Question

So i wanted to build a tabbar that has more than 5 items and is scrollable and found this article.
Easy done by subclassing the UITabBarController and hide the existing tabbar:

for(UIView *view in self.view.subviews)
{
    if([view isKindOfClass:[UITabBar class]])
    {
        view.hidden = YES;
        break;
    }
}

Then i just add a UIScrollView and throw some buttons in there based on the items-collection of the tabbarcontroller.

int i = 0;
for (UITabBarItem *item in self.tabBar.items)
{
    UIView *tab = [[[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(i*60, 0, 60, 60)] autorelease];

    UIButton *btn = [[[UIButton alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(7.5, 1, 45, 45)] autorelease];
    [btn setImage:item.image forState:UIControlStateNormal];
    btn.tag = i;
    [btn addTarget:self action:@selector(didSelectTabrBarItem:) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];
    [tab addSubview:btn];

    [self.scrollView addSubview:tab];
    i++;

    if(self.selectedViewController == nil)
        [self setSelectedIndex:0];
}

I am overriding the setSelectedindex/ViewController since i need some addition drawing.

-(void)setSelectedViewController:(UIViewController *)selectedViewController
{
    [super setSelectedViewController:selectedViewController];
    [self startTimer];
}

-(void)setSelectedIndex:(NSUInteger)selectedIndex
{
    [super setSelectedIndex:selectedIndex];
    [self startTimer];
}

The problem is that when I am pressing button number 5, 6 or 7, the tabbarcontroller opens the More view. How do i get rid of that and make the last three items act like the other ones? – Could it be the call to the super?

My guess would be to completely kill the UITabBarController and implement my own custom tabbar. But is it possible to disable the more menu and have the UITabBarController select item 5, 6 and 7 as normal?

Answer 1

I should finalize this thread. I have been having the stuff above in a App Store for a year and it has caused massive problems in the long run. It works, but it quirks when you rely on the built in features of UITabbarcontroller as it messes around with the view stack.

After going around this hot ash for over a year we decided to build our own tabbarcontroller/menucontroller. Thta took like a day and have freed us from all the fixes and quirks.
My hack works, but I recommend building your own navigation class – it will pay off in the long run 🙂