Question

I have an app with a tab bar controller (2 tabs). In one tab view controller, a button leads to an alert window. I want one button of the alert window to call a table view containing possible answers. I want that table view to have a done button and a title. I think that means a navigation controller has to be used. But most everything I can find on navigation controllers assumes a much more complicated situation. Here’s part of the alert window logic:

-(void) alertView:(UIAlertView *)alertView clickedButtonAtIndex:(NSInteger)buttonIndex

{ 
    if (buttonIndex == 2) {
        AnswersViewController *aVC = [[AnswersViewController alloc] init];
        [self presentViewController:aVC
                           animated:YES
                         completion:NULL];    
    }
} 

And AnswersViewController looks like this:

@interface AnswersViewController : UITableViewController
@end

@implementation AnswersViewController

- (id) init
{
    self = [super initWithStyle:UITableViewStylePlain];
    return self;
}


- (id) initWithStyle:(UITableViewStyle)style
{
    return [self init];   

}

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad];
    [[self view] setBackgroundColor:[UIColor redColor]];

}

@end

This code all works as expected (an empty red UITableView appears).

Two questions I guess: 1. Is there a simple modification to what I have that can give me a done button and title in my table view? 2. If I have to go to a navigation controller (probably), how can I make a bare-bones navigation controller with a done button and title and embed the table view within it? Oh, and I want to do this programatically. And I think I prefer the done button and title to be in the navigation bar, no tool bar desired. Thanks!

Answer 1

---

To get what you are looking for, you do need to use a UINavigationController. That will provide the UINavigationBar where you can display a title and also buttons.

To implement this with a UINavigationController, you want to do smoothing like this (assuming you are using ARC, so you don’t need to worry about memory management):

-(void) alertView:(UIAlertView *)alertView clickedButtonAtIndex:(NSInteger)buttonIndex

{ 
    if (buttonIndex == 2) {
        AnswersViewController *aVC = [[AnswersViewController alloc] init];

        //Make our done button
        //Target is this same class, tapping the button will call dismissAnswersViewController:
        aVC.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem =  [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithBarButtonSystemItem:UIBarButtonSystemItemDone target:self action:@selector(dismissAnswersViewController:)];

       //Set the title of the view controller
       aVC.title = @"Answers";

        UINavigationController *aNavigationController = [[UINavigationController alloc] initWithRootViewController:aVC];
        [self presentViewController:aNavigationController
                       animated:YES
                     completion:NULL];
    }
} 

Then you would also implement - (void)dismissAnswersViewController:(id)sender in the same class as the UIAlertView delegate method (based on the implementation I have here).

Hope this helps!