial aspects. The app is complete and works perfectly, but was designed on the iPhoneX. The problem is that only a few of the employees have an iPhoneX, but they all have some kind of iPhone. I have tried setting up constraints but it never works. Ive tried scaling restraints and position restraints but I can't get the layout to look right on any other phone, and when I add the constraints it affects the view on the iPhoneX as well and doesn't look good on any iPhone. I need help getting this to work on all iPhones. I would like it to look and act the exact same regardless of the size of the phone, basically just scaled down. There are a lot of things on the screen and I can't figure out how to do this. Please help!!!
I have been working on this for a long time and I really need help. Please let me know if I need to clarify anything. I have posted links to some pictures of my UI so you have an idea of whats going on.
Constraints I tried adding, although I have played around with some other options.
Here's what it looks like on the iPhoneX, this is how I want it to look.
What it looks like on iPhoneSE (with constraints).
One thing I noticed in your Xcode project that none of your features are in UIView. Without it, it will be quite challenging and somewhat always different results. In theory, if you use AutoLayout features correctly it should work without UIView, but they make life so much easier. This is something I learned the hard way at the beginning of my iOS development. First set up your UIViews without any content inside it, give them some background colour to differentiate, once they are working on all devices. You can pin your features to superviews with no difficulty.
Since you have a repetitive features, you could also consider using Stack Views. You don't have complicated features, so as long as AutoLayout is set up correctly you should have no problems seeing it ok on all devices

All iOS screen size compatibility?

New to iOS developing here. Basically I am creating a soundboard app. I have the app essentially working (aka buttons returning sounds).
However my app only looks proper on the iPhone 6. I just have one ViewController in my main storyboard. When I run the simulator for the 4S/5/6+ or iPads, my buttons are pretty much everywhere.
I tried playing with size classes/autolayout through Apple's documentation, but couldn't get it working properly. What's the best (easiest ;) ) route I can follow to have it basically looking the same on ALL devices?
PS: I have one background placed too, I don't mind if it looks different on all devices since it's pretty minimalistic, but if someone can shed some light here too, that would be great.
Thanks!
You have a few options:
1) Continue your plan spending time getting friendly with Auto Layout and Size Classes. This might be difficult at first, but it will really pay off later. You should use the Assistant Editor's Preview mode to let you see iPhone 4, 5 and 6 side-by-side as you work so you can make sure your layouts look great everywhere.
2) Use a component like UIStackView where layouts are automatically adjusted to fit various devices. If your soundboard is as simple as a grid of buttons, you can do that in just a few minutes using a stack view.
3) Use a component like UITableView or UICollectionView where content is designed to scroll. Using this method you design only one sound button of your app (i.e., enough to play one sound) then have iOS replicate that across all the sounds you want. When your interface is presented on a device of a different size iOS will just make the content scroll.
Very roughly, option 1 makes you do all the work; option 2 makes your layout shrink down until it fits the available space; and option 3 makes your layout stay the same size no matter what, but you should expect it to scroll on some devices.
There is no right solution; it's entirely down how you want your app to work.

iOS Layout - Whats the best solution?

For an iOS app i am currently working on, I need to manage the controls displayed on the screen based on the type of device the app is running on.
I will try to explain with a theoretical example (the actual numbers used below are not important, what interests me is best method to achieve the desired result).
Example:
In the case of the app in the screenshots, the button that overlaps the UIImageView should not be displayed at all OR displayed in another place on the screen.
So far I've worked with autolayout , but , from what i could figure, there's no way to say to xcode something like: hey, for a class size "Compact Width / Compact Height" , I want you to hide these buttons...but show them for "Regular Width / Compact Height" .
I also did some googling and saw some people talk about using different storyboards based on the device; I am also thinking, I could add/remove buttons dynamically based on the device type , but I think it's not so pleasant to have to add all of the constraints by hand (programatically that is).
So to resume, I would appreciate a suggestion of a 'best' way to do this , best meaning a combination of 'not so hard' + ' not so long'. Also, some code example (or links) would be highly appreciated.
Thank you all in advance !
I think it all depends how sophisticated it gets what you are doing overall. When you look at developer's code for large app projects very little is actually done in interface builder since the apps are so dynamic it's just too much work in IB.
Using multiple storyboards 'sounds' like a good idea, but often isn't. If you want to update/change one, in most cases you then have to change the other ones as well.
What I think is handy:
Use one storyboard (or multiple but for different parts of you app and not parallel ones) and then put in very 'special' cases multiple ViewControllers of the same class for the different size into the single storyboard. That way you won't forget about updating the second (and third) because they are all right there.
I would only use multiple 'parallel' storyboards for apps that support iPhone and iPad and it makes sense to really split them up..
Also:
I would as fas as possible still use just one representation and derive the other 'versions' from that in code. If you build a structured user interface you can then reuse (or just inherit) the code that 'hides' parts of the first viewController in the next. That way your code AND your IB files won't get cluttered.
Also think about internationalisation (if that is part of your future plans), since multiple IB documents and multiple instances of the same viewController layout really don't help for that ;)

Is there a way to have a different Default.png (splash image) for different languages/locales in iOS? [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
Closed 10 years ago.
Possible Duplicate:
Localization of Default.png is not working
My splash screen has English text in it, so I would like to be able to have a different splash image when users have a different language set.
Is this possible?
Yes, it's possible. Pretty much the same way you localize all your resources.
You just need to provide a Default.png image and then enable all the languages you're interested in. The result is that you'll get a copy of the image for each language into the respective folders. Then edit (or overwrite) each image as you need. I have tested it right now and it works fine (on iOS 5 but I believe is the same for older versions). Here is a screenshot for easy reference:
EDIT:
Regarding any doubts about whether or not this is a good practice, this is straight from Apple's documentation:
In addition to including the launch images at the top level of your
bundle, you can also include localized versions of your launch images
in your app’s language-specific project subdirectories. For more
information on localizing resources in your app, see Table 6-2.
No.
Edit: Indeed, I'm dumbfounded. Like nevan-king I'm going to leave my answer nevertheless, since I still think that's the way it is intended to be done by the iOS guidelines (and my personal opinion about localizing whole images in order to localize its text...).
A splash screen is not intended to provide information. Splash screens are only shown for like a second or so, so it would be unfeasible to show text anyway.
Common practice for what you want to do is to use your image without text as splashscreen, and after that show a custom view with your image and localized text for a few seconds.
That way it will seem like you had a localized splash screen (and the text appears shortly after the image, which is fine).
However, keep in mind that the idea of iOS apps is fast responsiveness, so only show a "startup screen" if you must (for marketing reasons or whatever).
Read this for further information: http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/userexperience/conceptual/mobilehig/IconsImages/IconsImages.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40006556-CH14-SW5
There's no way to do this. Instead, make a Default.png with no text.
Edit: I stand corrected. Just tried Alladinian's method and it worked. I'll leave my answer, as it's a useful technique to know.
You can do this pretty easily in Photoshop by selecting a square, then copying it and pasting it over the text. Use Marquee to select a square of your graphic (say an empty part of a navigation bar). Then hit "v" for the move tool. Use cmd-opt and move the square a little to the left, then cmd-opt-shift so that it doesn't move up or down. Move the square over the text and let go of the mouse button. Repeat as necessary.
If you want to see how Apple handles multi-language splash screens, open Maps or Mail. They have a Default screen with no text, then the text appears (in whatever language) when the app has loaded.

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