Preserve custom tabbar view state between view controllers - ios

Question

We have a custom view, which looks like a tabbar but is ultimately a subclass of UIView.
The view is shown as a tabbar would at the bottom of a UIViewController. When an image is touched in the view controller we transition to another view controller.
The second view controller has the same fake tabbar view being shown at the bottom. The user can close the second view controller and it will transition back to the first.
What is the best way to keep the same view and its state for both view controllers? For example part of the fake tabbar might be a usable button with a badge icon showing (2). If that is touched it would go down to (1). This would need to be reflected on both instances of the view.
Would the correct approach be to just use prepareForSegue as normal and keep updating the view state or passing the views instance around? Or is there a better approach?

Answer 1

I think the best approach is to implement something similar with the native tab bar. You can achieve this by implementing a container view . How you do that is a long story to post here but there are many resources on the internet. Basically you will have the same fake bar and your view controller will be shown in container view that should be put just above the tab bar. The view controller with both the container view and the tab bar should manage the transitions and update the bar.

Answer 2

Yeah, just as Jelly said I'd go the parent/child view controller route, with the 'tab bar' managing adding/removing the view controllers and associated views in response to touch events.

Answer 3

I am working on the same scenerio. In a UIViewController take your tabBar view at the bottom and above that take a blank UIView. Now on click of tabBar button, add and remove your new ViewController's view using AutoLayout like as -
#pragma mark - TAB BAR METHODS
-(void)setSelecedView:(VIEWSELECTION)selecedView
{
[self RemoveChildViewControllers ];
switch (selecedView)
{
case VIEWSELECTION_HOME:
{
HomeViewController *homeVC = [[HomeViewController alloc]initWithNibName:#"HomeViewController" bundle:nil];
self.titleString=#"Wellborn Company App";
[self displayContentController:homeVC OnView:self.DumpingView];
}
break;
case VIEWSELECTION_SEARCH:
{
SearchViewController *searchVC = [[SearchViewController alloc]initWithNibName:#"SearchViewController" bundle:nil];
self.titleString=#"Search";
[self displayContentController:searchVC OnView:self.DumpingView];
}
break;
}}
#pragma mark - VC Adding/Removing Methods
- (void)RemoveChildViewControllers
{
NSArray *childVCArray = [self childViewControllers];
for ( __strong UIViewController *childvc in childVCArray)
{
[childvc willMoveToParentViewController:nil];
[childvc.view removeFromSuperview];
[childvc removeFromParentViewController];
}
}
- (void)displayContentController:(UIViewController*) content OnView:(UIView*)parentView
{
[self addChildViewController:content];
[parentView addSubview:content.view];
NSDictionary *views = #{
#"childView" : content.view,
};
NSArray *arr;
[content.view setTranslatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints:NO];
arr = [NSLayoutConstraint constraintsWithVisualFormat:#"V:|-0-[childView]-0-|" options:0 metrics:nil views:views];
[parentView addConstraints:arr];
arr = [NSLayoutConstraint constraintsWithVisualFormat:#"|-0-[childView]-0-|" options:0 metrics:nil views:views];
[parentView addConstraints:arr];
[content didMoveToParentViewController:self];
}

Answer 4

If it is just a view and your simply pushing view controllers on a navigation stack, then add your view to your navigation view controllers view.
[self.navigationController.view addSubview:view];