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This HOWTO will cover the basics for implementing UINavigationController and UITabBarController, programmatically, together, in a single, fluid environment. In short,  UINavigationController is a class that implements a specialized view controller that manages the navigation of hierarchical content and UITabBarController is a class that implements a specialized view controller that manages a radio-style selection interface and provides a sort of “overall” look for the application as it places a bar at the bottom of the screen with selectable UI buttons. If you are a novice unfamiliar with either class, you’ll need to read up on both classes first. I won’t be explaining what each line of code does.

Before we begin, there are a few of things that should be noted. Anything outside of these points is out of the scope of this document.

First, you need OSX.

Second, this example covers a tab bar controller with 5 buttons (just like the AppStore) with 5 unique UIViews, each a navigation controller. The number of buttons is trivial but gives you the basic concept of adding/deleting as many as you want. Be creative.

And finally, due to the nature of this HOWTO, Interface Builder will not be covered. I find Interface Builder to be more of a hindrence than assistive so I, personally, build everything programmatically. Interface Builder is, however, very useful for getting coordinates.

Now, on with the HOWTO. Open XCode and create a new project using the Single View Application template. You may be tempted to create the new project using the Tabbed Application template but for the sake of this HOWTO, please do not. After creating you new project, delete the file ViewController.xib from the project as we will be programmatically implementing the controllers.

Now, let’s start hacking up this 5 button tab bar/navigation controller example…. kontinue reading…

Tags: ios, xcode