Question

I recently came back to native iOS development and am working on a Tab Bar app. I noticed the process of building one has changed. All the tutorials mention adding a Tab Bar controller to the mainwindow.xib of a Window-based application. I really do enjoy using the interface builder system to create a tab bar but this seems to be a thing of the past?

Without that initial window to add the tab bar controller it’s kind of a mute point. The tab bar template isn’t bad, it just uses code to setup each of the views tab bar elements, etc. This is fine, but I really did like the methodology of separating the interface and the code behind. When I work with clients it’s nice to show them the interface changing visually.

My question is 1) Is it possible to still build a tab bar app using the tab bar controller and interface building to customize my tab bar? And 2) How do I go about doing this? Are there any tutorials? I’m not against building this up from scratch using the empty template.

Thanks,

David

Answer 1

Hello there i think this tutorial will help you:

in ios5 customization is quite simple:

vistit: http://kurrytran.blogspot.com/2011/10/ios-5-tutorial-creating-custom-tab-bar.html

it is all done with storyboards and then you set up everything in the viewdidload method.

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    UIImage *selectedImage0 = [UIImage imageNamed:@"HomeDB.png"];
    UIImage *unselectedImage0 = [UIImage imageNamed:@"HomeLB.png"];

    UIImage *selectedImage1 = [UIImage imageNamed:@"ScheduleDB.png"];
    UIImage *unselectedImage1 = [UIImage imageNamed:@"ScheduleLB.png"];

    UIImage *selectedImage2 = [UIImage imageNamed:@"BuildingsDB.png"];
    UIImage *unselectedImage2 = [UIImage imageNamed:@"BuildingsLB.png"];

    UIImage *selectedImage3 = [UIImage imageNamed:@"InformationDB.png"];
    UIImage *unselectedImage3 = [UIImage imageNamed:@"InformationLB.png"];

    UIImage *selectedImage4 = [UIImage imageNamed:@"MoreDB.png"];
    UIImage *unselectedImage4 = [UIImage imageNamed:@"MoreLB.png"];

    UITabBar *tabBar = self.tabBarController.tabBar;
    UITabBarItem *item0 = [tabBar.items objectAtIndex:0];
    UITabBarItem *item1 = [tabBar.items objectAtIndex:1];
    UITabBarItem *item2 = [tabBar.items objectAtIndex:2];
    UITabBarItem *item3 = [tabBar.items objectAtIndex:3];
    UITabBarItem *item4 = [tabBar.items objectAtIndex:4];

    [item0 setFinishedSelectedImage:selectedImage0 withFinishedUnselectedImage:unselectedImage0];
    [item1 setFinishedSelectedImage:selectedImage1 withFinishedUnselectedImage:unselectedImage1];
    [item2 setFinishedSelectedImage:selectedImage2 withFinishedUnselectedImage:unselectedImage2];
    [item3 setFinishedSelectedImage:selectedImage3 withFinishedUnselectedImage:unselectedImage3];
    [item4 setFinishedSelectedImage:selectedImage4 withFinishedUnselectedImage:unselectedImage4];
    [super viewDidLoad];
         // Do any additional setup after loading the view, typically from a nib.
}

i hope it helps.