Custom UITabBarController Problems with View Controllers and Views

Question

Hi there,

I'm writing a custom UITabBarController so I can fully control appearance of the tab bar. I've got it all working so I have an array of view controllers that it handles.

The controller has a main view which fills the screen, and inside it it has a UIView at the bottom for the tab bar. That tab bar view has a button for each view controller. When buttons are pressed I add the view controller's view to the main view, and set it's frame so that it doesn't cover the tab bar view:

controller.view.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, self.view.bounds.size.width, self.view.bounds.size.height - kTabBarHeight);

This all works fine, and I can flick between the view controllers just fine. However, when I present a modal view controller, and then dismiss it, the current view controller's view becomes full screen and covers up my tab bar! I've tried setting the autoresizing masks to not resize, but is keeps happening.

I have also tried adding the view controllers view's to the bottom (below the tab bar) by using:

[self.view insertSubview:controller.view atIndex:0];

But when I do that, the tab bar is even visible above any modal views! Which is strange. I think there's something I'm not understanding so I would be grateful if someone can explain what I'm missing!

Thanks,

Mike

Answer 1

Try setting

controller.view.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, self.view.bounds.size.width, self.view.bounds.size.height - kTabBarHeight);

in the controller's viewWillAppear method

Answer 2

Try this out. I think you want dynamic view controllers within tab bar controller.

-(void)applicationDidFinishLaunching:(UIApplication *)application {

// Add the tab bar controller's current view as a subview of the window
tabBarController.delegate=self;
tabBarController=[[UITabBarController alloc] init];

mainDashBoard=[[DashBoard alloc] initWithNibName:@"DashBoard" bundle:nil];
mainSearchView=[[SearchView alloc] initWithNibName:@"SearchView" bundle:nil];
mainMoreView=[[MoreView alloc] initWithNibName:@"MoreView" bundle:nil];

UINavigationController *nvCtr0=[[[UINavigationController alloc] init] autorelease];
UINavigationController *nvCtr1=[[[UINavigationController alloc] initWithRootViewController:mainDashBoard] autorelease];
UINavigationController *nvCtr2=[[[UINavigationController alloc] initWithRootViewController:mainSearchView] autorelease];
UINavigationController *nvCtr3=[[[UINavigationController alloc] initWithRootViewController:mainMoreView] autorelease];
UINavigationController *nvCtr4=[[[UINavigationController alloc] init] autorelease];//[[[UINavigationController alloc] initWithRootViewController:nil] autorelease];

tabBarController.viewControllers=[NSArray arrayWithObjects:nvCtr0,nvCtr1,nvCtr2,nvCtr3,nvCtr4,nil];

nvCtr0.tabBarItem.enabled=NO;
nvCtr4.tabBarItem.enabled=NO;

[window tabBarController.view];
}

Answer 3

I've managed to find a better way to control the appearance of the tab bar by simply inserting subviews to the top of the tab controllers tab bar. It's worked a treat!