I need to create a simple layout with a few labels and buttons. Here's how I have positioned the UI elements in the IB.
This is how I want them to look like in the app as well. The label set on the left side with the same width so the elements on the right side will adjust their widths accordingly.
I have set the leading space to superview constraints on the labels on the left side and set vertical spacing between each of them. Similarly I've added trailing space to superview constraint to the labels and buttons on the right side with vertical spacing between each other. I've also added horizontal spacing between each couple of elements (ex: Name <-> John Doe, Telephone <-> button).
When I run it, it looks like this.
The elements only take up widths as their content needs. I assume this problem occurs because there is no way to auto layout to decide on a width. If I set the labels on the left to same width constraint, it doesn't work at runtime because the constants for them are fixed so they looks like this.
How can I make them appear properly like I have them in the interface builder?
Thank you.
I uploaded a test Xcode project with this issue here.
In your final example, it looks like you almost achieved what you wanted. You made all the labels on the left have the same width. You can now set a width constraint on the first label to a width that works for you, and the other labels should automatically match. The only issue you might still have is getting it to look good on wider screens.
Related
I Have a view like so:
And I am trying to add constraints so the text fields are side by side so the auto looks the same no matter the device width, how would I do that?
I have tried the following for all 6 of them:
But it ends up looking like this:
What am I doing wrong?
Ctrl drag from the description TextField to vendor TextField and select Equal Widths from popup
You can also use a vertical stackView where each row is a horizontal 1 with distribution set to Equal spacing and drag the text fields to it that will be more easier
Well, let's look at what we know about the horizontal axis (I assume you've got the vertical axis taken care of). There are two text fields; call them Left and Right. We know these things:
Where Left's leading edge must be
Where Right's trailing edge must be
The distance between Left's trailing and edge and Right's leading edge
The relationship between Left's width and Right's width, i.e. they are equal
Ta-daa:
(A UIStackView would construct these same constraints for you, but in a simple situation like this it's probably more trouble than it's worth.)
There are many ways to do it
I give you two but recommend the first one in your case.
First :
Define a constraint by draging one of your UITextFiled to the other one and set it to “Equal Widths”
You may also be able to define a percentage for each (60-40%) if you like.
Second :
Define a constraint like above (draging) And define a relative ratio (0.5) for UITextField width against its superview. Do it for the other one. You need to go to Object Inspector Tab and change the values if needed (so this requires two constraints, one for each UITextField as each of them are relative to the their superview) this is also a little bit slower than the first approach since margins should be defined with priority.
I am creating a view within IB and and attempting to have 3 UILabels evenly space horizontally across the view. I came across this on SO, https://stackoverflow.com/a/30249550/4597666. I have three UILabels, each have the height and width constrained. Here is what the IB looks like:
I constrained each centered horizontally, and the first UILabel I have the multiplier 3:1, second, 3:3, third 3:5 like the post states.
When I run on my emulator, I don't get the result that I was expecting. It appears all three UILabels are centered horizontally, and the first and third are not offset.
Is there another setting that I'm missing, or another way to properly space the views evenly?
you need to make only one change.
Constraint you set is 3.CenterX to Superview.CenterX all you need to do is interchange the value so that you constraint should look like in below image.
Alternative solution. If you want to set constraints currently you have set then change the ratio from "3:5" to "5:3" and similar for all the labels.
Result:
Hope it helps you solving your problem.
Everything looks fine in IB. When I run my app using an iPhone5/iPhone6/iPad sims, it's completely mangled.
In IB:
In iPhone6 sim:
In the above sim, the buttons are cut. The textfield and textview are also cut. For the TF & TV, they are aligned center but trail off the edges on both sides.
I have the buttons width set
Editor > Pin > Widths Equally
The title label is set with a
Horizontal Center in Container
constraint
The textfield and textview also have
Horizontal Center in Container
and
Editor > Pin > Width
Is there some way to fix this?
-- EDIT --
After a few tries with constraints, looks like I have everything working except the two buttons.
Current listing of constraints:
As suggested by others, you should consider using the Auto-layout feature if you plan on constructing your views using the IB.
Here are some tutorial links:
RayWenderlich.com Part One
Youtube video This one covers a bit of size clases
Hope they help.
UPDATED:
I've read your updated post, you need to add width and height constraints. The view you see in the IB right now is 600 by 600 points, and the simulator one is smaller, which means that if you leave it as is, when you run the app you'll only see what the iphone screen has the capacity to show.
You need to add more constraints than what you used, try defining an equal width for the buttons, and assign the left one a left margin constraint, the right one a right margin constraint, give both of them vertical spacing constraint related to the text view or long label, the text view or long label should have left and right margin constraints, a height constraint and a top constraint to the textfield, the textfield should have a vertical spacing constraint to the label, also left and right and height constraint, and last the label should have leff, right and height constraints plus a top constraint to the main view.
I feel that those are all you need, but Xcode will through warnings at you if it feels you are missing something.
Try it, and let us know.
I have a relatively simple portrait-only UI, laid out in a Storyboard, with items which I want to vertically spread to fill both 3.5 inch and 4 inch screens.
In other words, I want the spacing between the controls to be adjusted so that the UI nicely fills the screen, irrespective of the screen form factor.
This doesn't seem like an unusual thing to want to do, however I just can't get Interface Builder (within Xcode 5) to add the right constraints - I only seem to be able to get it to add fixed vertical space constraints, which do not adjust for different screen sizes.
Does anyone know how to do this without resorting to programmatic UI construction? I've invested a lot of effort in getting the Storyboard-based UI just right.
The solution needs to work on both iOS 6 and 7. Thanks!
How to do this depends on exactly what kind of adjustment you want when the screen size changes. One way to do it to give the top and bottom most views vertical spacing constraints to the top and bottom of the superview, respectively. Add a view, I usually use a UILabel with no text, in between all the views you have stacked vertically, and give them equal heights to one another. Give one of those "spacer" views a fixed height, but edit it so its priority is less than 1000 (which means it's not mandatory that it be satisfied). Then add spacing constraints between each nearest neighbor above and below each "real" view and the "spacers", so that you have all the views from top to bottom connected together by vertical spacing constraints. When the screen size changes, the only thing that can change will be the height of the "spacers", since the priority is less than 1000, and all other constraints are mandatory. My constraints look like this:
The labels each have the standard (8 point) spacing to the "real" views above and below them. The top and bottom views should have whatever spacing you want to the screen edges.
Apple have now posted a document which describes the officially-endorsed approach to solving this problem:
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/userexperience/Conceptual/AutolayoutPG/AutoLayoutbyExample/AutoLayoutbyExample.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40010853-CH5-SW8
Summary of the approach: insert spacer views between your controls, which have equal width/height (as applicable) constraints.
I have pretty straightforward requirements where two labels must be centered horizontally. So, I have selected them and chose Editor->align->center horizontally. Then added top space to container constraint to both of them. I also need the labels to shrink/grow regarding content size. However, IB shows errors and several warnings. I could make the labels shrink/grow just by adding pin between them (horizontal space) but they will not be centered in that case. Here are the screenshots:
here are the errors and warnings:
UPDATE theraven gave an interesting suggestion to use dummy view for centering it horizontally and pinning two labels to it. I have removed all existing constraints, added this dummy view and center X + center Y constraints to it. Then pined two labels to it (added horizontal space constraints). However, I still get a bunch of errors and warnings:
UPDATE2 Just updating the question, but still no valid answer found. #Theraven workaround works for iPhone4, iPhone4S, iPhone5 and iPhone5S, however it's not real centering but rather a workaround. Therefore for iPhone6 and iPhone6 Plus it doesn't work as leading and trailing spaces will be fixed and won't automatically resize for larger width.
What you could do is add both labels to another view, like a container view. Then you need to center this one horizontally and add the necessary constraints.
To add the containing UIView, you can select both labels, go to Editor -> Embed In -> View.
Then you would need to add constraints to make the containing view fit the two labels. So something like this:
First Label (left one):
Leading Space to Superview
Top and bottom Space to Superview
Horizontal spacing to the next Label
Second Label:
Trailing space to superview
Top and Bottom to superview (or align top with the first one)
Then the containing view should resize as to fit both labels. Then all you need to do is add the top offset constraint for this container view and a horizontal alignment it in the parent view.
This way, the containing view will grow as much as it needs to fit both labels and the space between them and will always be centered in the parent view.
I took a screenshot of my test constraints in case it helps you more.
Hope this was what you were looking for.
To solve this use a blank UIView in between your two labels and center it horizontally. Then pin the two labels either side of the centered blank view. It is common convention to use spacer views like this in auto-layout.
I really don't like the idea of adding another view just for sake of estethic.
Another alternative is to horizontally-center the left view, and horizzontally space the right view of an amout X with the left one.
Then to give the horizontally-align contraint of the first view a negative value equal to the first view width plus half the views distance. Or use multipliers as said in a previous comment.
But this only works with fixed width views i guess.
Use centered UIStackView as a container for two labels with a spacing required.
I didn't really understand what you wish to do.
The error you get (in the first screen shot) is that you are missing constraint for the x position of the labels.
For UILabel you must have constraint both for y and for x position regarding to the container view, when you selected them both and chose Editor->align->center horizontally, you just say that label1.center.x = label2.center.x.
You still need to say where they will be in the container view, you added the top space to container, so you do have the y position, but you didn't say where the x position should be.
You said
I have pretty straightforward requirements where two labels must be centered horizontally
But where they should be in respect to their container?
thanks
Using spacer views is the best possible solution I could figure out, even though it looks ugly for the developer. The user wouldn't even know what's going on behind the scenes and once you have the spacer UIView, you can always reuse it.