I am going through the Stanford Winter 2015 Swift/iOS course and while doing the assignments I run into a behavior I'd like to change.
I use Autolayout as described in the videos (making the display pin to leading and trailing view edges) and the Calculator app "Display" UILabel is fine with an initial value of 0 and whenever the value used to set it (a String) is non-nil and non "".
If it is either nil or "", the entire UILabel disappears. What I am trying to do is to "clear" the display whenever there is no value to display or an incorrect calculation resulted in nil.
Any tips on who to deal with this in general? "Clearing" a UILabel without changing it's on-screen dimensions?
Edit (thanks Rob)
The UILabel has the following constraints
1. Option-click drag-left to containing UIView, selected "leading" something (on commute to work can't check yet for exact wording.
2. Same method as (1) except that the drag is to the right edge and selecting "trailing"
3. Option click-drag up to top of view, select "vertical" menu option.
4. Same as (3) except that drag is to a UIButton underneath the UILabel on the GUI.
With those settings, the label when it contains a number is always visible and (if understand, will color it to verify) stretches across the screen even if the text doesn't.
The layout looks correct in profile and landscape as long as content of UILabel is not empty. If empty, it seems to "shrink to fit" so much that the buttons below get moved up towards the top.
I'm a C++ dev since mid 90s but I have little UI experience and no more than a couple weeks experience in iOS/Swift development.
Thanks!
You can always give the UILabel a min width and min height or constraints that holds the left and right side of the label. That should keep the label from changing it's dimensions to zero.
Use a custom UILabel class assigned in Interface Builder >> Identity inspector >> Custom Class >> Class to override UILabel intrinsic content size.
No need to create any superfluous auto-layout constraints.
Swift:
class UILabelNonCompressible: UILabel
{
private static let NonCompressibleInvisibleContent = " "
override var intrinsicContentSize: CGSize
{
if /* zero-width */ text == nil ? true : text!.isEmpty
{
// prefer mirror-and-calculate over modify-calculate-restore due to KVO
let doppelganger = createCopy()
// calculate for any non-zero -height content
doppelganger.text = UILabelNonCompressible.NonCompressibleInvisibleContent
// override
return doppelganger.intrinsicContentSize
}
else
{
return super.intrinsicContentSize
}
}
}
You will also need "How do copy for UILabel?":
extension UILabel
{
func createCopy() -> UILabel
{
let archivedData = NSKeyedArchiver.archivedData(withRootObject: self)
return NSKeyedUnarchiver.unarchiveObject(with: archivedData) as! UILabel
}
}
Related
I'm trying to complete my first app in Swift and I met with the problem.
I have some buttons with the tittles and background image. Running the simulation on different devices makes them scale, so the tittles goes out of buttons frame.
There is no "Dynamic Type Automatically Adjust Font" checkbox in my Xcode attributes inspector so I made the custom UIButton class and made the inspectable var
#IBInspectable var adjustFontSize : Bool {
set { titleLabel?.adjustsFontForContentSizeCategory = newValue }
get { return titleLabel!.adjustsFontForContentSizeCategory }
but this does't helps and I got "Automatically adjusts font requires using a dynamic type text style" warning
So how can I make my button title scale to fit the Button frame when the button changes size and proportions on different devices?
This worked for me.
btn.titleLabel?.minimumScaleFactor = 0.1
btn.titleLabel?.numberOfLines = 1
btn.titleLabel?.adjustsFontSizeToFitWidth = true
Try these
button.titleLabel!.numberOfLines = 1
button.titleLabel!.adjustsFontSizeToFitWidth = true
button.titleLabel!.baselineAdjustment = .alignCenters
but for them to work, you will have to set button width constraint either in storyboard or programatically.
This will then make the title size change based on the width of the button.
I'm learning swift with cs193p and I have a problem with UITextView.sizeThatFits(...). It should return a recommended size for popover view to display an [int] array as a text. As you can see in Paul Hegarty's example (https://youtu.be/gjl2gc70YHM?t=1h43m17s), he gets perfectly-fit popover window without scrollbar. I'm using almost the same code that was in this lecture, but instead i've got this:
the text string equals [100], but the sizeThatFits() method is returning a size that is too small to display it nicely, even though there is plenty of free space.
It is getting a bit better after I've added some text, but still not precise and with the scrollbar:
Here is the part of the code where the size is being set:
override var preferredContentSize: CGSize {
get {
if textView != nil && presentingViewController != nil {
// I've added these outputs so I can see the exact numbers to try to understand how this works
print("presentingViewController!.view.bounds.size = \(presentingViewController!.view.bounds.size)")
print("sizeThatFits = \(textView.sizeThatFits(presentingViewController!.view.bounds.size))")
return textView.sizeThatFits(presentingViewController!.view.bounds.size)
} else { return super.preferredContentSize }
}
set { super.preferredContentSize = newValue }
}
What should I do so this will work in the same way as in the lecture?
It looks like there are 16 pt margins between the label and its parent view. You need to take that into account when returning the preferred size of the popover.
You should try both of the following:
Add 32 to the width that's returned from preferredContentSize
In Interface Builder, clear the layout constraints on your UILabel, then re-add top, bottom, leading, and trailing constraints and make sure that "Constrain to Margins" option is not enabled.
Finally, instead of overriding preferredContentSize, you can simply set the preferredContentSize when your view is ready to display, and you can ask Auto Layout to choose the best size:
override func viewDidLayoutSubviews() {
self.preferredContentSize = self.view.systemLayoutSizeFitting(UILayoutFittingCompressedSize)
}
If your layout is configured correctly, systemLayoutSizeFitting(UILayoutFittingCompressedSize) will return the smallest possible size for your view, taking into account all of the margins and sub-views.
I am trying to display a UILabel that may take up multiple lines but I'm having problem with how the height is resized.
Here is what it looks when I have text over a single line, displaying correctly:
When the text spans multiple lines however this happens:
Here's the interface builder settings I'm using:
Ideally I'd like the text view to remain at athe top of the screen and just take up as much space as it needs to diaplay the text but I really can't tell where I am going wrong.
The text view is a bit tricky to handle with automatic layout. If possible use an UILabel. If not then there are several issues with the text view and the most manageable solution is to add the height constraint which is then manipulated in the code.
The height of the text view content can be determined as:
let height = textView.sizeThatFits(textView.frame.size).height
It is also possible to use
let height = textView.contentSize.height
But the results are sometimes incorrect.
You do need to then set the delegate for the text view so that on change you will refresh the size of the text view.
Well you did give it permission to do so based on your constraints. Any height > 0 as long as it's 20 from the top margin. Since you don't have any other views to base your height off of you can hook up an outlet to your label and use this:
#IBOutlet weak var label: UILabel!
override func viewDidAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
super.viewDidAppear(animated)
label.sizeToFit()
}
Uncheck the "Preferred Width" explicit checkbox(In Size Inspector)
Remove the height constraint on you UILabel.
It will definitely work.
Suppose I have three labels that are laid out below each other in a column. The uppermost label's top edge is pinned to the superview's top edge. All following labels' top edges are pinned to the preceding label's bottom edge. The leading and trailing edges of all labels are pinned to the leading and trailing edge of the superview. Here's what it looks like in Interface Builder (I added a blue background on every label to visualize its extent).
In the simulator the result looks like this.
All labels are connected to outlets in a view controller.
#IBOutlet weak var label1: UILabel!
#IBOutlet weak var label2: UILabel!
#IBOutlet weak var label3: UILabel!
When I set the text of label2 to nil
label2.text = nil
the label itself collapses.
However, the top and bottom spaces around the label do not collapse. This is evident by the fact that there is no blue background on the middle label in the last screenshot. As a result, the space between label1 and label3 is double the space of the layout in the first screenshot.
My question is - on iOS8 - what is the easiest way to collapse either the middle label's top or bottom space so that the two remaining labels still use the vertical spacing defined in the original layout? To be clear, this is the result I want to achieve.
Options I've found so far:
Bottom/Top Spacing Constraint Outlet
Define an outlet for the middle label's top or bottom spacing constraint.
#IBOutlet weak var spacingConstraint: NSLayoutConstraint!
Store the constraint's initial constant into a variable (e.g. in awakeFromNib or viewDidLoad).
private var initialSpacing: CGFloat!
override func viewDidLoad() {
initialSpacing = spacingConstraint.constant
...
Set the constraint's constant to zero whenever the text is set to nil or back to its initial value when the text is not nil.
spacingConstraint.constant = label2.text == nil ? 0 : initialSpacing
This approach feels a bit clumsy since it requires two additional variables.
Height Constraint Outlet
Set the vertical spacing around the middle label to zero and increase its height by the same amount. Define an outlet for the height constraint and proceed as above, setting the height to zero when the text is nil and back to it's initial value when the height is not nil.
This is still as clumsy as the previous approach. In addition, you have to hardcode the spacing and cannot use the built-in default spacings (blank fields in Interface builder).
UIStackView
This is not an option since UIStackView is only available on iOS 9 and above.
I'm using this UIView category for this purpose.
It extends UIView by adding two more property named fd_collapsed and fd_collapsibleConstraints using objective-c runtime framework. You simply drag constraints that you want to be disabled when fd_collapsed property set to YES. Behind the scene, it captures the initial value of these constraints, then set to zero whenever fd_collapsed is YES. Reset to initial values when fd_collapsed is NO.
There is also another property called fd_autocollapsed
Not every view needs to add a width or height constraint, views like UILabel, UIImageView have their Intrinsic content size when they have content in it. For these views, we provide a Auto collapse property, when its content is gone, selected constraints will collapse automatically.
This property automatically sets fd_collapsed property to YES whenever specified view has content to display.
It's really simple to use. It's kinda shame that there is no builtin solution like that.
Your solutions are good enough for me and I'd do Bottom/Top Spacing Constraint Outlet solution but since you want something different. You can use this third party: https://github.com/orta/ORStackView It has iOS7+ support and do exactly what you need.
This is low-key a pain all perfectionist devs learn about when trying to stack a bunch of labels. Solutions can get too verbose, annoying to folow, and really annoying to implement (ie. keeping a reference to the top constraint... gets annoying once you do it multiple times, or just change the order of the labels)
Hopefully my code below puts an end to this:
class MyLabel: UILabel {
var topPadding: CGFloat = 0
override func drawText(in rect: CGRect) {
var newRect = rect
newRect.origin.y += topPadding/2
super.drawText(in: newRect)
}
override var intrinsicContentSize: CGSize {
var newIntrisicSize = super.intrinsicContentSize
guard newIntrisicSize != .zero else {
return .zero
}
newIntrisicSize.height += topPadding
return newIntrisicSize
}
}
Usage:
let label = MyLabel()
label.topPadding = 10
// then use autolayout to stack your labels with 0 offset
Granted, its only for top padding, but that should be the only thing you need to layout your labels properly. It works great with or without autolayout. Also its a big plus not needing to do any extra mental gymnastics just to do something so simple. Enjoy!
when I update segmented control text, the interface (segment's width) changed and cut some letters.
[segmentedcontoll setTitle:#"test" forSegmentAtIndex:1];
segmentedcontoll.apportionsSegmentWidthsByContent = YES;
How can I solve this ?
EDIT:
It looks like your content has outgrown the dimensions of the standard UISegmentedControl.
If you are okay with smaller font, it's possible to set the entire control to have a smaller font point size, seen here.
Another option is to configure the segments the other supported way.. With images. It's a little bit of a hack, but you can create images on the fly with the UIView Snapshotting API of views/labels configured however you want and set images for each segment instead of using text. This would allow you to create 2 line labels with fixed widths and set images for each section to be images generated from the label as the content changes. More work, but you would still be using the standard class.
The last option, which might work the best for you, is to create some other custom control that does what you would like. After all, UISegmentedControl really is just a nice button container. And it does somewhat seem like you are using the control in a non-standard way - both as a control and an input form section.
Others have gone this route before and created alternatives that you can use.
You can create a separate class as below,
class CustomSegmentedControl: UISegmentedControl {
//code for creating multi line
override func didMoveToSuperview()
{
for segment in subviews
{
for subview in segment.subviews
{
if let segmentLabel = subview as? UILabel
{
segmentLabel.numberOfLines = 0 //just change here the number of lines and check it.
}
}
}
}
}
and create an outlet in your viewcontroller as,
// Initialize
let items = ["Purple", "Green", "New Segment"]
let customSC = CustomSegmentedControl(items: items)
use customSC and do what ever you want to do, similar to segmentedControl object.