Setting up a UINavigation controller and various view loads - ios

I have setup a UINavigation controller that uses the AppDelegate as the main point of contact.
I have different methods which run such as presentHomeViewController, presentLoginViewController, which push the different view controllers to the Navigation Controller.
App Delegate - didFinishLaunching
welcomeViewController = [[MyWelcomeViewController alloc] initWithNibName:#"MyWelcomeViewController" bundle:nil];
navController = [[UINavigationController alloc] initWithRootViewController:welcomeViewController];
navController.navigationBarHidden = YES;
self.revealSideViewController = [[PPRevealSideViewController alloc] initWithRootViewController:navController];
[self.revealSideViewController setDirectionsToShowBounce:PPRevealSideDirectionNone];
[self.revealSideViewController setPanInteractionsWhenClosed:PPRevealSideInteractionContentView | PPRevealSideInteractionNavigationBar];
self.window.rootViewController = self.revealSideViewController;
Is this the correct process for this?
- (void)presentHomeViewController {
// We start by dismissing the ModalViewConrtoller which is LoginViewController from the welcomeview
[self.welcomeViewController dismissModalViewControllerAnimated:YES];
// Check if the home view controller already exists if not create one
if (!self.homeViewController) {
NSLog(#"presentHomeViewController- Creating the Home View controller");
homeViewController = [[MyHomeViewController alloc] initWithNibName:#"MyHomeViewController" bundle:nil];
}
// Push the homeViewController onto the navController
NSLog(#"presentHomeViewController");
self.navController.navigationBarHidden = NO;
[self.navController setTitle:#"Home"];
[self.navController pushViewController:homeViewController animated:NO];
If I then add the following to a different class :
[self.navigationController pushViewController:accountViewController animated:NO];
No view is pushed to the stack, should I control all the movement within the AppDelegate as I have been doing, or is there betters way to approach this?

EDIT
Thanks for posting your code. So, to address your final question first, I don't recommend controlling your navigation stack from the app delegate. You should be controlling the stack from the view controllers that are the children of the navigation controller.
To that point, remember the hierarchy of view controllers: UINavigationController inherits from UIViewController, and UIViewController has properties defined for all the things you'd see in a navigation layout such navigation items and title. More importantly, it also has properties for its parent view controllers, the view controller that presented it, and its navigation controller. So, considering the hierarchy, your app delegate should only instantiate the navigation controller's root VC and the nav controller itself, and then subsequently set the nav controller's root VC.
From there, you should be pushing and popping other VCs from the VCs themselves. Remember, every VC has a property that's automatically set to point at the navigation controller it's a part of. That's why [self.navigationController pushViewController:] works. For instance, if I have a nav controller whose root VC is a UITableViewController, and tapping on one of the items in the table view pushed a new VC onto the stack, I would push that VC from the table VC and not from the nav controller class or the app delegate.
Sorry if that's confusing. Please let me know if that needs clarification and I'll give it my best. Otherwise, hopefully that gets you on the right track.

Related

Xcode 6 - Added Navigation Controller to storyboard, but not appearing in app

I added a Navigation Controller to my storyboard and it appears like so:
Now in the table view controller, I gave the TableViewController a storyboard id and class to a TableViewController Controller
When I run my app, I don't see the Navigation Bar at the top. This has been extremely frustrating and can't find a solution anywhere. PLEASE HELP
To get to the scene, someone clicks a button and this code runs and it goes to my Table View Controller:
UIStoryboard *storyBoard = [UIStoryboard storyboardWithName:#"Storyboard" bundle:nil];
LHFileBrowser *LHFileBrowser = [storyBoard instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier:#"FileBrowser"];
[self.navigationController pushViewController:LHFileBrowser animated:YES];
[self presentViewController:LHFileBrowser animated:YES completion:nil];
The error is in your code.
If you want to (modally) present a view controller when the user presses a button, you need to present the navigation controller (which will contain the table view controller), not the table view controller itself.
Right now, you're presenting the view controller, which won't show it being embedded in a navigation controller.
Also, you're mixing up two different approaches, by trying to push a view controller onto a navigation controller stack, and also presenting the view controller.
Code Sample:
Here's what you apparently mean to do:
UIStoryboard *storyboard = self.storyboard;
UINavigationController *navigationController = [storyboard instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier:#"MyNavigationControllerID"];
LHFileBrowser *rootViewController = [navigationController topViewController];
// Configure your LHFileBrowser view controller here.
rootViewController.someProperty = ...;
// Modally present the embedded view controller
[self presentViewController:navigationController animated:YES completion:nil];
If you want to change the presentation or transition style, you can set those details in your storyboard.
You didn't explain why you had to programmatically add buttons, but Storyboard segues would have instantiated and presented an embedded view controller for you, without you having to have done it in code.
The more you can do in Storyboard, the less code you have to maintain, support, and update, and the more likely your app will still work properly when a new SDK is released.
Update:
The better way to do this is to let Storyboard do it for you, by adding a segue from the button to the navigation controller that you want to present.

How do I instantiate a storyboard with a given root viewcontroller and initial viewcontroller?

I have a storyboard in my application with a navigation controller and several views. This automatically puts a navigation bar with a back button into any views that are not the root view.
However, sometimes I navigate away from this storyboard to an individual nib. I want to navigate back to the storyboard, but not necessarily to the original root view. I currently use this method to do so:
+(void) TransitionOnStoryboard:(NSString*)storyboard to:(NSString*)identifier withViewController:(UIViewController*)viewController
{
UIStoryboard *sb = [UIStoryboard storyboardWithName:storyboard bundle:nil];
UIViewController *vc = [sb instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier:identifier];
vc.modalTransitionStyle = UIModalTransitionStyleFlipHorizontal;
[viewController presentViewController:vc animated:YES completion:NULL];
}
This shows the view I want but without the navigation bar. How do I specify my navigation controller or root view, such that the app knows to put a navigation bar with a back button in?
Thanks
The answer is to leave your navigation controller underneath the view controller you add from a nib.
Present the nib as a full0-screen modal. That gets rid if your navigation bar, as desired. From that new view controller, you can push more modals, add a navigation controller, or whatever.
Note that you could do all of this and stay inside your storyboard as well.
Once you are done, dismiss the modal to reveal your navigation controller, and you are back in business with your storyboard. You can push a new view controller onto your navigation controller without animation and it should appear as the front-most VC when you pop the modal that came from a nib.
I'm sure that this isn't the ideal way to solve this problem, but it did work very nicely for me.
Essentially, I removed all the views from the view controller that had been generated since I navigated away from the storyboard, but before the current view and popped the current view. In this case, these views were of one class (CheckboxListViewController) and so could be removed quite simply as below:
+(void) navigateToMainMenu:(UINavigationController*)navigationController
{
[QuickView removeFromNavigationController:navigationController allOfViewControllerWithClass:[CheckboxListViewController class]];
[navigationController popViewControllerAnimated:YES];
}
+(void) removeFromNavigationController:(UINavigationController *)navigationController allOfViewControllerWithClass:(Class)viewControllerClass
{
NSMutableArray *keptViewControllers = [[NSMutableArray alloc]init];
for (UIViewController *viewController in navigationController.viewControllers)
if (![viewController isKindOfClass:viewControllerClass])
[keptViewControllers addObject:viewController];
navigationController.viewControllers = keptViewControllers;
}
(note- QuickView is the name of the class that contains these methods.).
Any other classes that you do not want your pop to navigate back to can be removed by calling:
[QuickView removeFromNavigationController:navigationController allOfViewControllerWithClass:[YourClassName class]];
In the navigateToMenu method.

Add a second UINavigationController

I have my first NavigationController set up with root viewcontroller - PhotoViewController, It's a collectionView with grid of images. When image is selected I wan't to present a second navigationController with root controller - DetailViewControler.
My first navigationController is set up in appDelegate. I really don't understand how and where should I create the second. I'm not using IB. At the moment I have this in my DetailViewcontroller viewDidLoad:
DetailViewController *detailView = [[DetailViewController alloc] init];
self.detailController = [[UINavigationController alloc] initWithRootViewController:detailView];
But when i'm trying to push a new controller, nothing happens. I guess that my code is in wrong place.
When I try to present second controller modally from my PhotoViewController, I have an error(trying to present nil viewController).
The common idea is to have a single navigation VC that contains -- and lets you navigate between -- other VCs. In the situation you describe, you wouldn't create another navigation VC. Instead, create just the detail VC and push that onto the existing navigation VC...
// assuming self is a view controller contained by a navigation controller
self.detailController = [[DetailViewController alloc] init];
[self.navigationController pushViewController:self.detailController animated:YES];
Use a parent view controller as your initial view controller and add the navigation controllers as children, then transition between them. See this blogpost that I wrote: http://sketchytech.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/container-view-controllers-parent-view.html

UINavigation pushing a new root controller

I am trying to push a new root controller to a navigation stack, but using a side reveal menu.
My app delegate has the following:
welcomeViewController = [[MyWelcomeViewController alloc] initWithNibName:#"MyWelcomeViewController" bundle:nil];
navController = [[UINavigationController alloc] initWithRootViewController:welcomeViewController];
navController.navigationBarHidden = YES;
// Then we setup the reveal side view controller with the root view controller as the navigation controller
self.revealSideViewController = [[PPRevealSideViewController alloc] initWithRootViewController:navController];
[self.revealSideViewController setDirectionsToShowBounce:PPRevealSideDirectionNone];
[self.revealSideViewController setPanInteractionsWhenClosed:PPRevealSideInteractionContentView | PPRevealSideInteractionNavigationBar];
// Then we make the window root view controller the reveal side view controller
self.window.rootViewController = self.revealSideViewController;
Once the welcome view controller is displayed, the user logs in. Once logged in the following process runs again from the App Delegate.
self.navController.navigationBarHidden = NO;
[self.navController setTitle:#"Home"];
[self.navController pushViewController:homeViewController animated:NO];
I then have a side view controller setup which is a table view with custom cells setup.
When a row is selected I need to push a new root controller onto the navigation controller. I try this by using the following in the table view for the cell selected.
MyAccountViewController *accountViewController = [[MyAccountViewController alloc] init];
[self.navigationController setViewControllers:[NSArray arrayWithObject:accountViewController] animated:NO];
Unfortunately this does not do anything. If I add the code to the App Delegate and then call the method from the table view controller then it works, however not from the .m file for the table view itself. Adding a log I can see the above is run, just does not do anything.
I am unsure if I need to do anything different on the above. For example, completely pop the views currently shown, then create the navigation controller and PPRevealSideViewController all over again. If I am supposed to, I am unsure how to pop all the current views to then push the new to the window, not from the AppDelegate.
The reason I do not want this in the App Delegate is because it is the incorrect way to approach this, and I would then need a separate method for each new root controller I would like to push from the menu, so the App Delegate would become very large.
Check UINavigationController.h:
#interface UIViewController (UINavigationControllerItem)
#property(nonatomic,readonly,retain) UINavigationController *navigationController; // If this view controller has been pushed onto a navigation controller, return it.
It means when you do myViewController.navigationController you will either get nil if myViewController is not pushed to any navController or the navController reference myViewController is pushed into.
As I understand your tableViewController is not pushed into the navController stack, that means you can't get the navController with tableViewController.navigationController. Instead you'll need to use anyViewControllerInTheStack.navigationController or if the navController is the rootViewController of your keyWindow, by
((UINavigationController*)[[UIApplication sharedApplication] keyWindow].rootViewController)
Add something like this to your AppDelegate.h:
#define XAppDelegate ((AppDelegate *)[[UIApplication sharedApplication] delegate])
Now you can access any iVar of AppDelegate from any .m file in your project.
MyAccountViewController *accountViewController = [[MyAccountViewController alloc] init];
[XAppDelegate.navController pushViewController:accountViewController animated:NO];
Make sure you add the correct imports.
One more thing: It's good to pop the login window from your navcontroller once you are done Logging in.
Hope this helps.

navigation bar not showing with a programmatically made UINavigationController

I have a navigation controller named navController made programmatically in my modal view controller during its viewDidLoad:
self.navController = [[UINavigationController alloc] initWithRootViewController:self];
self.navController.view=self.view;
[self setView:self.navController.view];
But when i launch the modal view controller i dont see the navigation bar, just the standard view i made in IB. Whats wrong?
Your solution cannot work.
Suppose that you have your modal controller called ModalViewController. It's a simple UIViewController linked with a xib created interface.
Now, at some point you need to present ModalViewController modally. As you wrote in your specification, I think you want to use also a UINavigationController and control its navigation bar.
The code to do this could be the following, where presentModally could be a method that it's not contained in ModalViewController.
- (void)presentModally:(id)sender {
ModalViewController *modalController = [[ModalViewController alloc] initWithNibName:#"ModalView" bundle:nil];
// Create the navigation controller and present it.
UINavigationController *navigationController = [[UINavigationController alloc] initWithRootViewController:modalController];
[self presentViewController:navigationController animated:YES completion: nil];
}
Now, within viewDidLoad of your ModalViewController you have access to navigationController property. In this manner you can control navigationController behaviour. For example:
- (void)viewDidLoad
{
[super viewDidLoad];
// the code changes the title for the navigation bar associated with the UINavigationController
self.title = #"Set from ModalViewController";
}
Some notes
To understand how UINavigationController works read UINavigationController class reference
To understand how modal controllers work read Modal view controllers documentation
The code I provided is a simple example and only demonstrative (I've written by hand so check for syntax). You need to make attention to memory management and how to present modal controllers. In particular, as Apple documentation suggests, to present modal controllers you need to follow these steps:
Create the view controller you want to present.
Set the modalTransitionStyle property of the view controller to the desired value.
Assign a delegate object to the view controller. Typically the delegate is the presenting view controller. The delegate is used by the presented view controllers to notify the presenting view controller when it is ready to be dismissed. It may also communicate other information back to the delegate.
Call the presentViewController:animated:completion: method of the current view controller, passing in the view controller you want to present.
Trigger (when necessary) some action to dismiss the modal controller.
Hope it helps.

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