UI Architecture Problem...

[s0krates]

Hi all,

I need to develop small iPhone application and I have no experience with iPhone SDK and Objective-C.

However I already developed the code-behind and all the logic of the app.
The only problem is that I can't build the UI.

When the app will run for a first time,Login screen will appear,with some text boxes and button login(but only the first time the application runs).
When user press the login button I save the info user provided and navigate to view with tabs.
That's all I need.

One view without tabs that will be displayed only once and another view with tabs.

The problem is that I'm not familiar with iPhone views so if some one can explain me in few words it will be great!

P.S. : I'm an Android developer
Thanks!!!

[iisword]

Suggest you read Beginning iPhone 4 Development .

As for your question, the interface builder will make building it much easier. Start with this link: Loading…

[mavrik5150]

The simple approach is to start out using the TabBar template in Xcode which will give you the Tab Views you are looking for. Then for the login screen you just need to add an additional view controller to your app for the login page, and have the AppDelegate call that screen up from the didFinishLaunching method to have that view presented as a Modal view in front of the TabBar view. Then you just need to have a flag in place, easiest is within NSUserDefaults to catch if it's the first time the app has been ran to show that screen and if not then just load the app as normal.

I've done this on a couple apps and it works fine, if you need some further explanation let me know where you get stuck at and I'll see if I can help.

[s0krates]

Originally Posted by mavrik5150

The simple approach is to start out using the TabBar template in Xcode which will give you the Tab Views you are looking for. Then for the login screen you just need to add an additional view controller to your app for the login page, and have the AppDelegate call that screen up from the didFinishLaunching method to have that view presented as a Modal view in front of the TabBar view. Then you just need to have a flag in place, easiest is within NSUserDefaults to catch if it's the first time the app has been ran to show that screen and if not then just load the app as normal.

I've done this on a couple apps and it works fine, if you need some further explanation let me know where you get stuck at and I'll see if I can help.

Thx for the answer!
Can you please share some code example of the didFinishLaunching method that will present the Login view in front of the TabBar View?
Can I make it fullscreen?Because I don't want to see the tabs..

[Duncan C]

Originally Posted by s0krates

Hi all,

I need to develop small iPhone application and I have no experience with iPhone SDK and Objective-C.

However I already developed the code-behind and all the logic of the app.
The only problem is that I can't build the UI.

When the app will run for a first time,Login screen will appear,with some text boxes and button login(but only the first time the application runs).
When user press the login button I save the info user provided and navigate to view with tabs.
That's all I need.

One view without tabs that will be displayed only once and another view with tabs.

The problem is that I'm not familiar with iPhone views so if some one can explain me in few words it will be great!

P.S. : I'm an Android developer
Thanks!!!

What language is your existing code written in? If it's in C or C++ you should be able to use it pretty much as-is, with Objective C code to handle the application details.

iOS supports what Apple calls Objective C++, which is combined Objective C and C++ classes in the same modules. Both are clean supersets of C, so C is equally portable.

You're going to need to learn the basics of Objective C 2.0. You might want to buy a book on Objective C for programmers.


You should learn about Cocoa memory management. If you've been doing Android Java, having to track object ownership and release objects when you are done with them will be an adjustment.

If you don't have a background in C or C++ you should also study C pointers, as Objective C uses C pointers to refer to it's objects.

I suggest reading the "Memory Management Programming Guide" in the Xcode documentation.

You also need to learn about the Model-View-Controller design pattern, and specifically how it's used in iOS applications.

Then you'll need to be at least somewhat familiar with the Cocoa touch application framework and the classes every program needs to use.

I would suggest learning about view controllers, and handling low memory conditions. (Take a look at the UIViewController Class reference, again in the Xcode documentation)

Read up on Navigation Controllers (The UINavigationController Class Reference in Xcode is a good introduction.)

You'll also need to learn about a few key Cocoa classes like NSString, NSArray, NSDictionary, and possibly NSUserDefaults, NSURL, and NSFileManager. You'll probably also need to learn about file bundles and how to configure the settings in your application bundle. (Read up on NSBundle and info.plist.)

The Xcode IDE will also take some getting used to. You'll need to learn how to create user interface files (also known as "Nib files" or ".xib" files)

[mavrik5150]

So below is the code from the App Delegate that will show a LoginScreen, and because it's being presented as Modal view it will cover the Tabs of the Tab Bar app. In this code below this LoginScreen will only show up on the first run, since I'm adding a flag that will checked from the UserDefaults to see if this is the first time. I don't update the flag until the Save button is pressed from the SetupScreen since if the user decides to close the app without saving I don't want the next run to bypass this screen.

Here's the code from the App Delegate:

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions
{
    
    self.window.rootViewController = self.tabBarController;
    [self.window makeKeyAndVisible];
    
    //Check if this is the first time the App launched and if so pull up Setting Screen
    BOOL firstTime = [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] boolForKey:@"keyFirstTimeCheck"];
    if (!firstTime)  {
        SetupScreen *settings = [[SetupScreen alloc] initWithNibName:@"SetupScreen" bundle:nil];
        //Add Navigation Controller to Setup Screen for Transistion Effects
        UINavigationController *nav = [[UINavigationController alloc] initWithRootViewController:settings];
        [self.tabBarController presentModalViewController:nav animated:YES];
        [settings release];
        [nav release];
    }
    
    
    return YES;
}

-(void) removeInitialScreen { 
    //Dismiss Initial Settings Screen and show Tab Bar App
    [self.tabBarController dismissModalViewControllerAnimated:YES];
    
}

The second method (removeInitialScreen) is called from the SetupScreen as well after the save button to remove the SetupScreen from the view. Also, if you don't want the SetupScreen to slide into view change the animated to NO and then when the app is launched the SetupScreen would be the first view seen without an animation effect.

From your Setupscreen you would have a method somewhere for saving whatever data you want but at the end you will want to set the BOOL flag for the firstcheck key to YES and then call the app delegate to run the remove modal screen method as well using :

ThisAppDelegate *del = (ThisAppDelegate *)[[UIApplication sharedApplication] delegate];
        [del removeInitialScreen];

[s0krates]

Thx,but I already know the basics of Objective-C and memory issues.
And as I said I already developed the app logic (calling web service that written in asp.net by me) and I'm handling UI Events.

I just can't handle how to display the screens...

Thanks!

[s0krates]

Originally Posted by mavrik5150

So below is the code from the App Delegate that will show a LoginScreen, and because it's being presented as Modal view it will cover the Tabs of the Tab Bar app. In this code below this LoginScreen will only show up on the first run, since I'm adding a flag that will checked from the UserDefaults to see if this is the first time. I don't update the flag until the Save button is pressed from the SetupScreen since if the user decides to close the app without saving I don't want the next run to bypass this screen.

Here's the code from the App Delegate:

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions
{
    
    self.window.rootViewController = self.tabBarController;
    [self.window makeKeyAndVisible];
    
    //Check if this is the first time the App launched and if so pull up Setting Screen
    BOOL firstTime = [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] boolForKey:@"keyFirstTimeCheck"];
    if (!firstTime)  {
        SetupScreen *settings = [[SetupScreen alloc] initWithNibName:@"SetupScreen" bundle:nil];
        //Add Navigation Controller to Setup Screen for Transistion Effects
        UINavigationController *nav = [[UINavigationController alloc] initWithRootViewController:settings];
        [self.tabBarController presentModalViewController:nav animated:YES];
        [settings release];
        [nav release];
    }
    
    
    return YES;
}

-(void) removeInitialScreen { 
    //Dismiss Initial Settings Screen and show Tab Bar App
    [self.tabBarController dismissModalViewControllerAnimated:YES];
    
}

The second method (removeInitialScreen) is called from the SetupScreen as well after the save button to remove the SetupScreen from the view. Also, if you don't want the SetupScreen to slide into view change the animated to NO and then when the app is launched the SetupScreen would be the first view seen without an animation effect.

From your Setupscreen you would have a method somewhere for saving whatever data you want but at the end you will want to set the BOOL flag for the firstcheck key to YES and then call the app delegate to run the remove modal screen method as well using :

ThisAppDelegate *del = (ThisAppDelegate *)[[UIApplication sharedApplication] delegate];
        [del removeInitialScreen];

Thx work like a charm!
I get some warnings but I will try to handle them by my self!!!

[Duncan C]

Originally Posted by s0krates

Thx,but I already know the basics of Objective-C and memory issues.
And as I said I already developed the app logic (calling web service that written in asp.net by me) and I'm handling UI Events.

I just can't handle how to display the screens...

Thanks!

Sorry, I misunderstood your level of knowledge.

mavrik5150 outlined a reasonable approach.