Question

I am making a small app with the following view hierarchy with UINavigationController:

Login -> Options -> three different views

The problem is that I would like to navigate between the last 3 views in the following manner:

1<->2
1<->3
2<->3

i.e. to be able to switch to any view from any other view, which reminds UITabViewController functionality. So, it is not hierarchical, it is any-to-any graph. To switch between views I will use buttons in the navigation bar.

The easiest way for me is to subclass UINavigationController, add properties that correspond to my views and implement methods for switching between these views (using pushViewController and popToRootViewController). These methods will be called from the views for switching (navigating).

However the reference says that UINavigationController is not intended for subclassing.
http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/uikit/reference/UINavigationController_Class/Reference/Reference.html

What do you recommend me to do?

Answer 1

I’ll keep the UINavigationController but instead of using the usual pushViewController:, switch views like this:

NSMutableArray *viewControllers = [self.navigationController.viewControllers mutableCopy];
    // from here you can modify the order of controllers as much as you want
[viewControllers addObject:nextViewController];
[viewControllers removeObject:self];

[self.navigationController setViewControllers:viewControllers animated:YES];

If you don’t want how the animation turns out, you can set animated:NO and either enclose setViewControllers: in an [UIView animate...] block, or add your own custom CAAnimation to the navigation controller’s layer.