I am completely new to ios development and I am only interested in developing for ios5.
I have an app with some scenes, they are mostly tableviews. I also use a navigation controller
I however need to add some status text and buttons that are always visible in all scenes and thought that a toolbar added to the navigation controller should do the trick.
so i thought that i should only have to drag out a toolbar in storyboard to the navigation controller, but it does not stick there. I can add it to the bar underneath with first responder and navigation controller but that does not help me (small icons).
I can also not add it to my table view (but if i drag out a plain view I can add it there)
do I have to make my own custom navigation class that the navigate view uses and then programatically add my toolbar?
Had the same question recently. Check Attributes Inspector in your ViewController's properties in storyboard. There you can define a Bottom Bar.
Well, inside the UINavigationController, you should have something... A UIViewController for instance. You can easily add a UIToolBar by dragging the object inside the UIView of the UIViewController. What might being happening is that as the root view you have the UITableView, in that case I think you can't do that. But to better understand, just take a small print screen of your StoryBoard.
If you zoom up to 100% on the storyboard it should drag.
Related
I'm trying to create a tabbed application with navigation elements inside the tab bar, as seen in the picture below (the red bar) using Swift/XCode 6.2. Basically those three icons in the middle will direct the user to different view controllers. The other two icons would be context-based. For example, on a table view page you would see the menu icon and add new icon as seen in the image. However, clicking on a row would change the menu icon to a back icon, and the add icon to something else.
That's the general idea, but I'm having a very hard time implementing something even close to this. The first issue is that whenever I embed a view in a Tab Bar Controller, I can't move the tab bar to the top. However, when I create a custom UITabView in a View Controller, Control + Click and dragging a Tab Bar Item to another view doesn't create a segue. I haven't even begun to tackle having the navigation elements inside the bar.
I guess what I'm asking is just for a little guidance on what route to take to tackle this. I'm assuming I can't use a Tab Bar Controller or Navigation Controller because it doesn't seem like I can customize them all that much. So custom Tab Bar and Navigation Bars, and then implemnt the segues and button changes programmatically?
Thanks.
I will try to guide you from an architectural perspective (so you won't find much code below).
Using a UITabBarController
In order to achieve what you are suggesting, you are right you cannot use a UITabBarController straight away, among several reasons, the most immediate one is that they are meant to be always at the bottom and you want it in top (check Apple's docs). The good news is that probably you don't need it!
Note: If you still want to go with a UITabBarController for whatever reason, please see #Matt's answer.
Using a UINavigationController
You can use a UINavigationController to solve this task, since the UINavigationBar of a UINavigationController can be customized. There are multiple ways on how you can organize your view's hierarchy to achieve what you propose, but let me elaborate one option:
To customize a UINavigationBar's to add buttons, you just need to set its navigationItem's title view:
// Assuming viewWithTopButtons is a view containing the 3 top buttons
self.navigationItem.titleView = viewWithTopButtons
To add the burger menu functionality on a UINavigationController you can find several posts on how to do it and infinite frameworks you can use. Check this other SO Question for a more detailed answer (e.g. MMDrawerController, ECSlidingViewController to mention a couple).
About organizing your view hierarchy, it really depends on if when the user taps one of the main top buttons, it will always go to the first view controller in the new section or if you want to bring him back to the last view in the section where he was.
3.1 Switching sections displays the first view of the new section
Your app's UIWindow will have a single UINavigationController on top of the hierarchy. Then each of the 3 top buttons, when tapped, will change the root view controller of the UINavigationController.
Then, when the user changes section, the current navigation hierarchy is discarded by setting the new section view controller as the UINavigationController root view controller.
self.navigationController = [sectionFirstViewController]
3.2 Switching sections displays the last displayed view in the new section
This will require a slightly modified version of the above, where your each of your sections will have its own UINavigationController, so you can always keep a navigation hierarchy per section.
Then, when the user taps one of the top buttons to switch section, instead of changing as previously described, you will change the UIWindowroot view controller to the new section's UINavigationController.
window.rootViewController = sectionNavigationController
Using a custom implementation
Of course, the last and also very valid option would be that you implement yourself your own component to achieve your requirements. This is probably the option requiring the biggest effort in exchange of the highest customizability.
Choosing this option is definitely not recommend to less experienced developers.
I'd like to take a stab at this--I think it is possible to use a tab bar controller here.
Your topmost-level view controller will be a UITabBarController with a hidden UITabBar.
Each tab is contained in a UINavigationController.
All view controllers in the navigation controller will be a subclass of a view controller (say, SwitchableViewController).
In SwitchableViewController's viewDidLoad, you set the navigation item's title view (i.e. whatever's at the center; self.navigationItem.titleView) to be the view that holds the three center buttons. Could be a UISegmentedControl, or a custom view.
Whenever you tap on any of the buttons, you change the topmost UITabBarController's selected index to the view controller you want to show.
Issues you may encounter:
Table views inside tabs will have a scrollIndicatorOffset at the bottom even if the tab bar is hidden.
Solution: Play around with the automaticallyAdjustsScrollViewInsets of the tab bar controller, or the inner view controller. https://stackoverflow.com/a/29264073/855680
Your title view will be animated every time you push a new view controller in the navigation stack.
Solution: Take a look at creating a custom transition animation for the UINavigationController.
I have set up a view controller in Storyboard which is embedded in a navigation controller. In this nav controller I have checked Shows Navigation Bar and Shows Toolbar and enabled a navigation bar and toolbar in Top Bar and Bottom Bar respectively in Simulated Metrics. I then "Show e.g. Push" segue from the view controller to another view controller. On both view controllers I've set up Simulated Metrics the same way, so both the navigation bar and toolbar are visible on all three controllers.
The problem is, I can add bar button items to the first view controller to both the navigation bar and the toolbar, but I cannot add a bar button item to the navigation bar on the second view controller. When I drop a button on the navigation bar, it's added to the toolbar instead. And I cannot double click the nav bar to add a title. In the outline I see there is no navigation item on the second view controller, but it is there in the first view controller.
I can probably add buttons to the navigation bar programmatically, but I want to do this visually in Storyboard. My question is, what is wrong with this setup, or is this a bug with Xcode?
For XCode 6, the UINavigationItem for the 2nd view controller onwards is not added automatically on the View Controller Object inside the storyboard. You will have to drag the UINavigationItem onto the Navigation Bar for that view Controller Object before adding UIBarButtonItem on top of it.
I am not sure why it is designed that way. I only discovered about this a few weeks ago.
If you have a ton of view controllers and very little custom auto-layout stuff in place, you can disable size classes, then re-enable it will add all missing nav bars across your storyboard.
Obviously not recommended if you have a ton of custom auto layout stuff linked up.
If you have just a single UIViewController that's missing a nav bar, just drop a UINavigationItem onto it.
If you're using Xcode 7 beta 4/5, try restarting Xcode it solved the issue for me
I just bumped into this issue and it seems to be affected by the segue that shows the view controller.
If "Kind" setting in segue is "Show (e.g. Push)", it's not possible to drag the item to top right corner. However, if you explicitly change "Kind" setting to "Push", this can be done.
Edit: actually I just noticed that "Push" is deprecated. Not sure what Apple is thinking here. However, you can just change it back to "Show" after adding the button and it seems to work :D
For second view controller in hierarchy, you can setup title in attributes, without adding "navigation item"
I think it is a bug. I had the same problem.I fixed this problem by disable the size classes, then enable it.
You can disable and enable the size classes in Interface builder doc.
It's very simple. You just need to use navigaitonItem first as the holder of the buttons and then you can add barButtonItems on top of that.
I have some static cells that I want to display, so I have a UITableViewController. There is also a NavigationBar in this scene that contains some buttons at the top. The setup looks like this:
If I had a UIViewController that contained a UITableView in it, the setup would look like:
So, the question is:
Why does the Navigation Bar have to be embedded inside the UITableView when using a UITableViewController? (I have tried putting it elsewhere but IB won't let me)
I know that UITableView is a subclass of UIView, but is it OK that the top level element in the hierarchy is not a View (but a TableView)?
Thanks.
You shouldn't be placing your UINavigationBar in your UITableView. You should be putting your UITableViewController in a UINavigationController, because that will provide a UINavigationBar for you.
So if you select your UITableViewController in the storyboard, you can choose Embed In -> Navigation Controller from the Editor menu. This would be the proper way to do it.
There are two ways to use a UINavigationBar in iOS:
Embedded inside a UINavigationController (recommended)
As a standalone object
For your particular situation, I'd recommend that you put your UITableViewController as the rootViewController of a UINavigationController. That way you automatically get a navigation bar which you can customize according to your needs. In a typical user experience, when you tap some of your table view rows a new view controller will be pushed onto the navigation stack, so you'll probably end up needing a navigation controller anyway.
What if you decide to use a navigation bar as a standalone object? This is perfectly fine, you can use it inside a view hierarchy as an ordinary UIView, but you'll need to create another object that implements the UINavigationBarDelegate protocol and set it as the delegate property of your navigation bar. If you use a UINavigationController the delegate is already set and configured for you. You also need to add/remove navigation items (instances of UINavigationItem) to your navigation bar by using the pushNavigationItem:animated: and popNavigationItemAnimated: methods.
And about your question on the view hierarchy, you can use a UITableView anywhere a UIView is required. The only caveat is that a UITableView is a view hierarchy on its own and that may restrict your layout a little bit.
The way a UITableViewController works, is its root view is a UITableView. So there is no way to put the UINavigationBar anywhere other than in the UITableView.
I tend never to use a UITableViewController as it doesn't really give you much.
If you particularly want to use the UITableViewController, I don't believe that there is any real problem in having the navigation bar within the table view. You just need to make sure that you set the contentInset on the table view such that the navigation bar doesn't block the content. Though it seems a bit backward to do it this way.
My recommendation would be to just use a normal UIViewController with a navigation bar and a table view.
If you actually need functional navigation, you need to put your UITableViewController within a UINavigationController.
Hope this helps :)
Let me know if anything is still unclear.
So I have a custom bottom tab bar that works if I add it as a subView to any of my views, but I would love for it to be part of the UINavigationController so I don't need to keep track of it in every view initialization. Is there a way to do this?
I can't add it as a subView of navigationBar because I think it is out of the frame and the touches don't register on the tab bar.
I can't subclass the navigationController because apple doesn't let you. So how do I get this working?
It's not true that Apple won't let you subclass a UINavigationController. As of iOS 6, it is allowed, however, I don't think that would help you anyway. I think the best way to do this is with a custom container controller. If you start with a UIViewController in IB, you can put your custom tab bar at the bottom (or just leave space for it and add it in code), and add a container view that fills the rest of the space. You can delete the default controller you get with that container view, and replace it with a navigation controller. As you navigate through your content controllers, your tab bar will remain in place.
How do I add a static search bar (one that doesn't scroll with the UITableView) below the UINavigationController in the root view of a UISplitViewController. The iPad mail app has an example of one of these. Actually I would Ike to add a toolbar with a segmented control instead of a search bar, but I imagine the process is the same.
Yes I meant the left pane of a UISplitViewController, so I guess my question is really
how should I add a static toolbar below the navigation bar when using UITableViewController?
You can add any view (except the new iPad split view) to a navigation controller, not only a UITableView. And the added view may have subviews...
Add a plain UIView to the NavigationController.
In this UIView, add your searchbar first and then your navigation controller below the search bar. You can even add a toolbar at the bottom.
NavigationController
UIView
searchbar
tableview
toolbar
Umm... can you re-word this? Do you mean in the left pane of the UISplitViewController? There is no UINavigationController allowed as the parent of a UISplitViewController -- it gives a runtime error in SDK 3.2.
If what you are saying is essentially "How do I add a search bar in the left pane of a UISplitViewController? Then the answer is the same way you would for any view you display as the left pane. Since both panes take simple UIViewControllers (not just a UITableView), you build a nib in IB with the view, the search bar, below that you then put a UITableView. This is the NIB you assign in the so called "Master interface" (left side).
Most people that have this kind of question think that you can only use a UITableView in the "Master Interface" (since that is what it looks like is happening).