Question

I’m making a custom UIViewController which holds to sub view controllers. They are put inside the main view controller this way:

- (void) setHeaderViewController:(UIViewController *)vc
{
    [self setViewController:vc isHeader:YES];
    _headerViewController = vc;
}

- (void) setDetailViewController:(UIViewController *)vc
{
    [self setViewController:vc isHeader:NO];
    _detailViewController = vc;
}

- (void) setViewController:(UIViewController*) viewController isHeader:(BOOL)isHeader
{
    UIViewController* viewControllerRef = ((isHeader) ? _headerViewController : _detailViewController);
     
    if(viewControllerRef == viewController)
         return;
     
    const CGSize selfSize = self.view.frame.size;
    
    CGRect viewFrame;
    
    if (isHeader)
    {
        viewFrame = CGRectMake(0, 0, selfSize.width, 150);
    }
    else
    {
        viewFrame = CGRectMake(0, 150, selfSize.width, selfSize.height-150);
    }

    UIView* viewControllerView = viewController.view;
    
    [viewControllerView setFrame:viewFrame];
    [viewControllerView setAutoresizingMask:(UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleWidth | UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleHeight | ((isHeader) ? UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleBottomMargin : UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleTopMargin))];
    
    [self.view addSubview:viewControllerView];
}

If I put two UIViewControllers inside of each sub view controller slot, the sizes defined in the method is respected. However, when putting a UITabBarController, it gets greedy and occupies the whole space:

UIViewController *vc = [[WIFCustomerDetailHeaderViewController alloc] initWithNibName:@"WIFCustomerDetailHeaderViewController" bundle:nil];
[self setHeaderViewController:vc];

UIViewController *vc1 = [[UIViewController alloc] init];
vc1.title = @"Personal Data";
vc1.tabBarItem = [[UITabBarItem alloc] initWithTitle:@"Personal Data" image:nil tag:0];
vc1.view.backgroundColor = [UIColor redColor];
vc1.view.frame = CGRectMake(0,400,100,100);

UIViewController *vc2 = [[UIViewController alloc] init];
vc2.title = @"Diagnosis";
vc2.tabBarItem = [[UITabBarItem alloc] initWithTitle:@"Diagnosis" image:nil tag:0];
vc2.view.backgroundColor = [UIColor purpleColor];
vc2.view.frame = CGRectMake(0,500,50,50);

NSArray *tabs = [[NSArray alloc] initWithObjects:vc1, vc2, nil];

WIFCustomerDetailTabViewController *tvc = [[WIFCustomerDetailTabViewController alloc] init];
[tvc setViewControllers:tabs];

[self setDetailViewController:tvc];

Does anyone knows what can be happening here? I can’t find the cause…

Images below..

Answer 1

Documentation for the UITabBarController class says, “you must install this view as the root of your window. Unlike other view controllers, a tab bar interface should never be installed as a child of another view controller”.

It seems that you’re attempting a design that’s specifically not supported.