Question

In order to switch between views in my iOS app, I have been using Modal View Controllers. It works fine, but is this bad coding practice? Will it be detrimental to the memory usage of my app?

In response to comments asking for more information, the views I am switching between are normal informational views. I am using three views to navigate through my app:

• Main View: Has buttons to navigate to specific informational views
• Info View: Has buttons to navigate to specific web pages for information
• Web View: Displays information through a UIWebview

I have an improvised navigation bar at the top for navigating “back” and “home” do the main page.

Overall, this is a web app with structure provided with menus in other views. I don’t want to reveal what it does specifically (it’s my idea), however this should be enough information to work with.

I am currently switching between views like this:

newViewController *newView = [[newViewController alloc] init];
[self presentModalViewController:newView animated:YES];

Based on the answers so far, Modal Views are meant to quickly and temporarily display animations, but I am looking for a more permanent approach.

Is there a better way? Please provide example code with your response. Thank you!

EDIT: I apologize for originally not having enough information. I have posted a lot more information. If you need anything else, please comment.

Answer 1

Using modal view controllers is usually reserved for times when you need to display a view temporarily, as when the ‘new message’ controller is presented by Apple’s Messages app. Another way to do what you want, which requires a little more setup, is:

[self.navigationController pushViewController:newView animated:YES];

A nice explanation outlining the difference between the two can be found here as well as questions on Stack Overflow here and here. A nice little tutorial on how to set up a UINavigationController can be found here, and a previous SO question here covers the topic of custom animations, while some source code provided here might also help you out. Phew. That’s a lot of links.