UICollectionView that only scrolls right (no left, up or down) - ios

Question

How would you go about implementing a UICollectionView with this behaviour?
The idea is that once a user navigates past a certain point, they cannot go back and view those cells again.
My attempt at a solution has been to listen for gestures on the collection view and if disable scrolling once a swipe occurs on the element. The obvious problem with this is that the user can simple hold and drag any particular cell.
Any thoughts?

Answer 1

I think this behavior may be confusing for your users.
Maybe you should try to add some elasticity/bouncing so that your users would be less confused.
Anyway, I see two different ways to achieve this without subclassing
1/ Since UICollectionViewDelegate conforms to UIScrollViewDelegate, you can get the starting offset of your scrollview with – scrollViewWillBeginDragging: then in – scrollViewDidScroll: you would compare the new offset's x value. If the new offset.x 's value is smaller than the starting one, set it to 0 and update your scrollview.
#pragma mark - UIScrollViewDelegate
- (void)scrollViewWillBeginDragging:(UIScrollView *)scrollView {
offset = scrollView.contentOffset;
}
- (void)scrollViewDidScroll:(UIScrollView *)scrollView {
CGPoint newOffset = scrollView.contentOffset;
if (newOffset.x < offset.x) {
// scrolling to the left, reset offset
[scrollView setContentOffset:offset];
}
}
Because there is inertia with scrolling in iOS, scrollViewDidScroll: is called a lot of time, so it may cause performance issues. You may reduce the number of call by targeting your offset with scrollViewWillEndDragging:withVelocity:targetContentOffset: from UIScrollViewDelegate.
2/ Or ou can just use the method scrollViewWillEndDragging:withVelocity:targetContentOffset: which I just spoke about, which sets the offset back to its beginning, with an animation.
- (void)scrollViewWillEndDragging:(UIScrollView *)scrollView withVelocity:(CGPoint)velocity targetContentOffset:(inout CGPoint *)targetContentOffset {
CGPoint newOffset = scrollView.contentOffset;
if (newOffset.x < offset.x) {
// scrolling to the left, reset offset with animation
targetContentOffset->x = offset.x;
}
}
3/ You spoke of UISwipeGestureRecognizer, did you give a try to UIPanGestureRecognizer? This is what "simple hold and drag" is.

Answer 2

You can implement it the same way you would implement an infinite scroll view, by adding / removing items based on the scroll offset.
Override the viewDidScroll: method (UICollectionViewDelegate)
Check if your offset puts the first object of your list past the offset (ie. can you still see it on the screen?)
If it is, then remove it from the collection view.
This simple implementation might result in choppy animations, you might have to do some optimization once it's working but this should get you started.

Answer 3

Another possible solution would be to "reposition" all your elements constantly to appear where they were before you started scrolling if you are scrolling left.
You can achieve this by keeping track of the highest offsetX you ever encountered, and reposition your cells if the current offsetX is lower than the max. That way you will have the impression that your cells are not moving or that you can't scroll, but you will actually be scrolling.

Answer 4

In my case, I have a paginated collection view, so I have to take care when decelerating in the last item of the collection view as well in automatic decelerations for each page.
To fix the issue, I just disable user interaction while the collection view is "moving automatically".
Here the code:
- (void)scrollViewDidScroll:(UIScrollView *)scrollView
{
if (!_isDragging) // <-- only do things if the user is dragging!
return;
CGPoint contentOffset = scrollView.contentOffset;
// If we move to the left
if (contentOffset.x < _contentOffset.x)
{
CGSize contentSize = scrollView.contentSize;
// If content offset is moving inside contentSize:
if ((contentOffset.x + scrollView.bounds.size.width) < contentSize.width)
scrollView.contentOffset= _contentOffset;
}
else
{
// Update the current content offset
_contentOffset = contentOffset;
}
}
- (void)scrollViewWillBeginDragging:(UIScrollView *)scrollView
{
_isDragging = YES;
}
- (void)scrollViewWillEndDragging:(UIScrollView *)scrollView withVelocity:(CGPoint)velocity targetContentOffset:(inout CGPoint *)targetContentOffset
{
_isDragging = NO;
}
- (void)scrollViewDidEndDragging:(UIScrollView *)scrollView willDecelerate:(BOOL)decelerate
{
if (decelerate)
{
// If willDecelerate, stop user interaction!
_collectionView.userInteractionEnabled = NO;
}
}
- (void)scrollViewDidEndDecelerating:(UIScrollView *)scrollView
{
// Once deceleration is finished, enbale user interaction
_collectionView.userInteractionEnabled = YES;
// Set the new content offset
_contentOffset = scrollView.contentOffset;
}