Can anyone point to any guidance/documentation on how items should be placed in a view controller that will be displayed as a popover so that the components are appropriately positioned with auto layout?
Specifically: I'm working in Xcode 8.3 with the new "Present as Popover" segue, with the new "universal" storyboards. I add a view controller and then a popover segue to that view controller. When it is displayed, I see that roughly the top-left quadrant of the view controller is displayed as a popover, but that no auto layout appears to be taking place as far as I can see to accommodate the slightly different sizes of an iPad popover vs "full screen" behaviour on the different sized iPhones -- so in effect, a slightly different section of the view controller is visible depending on the device.
I assume this isn't really how things are supposed to work, and the whole raison d'être of the universal popover segue is to appropriately fit things to the popover size via auto layout? So can anyone shed some light on what I'm doing wrong or how popups are supposed to work with respect to auto layout?
Something to watch for with popovers is that on devices like the iPad, the size class for the popover is not the same as the controller which raises it.
You will probably find that the size class goes from regular width to compact width when you use a popover on an iPad. If you have layout coded to regular width for your popover content, then it will not work in the popover.
The size of the popover itself comes from the content size properties for the controller presented. You can set this size explicitly in the attribute inspector for the view controller or in code. See: How to present popover properly in iOS 8
To make the elements display correctly on screen, change the size class control to Any-Any (near the layout toolbar at the bottom of the Interface Builder canvas) before adding elements in the Storyboard in the View Controller that will act as a popover.
Related
I have a custom view which needs to be displayed on all the iPhone devices(4, 4S, 5, 5S, 6 and 6 Plus). When creating the custom view XIB, I have mentioned it as "Inferred" but it is not resizing for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus devices. I am not able to figure out the issue. I am confused on what would be actual differences between "Inferred" and "Freeform". Can someone please explain the differences?
Inferred resizes the scene according to its parent scene. For example if you have a scene that is the size of an iPad and then you add a new scene to your storyboard and create a segue to it, it will automatically resize to the same size as the iPad scene (where the segue originates from).
Freeform ignores the above rule and you're able to size it as you see fit, in the utility pane on the right.
Both of these however have nothing to do with how the view is displayed and sized on actual devices. For that you need to use auto layout and constraints. Or springs and struts. Some even do it in code if they need more flexibility.
“Inferred” is the default setting for storyboards and it means the scene will show a navigation bar when it’s inside of a navigation controller, a tab bar when it’s inside of a tab bar controller, and so on. You could override these settings if you wanted to, but keep in mind they are here only to help you design your screens. The Simulated Metrics aren’t used during runtime, they’re just a visual design aid that shows what your screen will end up looking like.
"FreeForm" Usually you use the freeform property when you add the view controller as a child to another view controller programmatically and you really want to have that fixed size.If you push the view controller or you present it as modal view controller (and you use the modal presentation styles) then there is no need to use freeform.Also another use of the freeform property is to preview the actual size of your view controller when is presented as a modal view controller using existent presentation styles.
I am moving my Storyboard to use Auto Layout, and want to use size classes so I don't have to do the iPhone and iPad storyboard separate. But while 90% of the storyboard is the same, for the iPhone I use a navigation controller, while for the iPad I don't (load view manually and pop them on top of the main view).
Is there a easy way with size classes to specify that the initial view controller is different for the bigger sizes?
As I understand and tried, if I change the simulated size of the ViewController in the storyboard it will still stretch its main "view" property to the whole screen.
So my question is when and why should I change this "Freeform" property?
Whenever I needed to make some overlay, I just make the main "view" transparent and create another view on top of that with my content, then I present it I do it as a container.
As I see there is no need for it, And I couldn't find anywhere in Apple documentation about it.
This property is only for simulating a different size.
ViewControllers do not always have to be fullscreen containers, for example View Controller containment, or the new iOS 7 View Controller transitions may lead to a View Controller that's size covers some partial area of the screen.
You would use the 'freeform' mode to change the size in interface builder, so you can simulate what the end size would be, whilst you work with it.
This was answered in the Q UIViewController Freeform size issue: uncheck "Resize View From NIB" in your View Controller's Attributes Inspector and your freeform view controller's view will indeed be decoded at the size you designed in your storyboard.
You are not quite on the right track. If you use Freeform for the size of the view controller, you can specify the desired size of your controller.
Also it's really important how you use the controller, how you set the springs & struts or layout constraints. If you set the springs or constraints to stretch your controller's view to "match" the parent size then the view will be stretched, if not it will keep the size you mentioned but not in all cases. For example if you present the view controller modally and you specify a different explicit size in IB then the view will have this size.
Usually you use the freeform property when you add the view controller as a child to another view controller programatically and you really want to have that fixed size.
If you push the view controller or you present it as modal view controller (and you use the modal presentation styles) then there is no need to use freeform.
Also another use of the freeform property is to preview the actual size of your view controller when is presented as a modal view controller using existent presentation styles.
Another wrongly implementation that I seen before regarding the size of the view controller's view is to check the size in viewDidLoad. Always check the size in viewWillAppear|| viewDidAppear.
I have multiple popovers in my app and need each one of them to be exact sizes. When I set each view controller an explicit size, the explicit size doesn't show in storyboard, but it does in the simulator.
Select the view controller in the storyboard and set its Size pop-up menu in the Simulated Metrics section of its Attributes inspector to Freeform. Now you can adjust the size to match the size it will be when the app runs.
Do note, however, that the size of a view controller's view in the storyboard is completely unimportant. It has no effect on the app when it runs. The view controller's view is always resized to fit its surroundings when the app runs. The only thing that matters in this case the popoverContentSize or preferredContentSize - the storyboard is just a place to draw in. You should be using constraints in such a way that the fact that the view is resized when the app runs doesn't matter to you.
I have created an iPad app containing a popover view embedded in a navigation controller. I like using Storyboard as much as possible, and setting the "Use Explicit Size" in Xcode give me the correct size of my popover on the iPad. But it does not resize the UINavigationController view and its embedded UIViewControllers when viewing the storyboard in Xcode.
This is quite annoying as the size of my view in Xcode does not correspond to the actual size of the popover.
So, my problem is not setting the correct size of the popover (i also know i can do that with code), but I want the views in storyboard to show the actual size of my views.
What is the correct way to create viewControllers embedded in a navigation controller using storyboard?
For the views embedded in the navigation controller, you can change their size in the storyboard by doing the following:
Select the View Controller.
Go to the Attributes Inspector under Simulated Metrics and select Size: Freeform.
Select the View Controller's view.
Go to the Size Inspector and change the width and height.
After that, the view should be sized correctly in the storyboard.
Unfortunately I do not know how to change the size of the navigation controller.