Swift iOS -SplitViewController Won't Let Me Hide StatusBar? - ios

Question

I followed this tutorial to smoothly hide the statusBar smoothly hide statusBar and everything works fine when I use it on practice projects. I use the code in other project's that do not have SplitVC but have a tabBar and uses a navVC & tableView and everything works fine. In those I can successfully make it appear/disappear.
In my actual project I'm using a SplitViewController for iPad. I noticed when I implemented the directions from the link to my SplitViewController the statusBar wouldn't hide. I then made a new project using Apple's default MasterDetailApp to make sure I wasn't doing anything wrong but it doesn't work there either. I kept all of Apple's original code and only added in the necessary methods to make the statusBar appear/disappear
in info.plist I added the View controller-based status bar appearance and set it to YES
in storyboard I added a purple button to the DetailVC to trigger the statusBar disappearance. I also added in the method to make the backBar button disappear/reappear
I added all the methods to make the statusBar disappear/disappear to the DetailVC scene.
I added a tapGesture to the scene to make the statusBar and backButton reappear
I clicked the Plus button on the Master scene, a date appeared, clicked it to get to the DetailVC, pressed the purple buttonPressed to hide the statusBar and backButton but only the backButton gets hidden. I touch the background and the backButton reappears. The statusBar doesn't move.
I kept all the original code from Apple's project's and added mines below it:
class DetailViewController: UIViewController {
//MARK:- Apple's code
#IBOutlet weak var detailDescriptionLabel: UILabel!
func configureView() {
if let detail = detailItem {
if let label = detailDescriptionLabel {
label.text = detail.description
}
}
}
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
configureView()
// make backButton and statusBar reappear when scene is tapped
let tapGesture = UITapGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: #selector(showBackButtonAndStatusBar))
view.addGestureRecognizer(tapGesture)
}
var detailItem: NSDate? {
didSet {
configureView()
}
}
//MARK:- Outside of the tapGesture in viewDidLoad everything below here is what I added
// bool to determine wether to hide the statusBar or not
var statusBarShouldBeHidden = false
// api method to allow the staus bar to be hidden
override var prefersStatusBarHidden: Bool{
return statusBarShouldBeHidden
}
// api method to animate status bar appearance/disappearance
override var preferredStatusBarUpdateAnimation: UIStatusBarAnimation{
return .slide
}
#IBAction func buttonTapped(_ sender: UIButton) {
// 1. hide backBar button
navigationItem.setHidesBackButton(true, animated: false)
// 2. set bool to true
statusBarShouldBeHidden = true
UIView.animate(withDuration: 0.25){
// 3. api method to allow the statusBar to disappear
self.setNeedsStatusBarAppearanceUpdate()
}
}
//called when background is touched and added to tapGesture in viewDidLoad
#objc func showBackButtonAndStatusBar(){
// 1. set bool to false
statusBarShouldBeHidden = false
UIView.animate(withDuration: 0.25){
// 2. bring statusBar back
self.setNeedsStatusBarAppearanceUpdate()
}
// 3. bring backButton back
navigationItem.setHidesBackButton(false, animated: true)
}
}
How can I get the SplitViewVC to let me hide the statusBar?

Answer 1

It appears that you are trying to hide the status bar through the detail view controller. The status bar in the user interface is controlled only by the split view controller because it is on top of the view controller hierarchy. Therefore, the easiest way to control the behavior of the status bar is to subclass UISplitViewController and then override the prefersStatusBarHidden computed property in the subclass. Also, make sure you go to your storyboard and change the split view controller's custom class field in the Identity inspector to your subclass.
---Updated Answer---
#LanceSamaria Okay, I took your code above and tweaked some things. First of all, I only added the button action and not the tap gesture. Also, I commented out the hiding the back button, because this is important in the UI in order to be able to go back to the master view. Anyway, now when you click the button, the SplitViewController will hide the status bar. If you click the button again, then the status bar will reappear.
import UIKit
class DetailViewController: UIViewController {
#IBOutlet weak var detailDescriptionLabel: UILabel!
var statusBarShouldBeHidden = false
func configureView() {
// Update the user interface for the detail item.
if let detail = self.detailItem {
if let label = self.detailDescriptionLabel {
label.text = detail.description
}
}
}
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
// Do any additional setup after loading the view, typically from a nib.
self.configureView()
}
/* override var preferredStatusBarUpdateAnimation: UIStatusBarAnimation{
return .slide
} */
var detailItem: NSDate? {
didSet {
// Update the view.
self.configureView()
}
}
#IBAction func buttonTapped(_ sender: UIButton) {
// 1. hide backBar button
//navigationItem.setHidesBackButton(true, animated: false)
// 2. set bool to true
statusBarShouldBeHidden = !statusBarShouldBeHidden
UIView.animate(withDuration: 0.25){
// 3. api method to allow the statusBar to disappear
guard let svc = self.splitViewController as? SplitViewController else { return }
svc.statusBarShouldBeHidden = self.statusBarShouldBeHidden
svc.setNeedsStatusBarAppearanceUpdate()
}
}
}
Also, one more really important thing. Below is my code for the split view controller subclass. Note that I use the same variable name "statusBarShouldBeHidden" in both the split view controller and the detail controller.
import UIKit
class SplitViewController: UISplitViewController {
var statusBarShouldBeHidden = false
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
}
override var prefersStatusBarHidden: Bool {
return statusBarShouldBeHidden
}
}
Thank you for posting this question. This has helped my learn a lot trying to solve this problem. Please let me know if you still have a question about what this.