Question

I would like to combine UITableView and UINaviationController in an app but as a newbie most apps I’ve seen just send you straight to the results view (UITableView). But, I guess a “normal” search application does not assume you have the results on the first screen. There should be a search form on first screen with input fields and a button that triggers the search process and show some results and navigation.

So, I’m just trying to replicate this normal behaviour in my app. I’ve already made the search form (no navigation shown on it, of course) and a seperated View called “ListingViewController” with its related View and containing a UITableView and where I think I should add the Navigation…The next idea will be to make a DetailViewController and possibly and ListingMapController to show the listing in a GoogleMap.

So, where I’m stuck at is how to add this Navigation Controller ?

Some suggested me to add it in the SearchViewController delegate…
But I don’t want a navigation on search form of course…

Some suggested me to open the Navigation controller modally…
But, I”m also planning at adding a Tab Bar to allow user to see other informations (like About,etc…) and with a modal Nav controller I don’t know if they will still see the bottom Tabbar…

Any suggestions? What do you think is of best practices especially to avoid my app of being rejected by Apple?

Thx in advance for reading and helping!

Stephane

Answer 1

You could init the navigationController with your View Controller as the root view Controller. Then hide the navigationBar (if you need to). You would then add the navigationController.view as the subview. This will basically look like the original view controller. Then you can pushViewController: animated: to push the results view Controller.

So, for example in your AppDelegate (or in the proper view controller):

Create a property and ivar for a UINavigationController and hook up its outlets in interface builder. Then set your search controller as the root view controller for the nav bar, and add it as a subview.

MySearchViewController* searchController = [[MySearchViewController alloc] init];
self.myNavigationController = [[UINavigationController alloc] initWithRootController:searchController];
[searchController release];
self.myNavigationController.navigationBarHidden = YES;
[self.window addSubview:self.myNavigationController.view];
[self.window makeKeyAndVisible];

Then of course in your searchController, you would simply say:

ResultsViewController* myResultsViewController = [[MyResultsViewController alloc] init];
//You may want to create another init method and pass in some arguments like an array:
// [[MyResultsViewController alloc] initWithResults:results];

then push the viewController

//This is in your search controller class
[self.navigationController pushViewController:myResultsViewController Animated:YES];
[myResultsViewController release];

from the results viewController, to get back you pop the view controller off of the navigationController view controller’s stack.

//In results view controller perhaps in some IBAction for a back button:

-(IBAction)backButtonPressed:(id)sender
{

     [self.navigationController popViewControllerAnimated:YES];

}