UISplitviewcontroller not as a rootview controller

Question

I am building my first iPad application. And one of my requirements is to deal with UISplitviewcontroller and UINavigationController.
our proposed view hierarchy is

(LoginView) ->UINavigationView(LandingView + CollectionView)->UISplitViewcontroller( DetailsView).

Our app supports only landscape mode
I am referring this SO Question( and GILT app as well), as a newbi its hard for me to get it done based on that description.

So my questions are
1) How can I achieve same thing,if somebody can give small code snippets or reference to tutorial
2) As per Apples HIG, UISplitviewcontroller should be rootviewcontroller,what if it not. Will apple reject my app.(apparently GILT group has been approved)
3) I found MGSplitViewController , can I use that one not as root?
Any help would be appreciated. As a newbi i hope my question is genuine

Answer 1

Keep in mind that the HIG strongly encourages you to support all orientations. Unless you have a very, very good reason to support landscape only, you'll probably be rejected.

See page 19 of the HIG: http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/General/Conceptual/iPadHIG/iPadHIG.pdf

Answer 2

If you want to use the out-of the box splitView it must be root; any hokeary-pokery here will either break apples guidelines or manifest very odd behaviour.

The MGSplitViewController is completely custom implementation of a SplitViewController. Its very good if you need that sort of thing, but some of the features are based round the fact that our app will be orientating.

Alternatively you could make your own. I have done this more than once and is easier than it sounds.

(LoginView) ->UINavigationView(LandingView + CollectionView)->UISplitViewcontroller( DetailsView).

Based on an out-of-the-box UISplitView, I would suggest:

• Make the splitView the root View.

• Pop (not animated) a full screen Modal as soon as the app starts and allow the user to navigate the loginView, LandingView and collectView in this; i also recommend using a navController here.

• Once the user is ready to proceed to the splitView, populate the splitView's rootView Controller and DetailViewController with whatever you want then ,animate the Modal out.

Dave does have a point, but i would look at it from the point of view that you are removing the choice of orientation from the user; removing standard choices (like supported orientations) because the designer assumes some configuration is more efficient will only annoy some users.

Answer 3

Hi Luke, i tried your suggestion...

Display Login page as a modal view then dismiss it as i am done with the login to show split view..

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {    

// Override point for customization after app launch.
// add LoginView as first view
loginViewController = [[LoginViewController alloc] initWithNibName:nil bundle:nil];


// Add the split view controller's view to the window and display.
[window addSubview:splitViewController.view];

[self.splitViewController presentModalViewController:loginViewController animated:YES];


[window makeKeyAndVisible];

return YES;}

i tried your method using the codes above, but the splitview is giving me some very weird behaviours.. like the "root list" button is showing when the orientation is on Landscape mode.. and it will not disappear no matter how i change my orientation...

any help? :)

Answer 4

I did it by making a method in my detailViewController:

-(void)popHomeScreen:(BOOL)animated//OPENS THE HOMESCREEN IN A MODAL DISPLAY
{

  firstRun=NO;
    //myViewControllerForPopOver init here

    myViewControllerForPopOver.modalPresentationStyle = UIModalPresentationFullScreen;  


        myViewControllerForPopOver.modalTransitionStyle = UIModalTransitionStyleCrossDissolve;//simple anime

    if (animated) [self presentModalViewController:myViewControllerForPopOver animated:YES];
        else [self presentModalViewController:myViewControllerForPopOver animated:NO];  
    }

Then Call it in the detailViewControllers ViewDidAppear method:

-(void)viewDidAppear:(BOOL)animated {
    [super viewDidAppear:animated];
if(firstRun)[self popHomeScreen:NO];
}

//YOU WILL ALSO NEED TO MAKE 'firstRun=YES' in viewDidLoad
//firstRun is a BOOL

NB:It is a little strange that your init'ing your viewController via the nib init method and passing it a nil nib. If your not using a nib use initWithFrame instead.

As for the root disappearing (leaving a big black space)..thats a known bug. though i thought for a while that it was caused by ordering an animation while/just before it was going to draw itself.

Also, i found that if i popped a full screen modal over the splitView then popped another form based modal (for example) quickly after it the full screen modal didn't draw properly.

SplitViews are like your mother-in-law, you don't really like them and when you have to use them you have to tip-toe round the landmines.