Providing autorotation support to a subview loaded programmatically - iPad - ios

Question

I have an iPad project structured as:
- AppDelegate
- MainWindow
- View Controller
-- View
The View Controllers .m file loads another view programmatically and positions it on the screen. This view is going to be slid in and out.
I do this:
- (void)viewDidLoad
{
[super viewDidLoad];
CGRect viewRect = CGRectMake(0, 0, 0, 0);
CalculatorView *v = [[[CalculatorView alloc]
initWithFrame:viewRect] autorelease];
[self.view.window addSubview:v];
[UIView beginAnimations:nil context:NULL];
[UIView setAnimationCurve:UIViewAnimationCurveEaseIn];
v.view.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, 460, 320);
[UIView commitAnimations];
}
The issue that I am having is that the subview I'm adding here doesnt' seem to have the correct orientation. The project supports ONLY landscape, and launches to landscape. The container view is fine, and it contains some buttons which are fine as well. However this programmatically loaded view is stuck in Portrait mode. I have provided the following auto-rotation code (In the loaded view's .m):
- (BOOL)shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)interfaceOrientation
{
// Return YES for supported orientations
return (interfaceOrientation == UIInterfaceOrientationLandscapeLeft || interfaceOrientation == UIInterfaceOrientationLandscapeRight);
}
But it never gets called.
So, how can I get the programmatically added subview to load in landscape and NOT portrait mode?
TIA!

Answer 1

The UIView class does not receive orientation change messages.
(specially the shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation method, which is a UIViewController Method)
http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/uikit/reference/UIViewController_Class/Reference/Reference.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40006926-CH3-SW23
You will have to manually add a method in your view to inform it that the orientation has changed and you should call this method in your controller shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation method.
To do that you will have to create a reference to you view in your controller and take care of the memory yourself.
#interface MyController : UIViewController {
CalculatorView *_calculatorView;
}
#end
#implementation MyController
- (void)viewDidLoad
{
[super viewDidLoad];
CGRect viewRect = CGRectMake(0, 0, 0, 0);
//inits _calculatorView without the autorelease. Will be released in the dealloc method
_calculatorView = [[CalculatorView alloc]
initWithFrame:viewRect];
[self.view.window addSubview:v];
[UIView beginAnimations:nil context:NULL];
[UIView setAnimationCurve:UIViewAnimationCurveEaseIn];
_calculatorView.view.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, 460, 320);
[UIView commitAnimations];
}
- (BOOL)shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)interfaceOrientation
{
//calls custom interface orientation method
[_calculatorView MyInterfaceChangedCustomMethod:interfaceOrientation];
// Return YES for supported orientations
return (interfaceOrientation == UIInterfaceOrientationLandscapeLeft || interfaceOrientation == UIInterfaceOrientationLandscapeRight);
}
-(void) dealloc {
[_calculatorView release];
[super dealloc];
}
#end
EDIT: If you CalculatorView is simple and all you need is to change its frame properly after the device rotation, I think the best approach would be using you view's autoresizingMask similar to the following
_calculatorView = [[CalculatorView alloc]
initWithFrame:viewRect];
_calculatorView.autoresizingMask = UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleWidth | UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleHeight;