iOS map style config slide up? - ios

iOS 7 has changed how maps are displayed by apps on the iPhone, and especially how the user configures the map.
The map is displayed like this, with an Info button.
When the user taps the Info button, the configuration screen slides up.
How do I recreate a screen overlay like this in my code? While I don't want the user to be dropping pins, I want the user to be able to switch between different map styles or open the address I'm pointing to in Apple's Maps app.

If you are trying to do a simple overlay view, then look into making an UIView slide up through UIView animations. Other than that, you would need an UISegmentedControl and related code. You would also need to blur the view and make it translucent, so look into my other question and answer on how to properly blur an UIView:How to apply blur to a UIView?

I've never looked into it, but I've heard the only easy way to do a translucent background (as in, without writing your own OpenGL code) is to create a UIToolbar instance.
I'm guessing you'd make a toolbar with no items, just treat it like UIView and add your own subviews (UITableView, etc). It is a subclass of UIView.

Related

Place image on top of all "layers" on iOS screen

What are the constraints/alternatives to place an image that stays on top of all iOS "layers" and windows. Think of it as a lock screen but that still allows you to interact with you phone, meaning browse, answer calls, etc. The image will be displayed in a transparent way (say 40%) and will be launched by an application.
Not really sure what you are asking for but if you are looking for a way to add some code once and it shows everywhere on each of your ViewController then there really is no way to do that.
What you can do is
Use UIToolBar
add buttons to that tool bar
Add that tool bar to each ViewController in storyboard (where you need them)
Create a global function / method that you can call in from any ViewController that has the button actions in it. That way you edit the code once in one place and use it every where.
If you don't like UIToolBar then
you can add your own UIImageView and add a transparent background to it
Add your buttons on the UIImageView. (You will have to add constraints)
then show that on every ViewController
If all this seems to much work then you can use existing controls HERE and see which one fits your needs.
This maybe a good one - FCVerticalMenu

How to create a see through button with "blurred" background in iOS 7

I am updating my app to iOS 7 and wanted to improve the UI. I want to create a see through background like Control Center. So basically I have a button, which I would like to have a see through and "blurred" background like control center. Thanks!
There's nothing to stop you using a UIToolbar.
Create a UIView as a base view with clear background, add a UIToolbar anchored to it's edges so it fills the view and then add your other controls to your base view above the toolbar.
It'll look for example like this:
The blurring effect is not available as a public API. There are third party implementations available, such as FXBlurView, which I can recommend.
You shouldn't really be using a toolbar. It's called toolbar for a reason.
One way to go would be to take a snapshot image of your background and blur it (you can use UIImage+ImageEffects category included in Apple samples to achieve consistent effect).
You can then just crop the image to desired frame and use it as a background of your button.
Are you looking to have a 'dynamic' blur effect (like in Control Center)? It's still doable, but it makes things more complicated.
You can also create blur effects with GUPImage Framework here is a full tutorial about it iOS blur effect tutorial. The tutorial also explains why you shouldn't use toolbar for blur effect creation

What is the correct approach for a custom UIToolBar?

Is it better - better in the sense of not getting rejected from the Apple store - when trying to create a custom* UIToolbar to either:
Option A
Add the oversize middle button as a UIButton to the self.navigationController.view this is key as I'm adding a UIButton to the navigationController which seems to contradict the apple docs
Use UIToolbar appearance to implement the custom background
Option B
Create a UIToolbar and add it as a subview of the current ViewController in UINavigationController
Add the UIButton as a subview of the current ViewController in UINavigationController
Use UIToolBar's method setBackgroundImage to add the custom background
*Custom background, Oversized middle button
This is the shape of the toolbar:
Extra details: This app is for iOS 5.X or greater. It uses UINavigationController. Key challenge is that a section of the app hide/shows the navigationbar depending on the state of the app.
Option A means I don't have to workout where to place the UIToolBar, it's a challenge to work out where to place the UIToolbar because a) if I'm showing or hiding the navigationBar this shifts everything up/down vertically b) iPhone 5 with extra vertical space - I can't use autolayout as I'm support iOS 5 and I haven't really worked out how to use autoresizing masks. I'mu using hard coded "magic" numbers.
I wouldn't do either of those.
UIToolbar is nice when you want to do what it does, and it does allow some basic customization. But in this case you want a toolbar-like view that draws itself in a way that UIToolbar doesn't seem to allow for. You probably know exactly what items you want to appear in your "toolbar", and it's unlikely that you'll need to handle arbitrary assortments of UIBarItems.
So, instead of giving yourself a headache trying to force UIToolbar to do something that it was never designed for, just create a simple view containing your background image (part of which will be transparent). Place some image-based UIButtons in the view, and call it a day. It wouldn't be a bad idea to create a custom UIView subclass representing your toolbar so that all the setup is nicely packaged up in one place, and so that you can reuse the toolbar in multiple views if you need to.

iOS: Add an image to the Navigation bar

I'm currently working on an iOS app that is pretty much supposed look and work like an already existing android app.
As a part of that, I'd like to make the top navigation look the same, but since iOs devices do not provide a hardware or software integrated back button, I'd also like to keep the back button navigation that's common to iOs apps.
I've tried numerous attempts to achieve it, but I'll stick with the latest I'm working on since it looks the most promising. I've started to work on a custom UINavigationBar class that overrides the initWithCoder: and layoutSubviews: methods. The result is as follows:
As you can see, the back button now overlaps the application icon. What I'm looking for is a way to make the button and the text to scale into the space right of the application icon. I've tried to handle this in layoutSubviews: but the superclass logic appears to be rather complex, I was not able to reproduce it's functionality (in particular it seems to be working with some private variables I don't have access to).
I also tried manipulating self.frame before calling [super layoutSubviews] but apart from endless loops I was not able to achieve anything in that direction.
I'd be happy if anyone could point me into the right direction.
If I understand your problem correctly, I think you could do this by adding a custom titleView to the UINavigationItem, and have an image view (on the left side for the icon) and a label (for the title) as subviews. This would replace the default title.

Unusually cool looking tab bar setup within a rootviewcontroller of a UISplitView

The ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) iView app for iPad, has great looking tab like setup within a rootViewController of a UISplitView.
The tabs named "Browse/Watch/Listen" are particularly interesting are they simulated or real tabs?
It's unlike any UITabBar I've seen around in iPad apps.
Does anyone know how something like that is possible?
The round rect button in custom mode will be transparent and any png image will maintain in transparencies.
3 or more buttons with transparent images would be the way to go. A different color for when they are selected and your all set. You could also make them look like they are overlapping with images that continue the button next to it.
With the iOS devices it is more about appearance and less about the underlying functionality.
This is a custom control, they made themselves from scratch.
Fortunately for you, you don't need to make it from scratch. :)
There's a lot of open source component that does just this, just like these ones.
Those tabs look and feel like 3 UIButtons. Notice how the UI highlight acts when touching the buttons, and the action is only triggered on touchUpInside.
The tab content is probably a UITableView which gets refreshed when switching tabs.

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