Place UIToolBar above UISplitViewController? - ios

I'd like to place a UIToolBar above a UISplitViewController but Interface Builder will not let me do so (using the standard split view template as a start). I know I can implement different tool bars in each of the two views within the UISplitViewController, but I want one seamless bar that lies outside the frame/bounds of the controller, directly above it and right under the status bar. Please help.
Thanks.

This is not supported by the UISplitViewController. If you need this sort of UI you would typically create a custom setup to achieve this.
I'd construct a setup using two UINavigationControllers that are controlled using my App Delegate and just take it from there. There will be some extra work for you, handling rotation, but that's to be expected when doing custom stuff.
This shouldn't be too hard.

Related

How to mimic Android Bar on iOS?

my designer created this layout:
How can I mimic that on iOS? I tried creating a Segmented Control but didn't work well because it can't be customized after iOS7. So at the moment I'm thinking about a UIPageControl with custom dots like explained here: Customize dot with image of UIPageControl at index 0 of UIPageControl
My problem is also with the concept. Segmented controls are said to be used to flatten/filter results according to iOS human guidelines while UIPageControl has actually different pages...
Is this the best approach? If so, can I make it look like the Android Tab bar?
Segmented control with custom image
UIPageControl with custom image
UITabBar on top (read too many bad things about this approach)
something else
If UIPageControl is indeed the best/correct/possible approach how can I make it look as close as the image? And also move it to the top?
Thanks!
Short answer: Don't do that. You're trying to implement Android controls on iOS. That leads to user confusion and an app that doesn't feel like a native app.
Instead, have your designer create a native app design for both platforms.
It looks to me like the closest analog to what you're trying to do is a tab bar and a tab bar controller (UITabBarController).
EDIT:
If you must implement this UI on iOS, you might have to roll your own. You'd create a new custom parent view controller with a child view controller that you could swap out, and a custom control that triggers the swapping. Conceptually it would be a lot like a tab bar controller.
You could probably set it up using a container view and an embed segue (The embedded view controller would be the starting child view controller) and then use the built-in support for managing child view controllers to swap out the child view controller when the user taps on your control. I've done this sort of thing before. It isn't that hard, and is pretty well documented.

Navigation through the SegmentedControll (AutoLayout)

Good day!
How to arrange elements in ViewController so that when you switch SegmentedControll changed the contents of the second bottom half?
How to implement this with autolayout?
Thank you!
Ps. Very similar interface with Instagram (the first and second tabs). The Android turned out using TabHost, and there really tight... Or maybe this differently implemented and easier?
If you want to use a UISegmentedControl, you will have to manually manage switching the view controllers yourself.
You should take a look at these github projects, they provide view controller management coupled with a UISegmentedControl:
SNFSegmentedViewController
SDCSegmentedViewController
The other option is to use a UITabBarController instead. If you want a different look than what is provided by the UISegmentedControl, using the UITabBarController is the better option.

customize uitabbarcontroller appearance

Is it possible to change the way UITabBarController's look?
For example to arrange the tabBarItems vertically (instead of horizontally) and in the center of the view (instead of locked to the bottom)
For the changes you want, no.
What you are describing is an entirely custom interface that you will need to design from scratch.
It's impossible using the UITabBarController component. But you can use a UIView with lot of buttons that perform the same function of the UITabBarController buttons and place them as you want.
No as the other say, you can't. You can customize visually only the UITabBar using appearance API, but you can't change its layout.
What you want to do can be easily achieved by using the UIViewController container API (Read Managing Child View Controllers in a Custom Container) and simple view. Or using storyboards with custom segue.

Best practise in creating an uiview and presenting them in iOs

Is it a good practise to creates views in xcode and hide them and when required show them?
I am asking that because I prefer to create views visually and not in code.
If the view is to complex(a lot of subviews) should I create a new view controller to it?
I know there isn't a specify question here but I really need a clarification on this matter.
Regards
One of my first iOS applications had a tab bar and views that the user could switch between. Originally it was done by hiding and showing the right views depending on what the user pressed on the tab bar. This ended up being a complex disaster.
I then rewrote the app so that each tab bar view had its own UIViewController with its own set of views. That turned out to be so much easier to manage. (I also changed from using Interface Builder to straight code for creating the views, but that's beside the point and you can continue to use IB if you want.)
As for me, I prefer folowing practice:
Usually, a use storyboards,where views are placed, but if a view is complex, I create a separate XIB file, arrange all subviews there, and then in storyboard drag an UIView subclass and connect my XIB view with it.It helps to avoid mess in storyboard.
As for hiding views, I also don't recommend such practice as it can become very complex to understand your code and all those views are allocated when XIB is loaded, so the mobile developing rule "do as lazy as u can" is not met. We should try to spend as less memory as it's possible.
UIView is the best way to create iOS app, esp. if you want to reuse the code.
For example if you have same view to present in iPad n iPhone then using UIView can result in lots of similar code in View-controller
In another case if your view might need to have multiple table view it can be quite complex to handle each with delegates in ViewController. But separate view will solve this problem.
I have made my 1st open source code after learning how to use View
https://github.com/bishalg/BGRadioList
which I had learned from
http://www.raywenderlich.com/1768/uiview-tutorial-for-ios-how-to-make-a-custom-uiview-in-ios-5-a-5-star-rating-view
About the hiding view - I have used lots of hide and show view codes in my apps but believe me at one point it will become complex and unmanageable if you have lots of views.

multiple "content views" on the same xib

I have a ViewController (with navigation) that needs to show 7 different content layouts. I want to keep the same background and nav, the only thing that needs to change is the central UIView.
If I have 7 different UIViews on the same xib/storyboard, can I hide the ones I'm not using or will that ding performance?
Using segues won't work either because they make a mess out of my custom navigation and animations.
Is there a better way to accomplish what I am trying to do? Thanks for suggestions
solution
My design is too custom for using view controller containment so I decided to mimic the idea with a custom UIViewController and two UIViews. It's not too bad and it works rather quickly.
You should look into using view controller containment, then you can load your views from separate nib files and still provide your custom navigation and animations from your container view controller.
Note: This is only really supported from iOS 5.
Generally, it's a good idea to unload views that aren't visible, however, if your views aren't using too much memory (and/or cpu time) hiding them when they're not in use should work fine.
View controller containment is probably what you should be doing if each view has its own unique functionality (i.e. view 1 is a map, view 2 shows some about text, view 3 is an image gallery). UITabBar might be useful, but it depends on your app.
The performance hit would depend on your views' contents. If you haven't done so already, invest some time into learning how to use Instruments (apple's diagnostic tool). Watching the video titled "Optimizing App Performance with Instruments" in the developer resources would be a good start.
My design is too custom for using view controller containment so I decided to mimic the idea with a custom UIViewController and two UIViews. It's not too bad and it works rather quickly.

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