Disable/hide root view controller for one view controller - ios

Question

I'm having troubles hiding the UITabBarController which I defined as my rootViewController for the entire app.
I'm trying to hide the UITabBarController - which is the root view controller for the entire app - on the first view displayed. The idea is that the first view has UIImageView instances which jump to the defined UIViewControllers (which are also defined as view controllers of the root UITabBarController).
Is there a way to have the first view controller without the root UITabBarController but keep it for all other views defined as viewControllers?
Here's the code in AppDelegate defining the view controllers and the UITabBarController as rootViewController.
- (void)initViewControllers {
anIdeaVC = [[IdeaViewController alloc] initWithNibName:#"IdeaViewController" bundle:nil];
[anIdeaVC setTabBarItem:[[[UITabBarItem alloc] initWithTitle:#"Idea" image:[UIImage imageNamed:#"iconIdee.png"] tag:0] autorelease]];
aListTableVC = [[ListTableViewController alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewStylePlain];
[aListTableVC setTitle:#"List"];
aListNC = [[ListNavigationController alloc] initWithRootViewController:aListTableVC];
[aListNC setTabBarItem:[[[UITabBarItem alloc] initWithTitle:#"List" image:[UIImage imageNamed:#"iconList.png"] tag:0] autorelease]];
anInnMapVC = [[MapViewController alloc] initWithNibName:#"MapViewController" bundle:nil];
anInnMapNC = [[InnMapNavigationController alloc] initWithRootViewController:anInnMapVC];
[anInnMapNC setTabBarItem:[[[UITabBarItem alloc] initWithTitle:#"InnMap" image:[UIImage imageNamed:#"iconInnMap.png"] tag:0] autorelease]];
aSearchTableVC = [[SearchTableViewController alloc] initWithNibName:#"SearchTableViewController" bundle:nil];
[aSearchTableVC setTitle:#"Search"];
aSearchNC = [[SearchNavigationController alloc] initWithRootViewController:aSearchTableVC];
[aSearchNC setTabBarItem:[[[UITabBarItem alloc] initWithTitle:#"Search" image:[UIImage imageNamed:#"iconSearch.png"] tag:0] autorelease]];
tabBarController = [[UITabBarController alloc] init];
[tabBarController setViewControllers:[NSArray arrayWithObjects:anIdeaVC, aListNC, anInnMapNC, aSearchNC, nil] animated:NO];
[tabBarController setSelectedViewController:anIdeaVC];
[tabBarController setDelegate:self];
}
- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {
window = [[UIWindow alloc] initWithFrame:[UIScreen mainScreen].bounds];
[self initViewControllers];
[window setRootViewController:tabBarController];
[window makeKeyAndVisible];
return YES;
}
Thanks in advance for your help :-).

Answer 1

I think the best way to go about this is to make the vc with the icons the root to begin with. Then, when user makes a selection, create the tab bar vc and make it the root.
Create a view controller (not just a view) to show the icons and get the user selection. Make that the window's root on launch...
- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {
window = [[UIWindow alloc] initWithFrame:[UIScreen mainScreen].bounds];
// don't do this
//[self initViewControllers];
// or this
//[window setRootViewController:tabBarController];
// instead do this, create the vc that lets user select an icon
// put your icon view in there
IconSelectVC *iconSelectVC = [[IconSelectVC alloc] init];
[window setRootViewController:iconSelectVC];
[window makeKeyAndVisible];
return YES;
}
Add the initViewControllers method to your app delegate's public interface, so it can be called from IconSelectVC. Then add one last line to it to make it replace the window's root vc.
// ... the rest of initViewControllers, then
[tabBarController setSelectedViewController:anIdeaVC];
[tabBarController setDelegate:self];
[window setRootViewController:tabBarController];
}
Now, in your IconSelectVC when you decide it's time to change the UI, get the app delegate singleton and change the window's root.
// in IconSelectVC.m
// when you decide to change to the tab bar.
// Be aware that this vc will be released here, so do any cleaning you need to do here
// e.g. unsubscribe from NSNotifications, clean any timers, finish any asynch requests, etc.
AppDelegate *appDelegate = (AppDelegate *)[[UIApplication sharedApplication] delegate];
[appDelegate initViewControllers];
EDIT - We didn't discuss how this transition should look - my suggestion here will cause an "ugly" transition (in the eye of the beholder, of course) where the UI just changes in one frame. One way (among a few) to get a nicer transition would be to use os7 custom vc transitions.