How to create a horizontal and vertical split view in iOS - ios

I am relatively new to working with iOS, and I need some help wrapping my head around the way to construct this view :-)
What I want to accomplish is to have a view with a horizontal and a vertical split, thus making four quadrants, each being an independent view. At the cross between the vertical and the horizontal splits I want to put a draggable button that, when dragged, will control the position of both splits. This button will be relatively big, so it will overlap with the central corners of all four quadrants.
Furthermore, I would like each of the four quadrants to be scrollable in all directions.
I have been looking at ScrollViews, TableViews, and containers, but I really need a pointer in the right direction :-) How do I structure this layout in XCode?

You definitely want to use a custom container controller (with 4 container views) to do this, assuming that by independent views, you mean separate view controllers. The custom container controller can be set up in IB, by dragging in container views and sizing them how you want. The button would be a subview of the container controller over top the 4 container views. If you want the views in each of the quadrants to be scrollable, then you would need to add a scroll view to each of them, and give them a large enough content view so that they need to scroll in both directions.

Related

Autolayout with stackViews inside a UIPageViewContoller Inside a Container View?

I’ve been struggling with this for a few days now…I can’t figure out how to correctly layout these constraints…. the bottom container view on the left is a UIPageViewController that loads the VC on the right…. that VC has a background view and 2 stackViews inside it… any ideas on how best to layout? I've tried constraining the leading and top of the background view to the safe area, then the same of the stackview (containing other stackviews) to the background view, but no matter what the stackviews display over each other?
The problem wasn't with auto-layout or my constraints, I was simply trying to fit too big of a view (the graph) inside it's superviews...when I shrunk the size of the graph, the existing constraints laid out the views perfectly.
To anyone else facing a similar issue however, Honey's comment is good advice, generally you should add the furthest "back" view first, add it's constraints, test to make sure it's correct, then repeat on each subview you add, as opposed to dragging all your views, then constraining them. The former is always the better approach. 👍

Swift - Scroll View smaller than Main View

I've many troubles with a ScrollView that is more little than main view.
My goal is the layout in the figure
where gray view is a TableView and blue is a hierarchy composed by a View inside the ScrollView. Everything is plaed all inside a main View. So the general hierarchy is the follow
In the ScrollView i've to put many elements, Switch for the final product, Label to understand. So i want the possibility to scroll.
Reading around the web i've found always the same, more or less, solution, this: one, two, three, four, five, etc.
As soon as i add various constraints as explained (for me are not all 0), both on the emulator and on the real device, the ScrollView disappears.
But as we see, in these example there is the case of a single ScrollView inside a main View, on full display. So i've tried also with another View to contain the hierarchy ScrollView-View. Unfortunately, i've the same results.
What is the problem? Where wrong i?
Control-drag from the content view of the scrollView to the viewControllers view and make Equal widths then change that constraint multiplier to 0.5 , same for the tableView sure minue margin between it and the scrollview
also make sure constraints are properly hooked from top to bottom
Here is a demo of what you want exactly scrollViewHalf

What's the best approach to display a variable number of images within a TableViewCell in a xib file?

I am building an app about meetings where I want to show a preview of the VIP participants in each meeting cell.
These participants are not clickable nor scrollable, the only purpose it's to quickly see them at a glance.
The problem is that the view is very dynamic:
VIP's appear with image or initials
The rest of the attendees is just a number
if >5 VIP's, the circles start going together overlapping (spacing goes smaller)
if 9 VIPs, big wrapping circle “All VIPs in Attendance"
This is how it will look:
What should I do?
CollectionView (seems over-kill as I am not interested in any kind of interaction with the images)?
StackView?
Images (and change constrains programmatically)?
NOTE:
These is just one kind of Table View Cell, but we have a lot more variations, so we are building the custom cells in xib files. Xcode doesn't allow me to add a Collection View Cell in to the Collection View within the xib.
Interesting task - I'm sure there are numerous approaches, but here is one using UIStackView plus some on-the-fly calculations.
The idea is to define a maximum gap between views; a maximum width for all views; calculate the actual gap needed, and then let UIStackview handle the actual positioning.
Certainly not every feature you need, but should get you going in the right direction.
You can see/download the source for this here: https://github.com/DonMag/ScratchPad
Look at the Swift3/SpreadingViews sub-project for this example.
The problem with scrollable views (UIScrollView based views as UICollectionView), is that you will have to deal with the scroll, or pre-compute the width of your content, which is not always easy. For this reason, if you don't want to have scrollable content, I'd not use a UICollectionView, neither any UIScrollView based view.
Then you have the option to go with an UIStackView. Stack views are great to "append" multiple views and create some kind of "pile" of views in a very easy way. However, if you don't control how many items you need, you will overpass the boundaries of your container view.
Therefore, this is what I'd do:
"Fixed container view width" case: If your container view (your cell) has a fixed width (that never changes), I'd manually add as many UIImageViews I want to support in the XIB itself, and then hide/unhide them depending on the number of items I want to display.
"Variable container view width" case: If your container view (your cell) has a variable width (that changes depending on the screen size or whatever other factor), then you will have to compute in any case (do the math!) the amount of items you are able to display within the width you have available. Then, you can choose between using an UIStackView or adding your views & constraints manually to your container view.
Does what I say make sense?
Thanks,

Custom Collection View Layout like Chanel app

I'm trying to do a custom layout like the Chanel app you can find the app in the Appstore.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/chanel-fashion/id409934435?mt=8
I know they are using an UICollectionView, but no clue how to start.
The interaction feels like a tableview mixed with a paginated scroll. When you scroll the elements grow, and the first element position itself at the top.
Start with dragging & positioning just one UIView. See UIGestureRecognizer docs and look for existing examples of movable views. You'll need an UIPanGestureRecognizer to move the view.
Resize the view depending on its Y position.
Create & position an image inside that view depending on the view size using a couple autolayout constraints.
Note that Chanel app has different constants for these constraints. With a minimum view height, one image's top is 80% height, for another image it's 90% height. Make sure you can manipulate constraints from code (I think it's a good idea to create everything from code there, XIBs are not very flexible).
Make the view "anchoring" to certain points (e.g. top = -75%, 0%, 75%, 90% from what I see in the Chanel app) when you stop moving it. Just find the nearest one and animate the view to it.
Once you did it with 1 view, move all your work to an NSView subclass (if it's not yet there) and create a collection of these views.
You can create UICollectionView, but I'd rather do it with a simple NSArray: I actually don't see a reason to use UICollectionView here; it's a very simple structure. Anyway, you write your own gesture recognizer (don't you? I can't see another way) - so what's the point to use UICollectionView? If you want to expand the app functionality some day, UICollectionView will unlikely help you with that. Well, it's my hypothetical approach, you can find another one while working on that.
Position other views while you're moving an "active" view. Do it by hand, without any UIScrollViews.
Write a function that reflects the Y position of the "neighbor" views while you moving one. It should "slow down" to the bottom of screen.

Animate View properties by moving other sibling views

I am trying to create an iOS UI where I have a set of subviews arranged as a grid on the UI and on clicking any of them I would like to expand this subview to a larger size. I am able to do the animation to expand this subview but I would also like this functionality such that other subviews nearby are pushed away.
On dimissing, this expanded view it should contract to the original size and bring back the other views to its original location.
I am thinking of a variety of ways to implement this but there are many use cases, and hence I would like some pointers in the right direction?
Does iOS itself provide a functionality by which expanding a sibling view contracts/moves the neighboring one? If not, what other ways are there to implement this?
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