I'm currently building a custom view controller container for my iOS project and I nearly understand what I'm doing. The one thing I'm stuck on is how do you (properly - aka not a hack) add a view controller in PART of the Parent controller's frame. See how there are multiple view controllers/views in the email app? How does one build a custom controller container that designates the location of such sub-view controllers? How do you properly add such a controller? I'd like to know the "correct" way as designated by apple (best practice).
EDIT: After looking at this some more I was thinking a possible way would be to create views with custom sizing and then push those to the parent. Is this the correct way?
You sort of answered it yourself. The view you have as an example uses a UISplitViewController to show two separate views (left and right). Each of those views has a view controller that owns it. Note that the left side includes all of the view, like the search, nav bar, and toolbar. So just create two separate view controllers and add them to a UISplitViewController and you should be golden! The views themselves are created however you normally create views. Storyboards, NIBs, or in code works.
Related
So here is the problem I am trying to solve.
In each viewController I am trying to insert ads and the actual control elements. I finished couple of tutorial on raywenderlinch.com to understand that how people professionally put ads in their app. They used UIViews to have two views under mainview of view controller. So I completely understood that one subview hold the ads and another is holding actual app contents. if Ad is loaded take up the screen or else let other view have all available area.
After I came back to xcode I started coding the way I learned there. but when I was dropping UIView on storyboard, I saw containerView, which I think was not present when the tutorial was written.
So I am here to ask about the both approach and their pros and cons.
So basically its UIView vs ContainerView. Which way I should do, and why ?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
You use UIView when you already have a view and you do not need to have a dedicated view controller to build and handle interactions within it.
From the UIView help page:
UIView object claims a rectangular region of its enclosing superview (its parent in the view hierarchy) and is responsible for all drawing in that region ...
Simplified structure:
YourViewController ---(has)---> UIView
You use UIContainerView when you need to embed another view controller in the one that you already have. The embedded view controller is in charge of returning a view for the region that the UIViewContainer occupies. Therefore, your UIContainerView knows which view controller to use to render UIView inside the region it occupies.
From the UIContainerView help page:
Container View defines a region within a view controller's view subgraph that can include a child view controller.
Simplified structure:
YourViewController ---(has)---> SubViewController ---(has)---> UIView
That SubViewController returns a view and handles its events.
As an alternative answer, you can also consider the use case instead of the technical differences. For example: Why use a container view?
A common use for container views is to reuse (share) a view, directly in the storyboard. Previously, reusing a view required creating a separate "xib" file, and programmatically adding that view when the view controller was loaded.
The above image is from this extremely simple, easy to follow guide that walks you through how to setup a container view that is shared between 2+ view controllers.
A few other thoughts on when to use it:
A navigation bar is part of a UINavigationController, which is a container view controller. So, if you wanted to build a custom alternative, you'd probably use a container view.
A container might help anytime that you want to temporarily show a complex view on top of your current VC but can't/don't want to present another VC modally. This approach still allows you to build that temporary view in interface builder, to setup auto layout constraints for it, etc
I also found a guide explaining that there's a way to switch out different container views based on the situation, allowing your VC to have sub-sections which are very dynamic, yet without having to build those sub-sections programmatically. A picture, from that guide, exhibiting what I'm referring to:
Hopefully this helps people who are trying to figure out when a container view applies to them. If you have other example use cases, please edit/add them or leave them in the comments!
If you see in detail these container view of UIView class type. To get the insights of why we need containerView you should see below portion
In most ways, a container view controller is just like a content view controller. It manages views and content, coordinates with other objects in your app, and responds to events in the responder chain. Before designing a container controller, you should already be familiar with designing content view controllers. The design questions in “Creating Custom Content View Controllers” also apply when creating containers.
for more detail about container view goto link
But before you begin you should have an understanding of
and also you can check this tutorial for how to use container view.
Thus you can go for both the approaches.
Hope this will help you. happy coding :)
What I need to do is basically build a container(view controller) that can change its child view controller dynamically and also set it's initial view controller dynamically.
I never used the Embed segue before so I thought I'll give it a shot.
However, using it seems to allow me to change the child view controller dynamically using a custom segue between the children view controllers but the initial view controllers seem to be fixed to the one I dragged the segue to in the StoryBoard(The custom segue here would be something alone these lines).
I know I can achieve what i'm looking for by creating x custom segue (where x is the number of children VCs I need) from the container view controller directly to the children and just calling these segues in code based on my needs.
But if that's the only way, what's the reason for using the "Embed" segue, is it only for really simple scenario's ?
An embed segue is not just for really simple scenarii. It can get pretty complicated. A major purpose is to cleanly separate code related to different concerns, that may still coexist on the same screen, into different view controllers. For instance, you could have an authentication controller and a preferences controller, both embedded into a single profile controller.
I am at the beginning of developing an iOS app I am having trouble understanding the MVC (Model-View-Controller) design pattern. I thought I had it down but the more I read the more confused I get. I don't know if this should be an iOS specific question or if the same goes for every use of MVC. I am not using storyboards btw, I want to do it all programmatically.
I believe I understand the basic relationship between Controllers and Models, it's the separation of Views and Controllers that I don't get. Let's say I want to create a UIButton and display it on the screen. Should I initiate the button in the Controller or the View? The controller is responsible for what should be displayed, correct? Wouldn't you just call on a View to display that and not worry about creating the button in the Controller? From what I understand, View Controllers are just Controllers and should therefore control the View, not be the View. It seems like most people do just about everything in the View Controllers. I guess my question boils down to what code goes where?
UIViewController is controller part in the MVC pattern of code.
M(Model)
C(ontroller)
V(View)
Controllers handle navigation between different views , etc.
From here you can get more idea : view and viewcontroller
A view is an object that is drawn to the screen. It may also contain other views (subviews) that are inside it and move with it. Views can get touch events and change their visual state in response. Views are dumb, and do not know about the structure of your application, and are simply told to display themselves in some state.
A view controller is not drawable to the screen directly, it manages a group of view objects. View controllers usually have a single view with many subviews. The view controller manages the state of these views. A view controller is smart, and has knowledge of your application's inner workings. It tells the dumb view objects what to do and how to show themselves.
A view controller is the glue between you overall application and the screen. It controls the views that it owns according to the logic of your application
About View Controllers
View controllers are a vital link between an app’s data and its visual appearance. Whenever an iOS app displays a user interface, the displayed content is managed by a view controller or a group of view controllers coordinating with each other. Therefore, view controllers provide the skeletal framework on which you build your apps.
iOS provides many built-in view controller classes to support standard user interface pieces, such as navigation and tab bars. As part of developing an app, you also implement one or more custom controllers to display the content specific to your app.
Not sure about any iOS specifics but from a PHP standpoint controllers are there to get any data that is needed for the view (via models) and then pass that data to the view.
The view is there to render things to the screen only and should have no logic in it.
So from a website point of view if you wanted to display a users name on the screen:
The controller would request the username from the model
The model would get the username and return it to the controller
The controller would then pass the username to the view
And the view would then render the username.
Hope that helps.
To be not specific, but on a upper layer, you can say as following :
You can put controller code in class extending UIViewControllers
You can put view code in class extending UIView
You can put model code in class extending NSObject
I'm interested in building a slide out sidebar for a view controller, and I've done a lot of reading on how to implement it. This tutorial, as well as virtually all the others go over creating child view controllers, which seems like a great way to go about it. However, it's always done in code for examples.
This post goes over how to create container view controllers in the Storyboard, but it left me confused how exactly container views work in the Storyboard, and there seems to be little in the way of explanations online.
Finally, this post went over how to implement a slide out menu with container view controllers and a Storyboard. Sounds perfect right? Well, in reading it I was confused how the author seems to use multiple container views. I thought there was supposed to be one that encompassed all of the subviewcontrollers. Is it implemented correctly in that post?
Basically, I'd love an explanation on how to implement multiple view controllers using container view controllers via the Storyboard. It's my understanding from the first tutorial that you have the view controller that contains everything, and then add view controllers to that container and then they all work together via delegates. Achieving this in Storyboards is leaving me scratching my head.
Adding a container basically adds a child view controller and its view to the main controller. I think you are not clear on two things here. First, each container can be linked to only 1 controller/view pair. So, if you want to have more than one child controllers, you must have more than one containers. Secondly, communication between parent and child controllers is handled by 'embed segues', not by delegates.
I'm keeping on developing an iPhone app (rigth now native one) and I would need to use a common "header" for all views but I don't want/need a UINavigationBar and prefer much more have a common "partial view". It will have some actions to perform but always the same ones (showing notifications panel, basically). It should be something like you can see in the screenshots.
I don't need (I feel) delegation because the controller's view can handle notifications and show them when user clicked the customize button.
I don't mind to use a Nib o make the view hardcoded but I'm not sure how I must make an instance of the view or the controller that handles it within each app tab (I'm using UITabBar as navigation control).
From my point of view it doesn't exist a way to get a common controller to call wherever needed; you just can use some method to present new controller as modal o push it out and I think that is not what I'm looking for.
Any idea is welcome. Thanks
Create a custom view controller with 2 subviews. Subview 1 is the header. Subview 2 is the container view where child view controllers are displayed (your tab bar controller in this case).
Your custom view controller could be the delegate of the tab bar controller if you want, so it can be notified when the tabs change and update anything on the header view.
Well, finally is have used the solution I found on the link http://patientprogrammer.wordpress.com/2012/03/12/re-usable-subviews-in-ios/
I have created a Nib with a view controller and then, in the main window I have added two view, the top one subclasses the view controller for the Nib view and it is rendered automatically when app is launched without a single line of code within "main" controller. See the screenshots for more detail:
Thank you very much for your help