How can I change the animation style of a modal UIViewController?

Question

I'm currently displaying a UIViewController like this:

[[self navigationController] presentModalViewController:modalViewController animated:YES];

and hiding it like this:

[self.navigationController dismissModalViewControllerAnimated:YES];

The animation is "slide up from the bottom"... then slide back down. How can I change the animation style? Can I made it fade in/out?

Cheers!

Answer 1

Marcus Zarra posted a great solution to this on the SDK mailing list:

UIViewController *controller = [[[MyViewController alloc] init] autorelease];
UIViewAnimationTransition trans = UIViewAnimationTransitionCurlUp;
[UIView beginAnimations: nil context: nil];
[UIView setAnimationTransition: trans forView: [self window] cache: YES];
[navController presentModalViewController: controller animated: NO];
[UIView commitAnimations];

There are transitions for flipping and page-curling. If you are set on fading, can try adjusting your new view's alpha:

UIViewController *controller = [[[MyViewController alloc] init] autorelease];
controller.view.alpha = 0.0;
[navController presentModalViewController: controller animated: NO];
[UIView beginAnimations: nil context: nil];
controller.view.alpha = 1.0;
[UIView commitAnimations];

However, what you probably want is a crossfade, or at least a fade-over. When the UINavigationController switches to a new view, it removes the old one. For this effect, you're probably better off just adding a new view to your existing UIViewController and fading its alpha in over time.

Answer 2

But where must I call this code?

Answer 3

For iPhone 3.0+, a basic crossfade is easiest to do like this:

modalViewController.modalTransitionStyle = UIModalTransitionStyleCrossDissolve;
[[self navigationController] presentModalViewController:modalViewController
                                               animated:YES];

Answer 4

@Simo Thanks a lot! :D

@Satyam

In a callback function for an event (IBAction) .. for example the touch of a button.

btw, the 'modalViewController' is an instance of the custom view controller the control is given to. i.e. you create this yourself and you must also add & synthesize an IBOutlet in your parent view controller class.

Answer 5

It should be [self.view.window] in order for the code to work

(at least that's the way that it is in ios 3.2)

Answer 6

To update for alpha fading in iOS 4:

modalController.view.alpha = 0.0;
[self.view.window.rootViewController presentModalViewController:modalController animated:NO];
[UIView animateWithDuration:0.5
                 animations:^{modalController.view.alpha = 1.0;}];