Adding UITabBarController from xib as subview

[skinrock]

The post title might not be the correct terminology, so I'll try and explain what I'm trying to accomplish.

I'm trying to build an app that utilizes a separate login view from the main app view. The reason is because the login screen is just a UITableView and once you login, you are presented with a UITabBar based view. The idea is that when you login, it does a flip transition to load the logged in part of the app.

My approach is to launch the app with somewhat of a "placeholder" UIView, which creates the login and app views like such:

UIView *localContainerView = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:[[UIScreen mainScreen] applicationFrame]];
self.containerView = localContainerView;
[localContainerView release];

self.loginController = [[LoginController alloc] initWithNibName:@"LoginView" bundle:nil];
self.loginController.mainController = self;
self.loginView = (LoginView *)loginController.view;

//[containerView addSubview:loginView];

//self.view = containerView;

self.appController = [[AppController alloc] initWithNibName:@"AppView" bundle:nil];
self.appController.mainController = self;
self.appView = (AppView *)appController.view;

[containerView addSubview:appView];

self.view = containerView;

The lines that are commented are the lines that would normally show the login view first...this works fine. The problem I am having is when I try to display the AppView. In my AppView.xib, I have a UITabBar with 3 buttons/views. But when I launch the app, it displays a blank UITabBar...no buttons, and a blank view.

In the UITabBarController example, all they are doing to load the view is:

[window addSubview:tabBarController.view];

Granted, the UITabBarController is in the MainWindow.xib itself, but I am using "initWithNibName" so I don't see why it would behave differently.

Any help would be appreciated, let me know if something doesn't make sense.

[BrianSlick]

You have identified the correct line of code in the template, and that is exactly what you want to do. You don't want the tab bar controller to be a "sub" of anything. They don't like that.

In your app delegate, you will have both your login screen and your tab bar controller. You will add your login screen first. After login credentials are met, you will remove the login screen and then add your tab bar controller.

[skinrock]

So does that mean I should have my login and tab bar controllers in the MainView.xib as well (my Main nib is set to MainView.xib)?

It seems like I'm taking a step back...I was hoping to create the login and tab bar controllers in their own .xib files and load them programatically.

[BrianSlick]

There is no real reason to have the tab bar controller be in a separate .xib.

You are basically starting with the tab-based template, and adding a view controller to MainWindow.xib. However, that does not mean you have to design and manage that view controller within MainWindow.xib. It can be separate.

[skinrock]

I was just trying to separate them from a code management point of view.

I mean I see where you're coming from, but I guess it's a little frustrating that I can't figure out why I can't load the tab bar controller from a xib.

I was also trying to manage the swapping of views in another controller, not the AppDelegate file, again just a code management thing - I approached it with a certain structure in mind, and now I have to throw that out.

[BrianSlick]

How much structure do you need? It will take 2 minutes to set up your tab bar controller in MainWindow.xib and add your 3 view controllers. If you were doing some weird stuff with delegate methods, copy-paste them.

If this is truly a big deal, then I'd have to question your original intended approach.