Question

I am trying to adjust the size of a background static UIImageView (from Nib file) for iPhone5 users. Unfortunately, the following code does not seem to make any difference on the background view’s size.

Does anyone know why? Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

ViewController.m:

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad];
    // Do any additional setup after loading the view, typically from a nib.
    AppDelegate *appDelegate = [[UIApplication sharedApplication] delegate];
    device = appDelegate.deviceType;
    NSLog(@"The device platform is: %@", device);
    if ([[device substringToIndex:8] caseInsensitiveCompare: @"iPhone 5"] == NSOrderedSame) {
        [background sizeThatFits:CGSizeMake(320, 504)];
    }
    else {
        [background sizeThatFits:CGSizeMake(320, 416)];
    }
...
//Note: 'background' is declared in `ViewController.h` as, `IBOutlet` `UIImageView` *background, and is linked to the image view in ViewController_iPhone.xib 

Answer 1

A few thoughts:

1. As demosten and shabzco suggested, I wouldn’t use a device name/description to determine coordinates (if nothing else, what about the iPhone 6, etc.);

2. If you’re going to set the frame programmatically, I would suggest setting the background.frame property based upon the view controller’s view’s bounds rather than hard coding the size of the image view. That way, the background is adjusted to the appropriate size of the view controller’s view, not only regardless of device, but also regardless if that view controller is, at a later date, embedded as a child view controller of another container controller, etc. (E.g., what if you put your view in a navigation controller and tab bar controller, your own custom container controller, etc.). Also, don’t make assumptions about the size of the status bar or other graphical elements. Let iOS figure all of this out for you with simply:

   background.frame = self.view.bounds;
   

3. Or better yet, if you’ve added the background image view to the NIB itself, set the autosizing mask and don’t change the frame programmatically at all. If you have autolayout turned off, just set the autosizing properties of your image view like so:

   

Bottom line, if you can, avoid explicit device name references in your code and avoid hard coded coordinates. To have hardcoded dimensions in your code will just make your app more fragile, susceptible to problems with new devices, new versions of iOS, embedding your view controller in additional container controllers, etc., and limits the reuse opportunities for your code.