How do you use Interface Builder to control UINavigationControllers properly?

Question

Hello All,

I have been in the process of learning to build iPhone applications for the last two weeks. I've gotten through a fair amount of content, and now I'm trying to create a modal pop up with presentModalView.

I can can successfully create and slide up a view, but I notice that modal views don't provide you with a default navigation bar at the top of the window, which makes sense for flexibility I guess. Most modal views I've seen have a "Cancel" and a "Done" or "Save" button as navigationItems on what looks to be a UINavigationController. My thought then was just to instantiate a navigation controller and push the single view onto the view controller stack, and presentModalView:navController.view ...

Because the view is relatively complex, I was trying to lay out both the UINavigationController, with the bar buttons, and the view I was hoping to push onto the stack in a single xib -- no matter what I try, I can't seem to get the linkages correct. Can you even do this? Or should I create a separate class/xib for the view I'm going to be pushing onto the navigation controller? Seems like a lot of classes and files for one screen, so my feeling is I must be missing something.

At this point, I could have done it programmatically about an hour and a half ago... however, this is a real nag, since IB seems GREAT for some things. Anyone have an experience with a situation like this?

Thanks, Josh

Answer 1

If you're not going to use this new XIB for navigation, there's no point in making a navigation controller.

In interface builder, simply drag a UINavigationBar to the top of your view, and add a "Done" Button. Now, add an IBAction to the done button to dismiss the view controller. Your ViewController code for the dismiss IBAction should look something like this:

-(IBAction)dismiss {
    //Any logic before dismissing the modal view
    [super dismissModalViewControllerAnimated:YES];
}