Monotouch: UINavigationController, set the RootViewController - uinavigationcontroller

How is it possible to map the initWithRootViewController objective-c method in Monotouch?
From Miguel de Icaza Rosetta site, I've found the following translation but I don't know how to apply it:
Selector: initWithRootViewController:
Method: IntPtr Constructor (UIViewController rootViewController);
Then, I also have another problem to solve. I would change the UINavigationController RootViewController during runtime. Is it possible? Surfing the Web, I've found this Changing a UINavigationController’s Root View Controller. Is there a more simple solution?
Thank you in advance.
Edit: my goal is to map the initWithRootViewController method (provided in the link) in Monotouch.

To answer your first question - you simply create a new UINavigationController as below:
UINavigationController navController = new UINavigationController(rootViewController);
Technically it would be possible to change the root controller by modifying the ViewControllers property. For example:
navController.ViewControllers = new UIViewController[2] { newRootController, childController }
EDIT
Try adding the following constructor to your custom UINavigationController:
public CustomNavController(UIViewController rootViewController)
{
ViewControllers = new UIViewController[1] { rootViewController };
}
I'm not sure if this is the best way to get it done, but it'll work.

Related

How to pass an NSString from modal view to parent view

I have a parent view and a modal view with a text box. What I am trying to do is pass whatever is entered into the text box from the modal view and then pass it to a label in the parent view which updates the label to what was entered. I hope that made any sense.
I have been pulling my hair out for a couple of weeks trying to figure this out with no luck. I found many examples and tutorials about segues and passing between views that are being pushed but nothing about modal views and passing back to the parent view.
I have been trying to understand this and need a good example. I kind of understand the prepare for segue concept but for some reason, I just can't figure this one out. Any help on this would be much appreciated and you would be my hero for life lol.
In my project that uses segues, here's how I did it (note that I'm new to iOS, so there's probably "better" ways, and this may be obvious to the iOS veterans):
The short version: define a callback protocol in your modal view controller's .h file. When your modal view controller closes, it checks to see if the presenter implements that protocol and invokes those methods to pass along the data.
So like you said, let's say your modal view controller just gathers a single string value from the user and then they click OK or Cancel. That class might look like this:
#interface MyModalViewController : UIViewController
...
#end
I'm suggesting you add a protocol like this to the same header:
#protocol MyModalViewControllerCallback
-(void) userCancelledMyModalViewController:(MyModalViewController*)vc;
-(void) userAcceptedMyModalViewController:(MyModalViewController*)vc
withInput:(NSString*)s;
#end
Then in MyModalViewController.m, you add a viewDidDisappear with code similar to this:
-(void) viewDidDisappear:(BOOL)animated {
UIViewController* presenter = self.presentingViewController;
// If the presenter is a UINavigationController then we assume that we're
// notifying whichever UIViewController is on the top of the stack.
if ([presenter isKindOfClass:[UINavigationController class]]) {
presenter = [(UINavigationController*)presenter topViewController];
}
if ([presenter conformsToProtocol:#protocol(MyModalViewControllerCallback)]) {
// Assumes the presence of an "accepted" ivar that knows whether they
// accepted or cancelled, and a "data" ivar that has the data that the
// user entered.
if (accepted) {
[presenter userAcceptedMyModalViewController:self withInput:data];
}
else {
[presenter userCancelledMyModalViewController:self];
}
}
[super viewDidDisappear:animated];
}
And finally in the parent view, you implement the new #protocol, e.g. in the .h:
#interface MyParentViewController : UIViewController <MyModalViewControllerCallback>
...
#end
and in the .m:
#implementation MyParentViewController
...
-(void) userCancelledMyModalViewController:(MyModalViewController*)vc {
// Update the text field with something like "They clicked cancel!"
}
-(void) userAcceptedMyModalViewController:(MyModalViewController*)vc
withInput:(NSString*)s {
// Update the text field with the value in s
}
...
#end

UINavigationController and UINavigationBarDelegate.ShouldPopItem() with MonoTouch

How do I pop up an UIAlertView when the back button of a UINavigationBar (controlled by a UINavigationController) was tapped? Under certain conditions, I want to ask the user an "Are you sure?" type of question so he could either abort the action and stay on the current view or pop the navigation stack and go to the parent view.
The most appealing approach I found was to override ShouldPopItem() on UINavigationBar's Delegate.
Now, there is a quite similar question here: iphone navigationController : wait for uialertview response before to quit the current view
There are also a few other questions of similar nature, for example here:
Checking if a UIViewController is about to get Popped from a navigation stack?
and How to tell when back button is pressed in a UINavigationControllerStack
All of these state "subclass UINavigationController" as possible answers.
Then there is this one that reads like subclassing UINavigationController is generally not a good idea:
Monotouch: UINavigationController, override initWithRootViewController
The apple docs also say that UINavigationController is not intended to be subclassed.
A few others state that overriding ShouldPopItem() is not even possible when using a UINavigationController as that does not allow to assign a custom/subclassed UINavigationBarDelegate to the UINavigationBar.
None of my attempts of subclassing worked, my custom Delegate was not accepted.
I also read somewhere that it might be possible to implement ShouldPopItem() within my custom UINavigationController since it assigns itself as Delegate of its UINavigationBar.
Not much of a surprise, this didn't work. How would a subclass of UINavigationController know of the Methods belonging to UINavigationBarDelegate. It was rejected: "no suitable method found to override". Removing the "override" keyword compiled, but the method is ignored completely (as expected). I think, with Obj-C one could implement several Protocols (similar to Interfaces in C# AFAIK) to achieve that. Unfortunately, UINavigationBarDelegate is not an Interface but a Class in MonoTouch, so that seems impossible.
I'm pretty much lost here. How to override ShouldPopItem() on UINavigationBar's Delegate when it is controlled by a UINavigationController? Or is there any other way to pop up an UIAlertView and wait for it's result before possibly popping the navigation stack?
This post is a bit old, but in case you're still interested in a solution (still involves subclassing though):
This implements a "Are you sure you want to Quit?" alert when the back button is pressed, modified from the code here: http://www.hanspinckaers.com/custom-action-on-back-button-uinavigationcontroller/
Turns out if you implement the UINavigationBarDelegate in the CustomNavigationController, you can make use of the shouldPopItem method:
CustomNavigationController.h :
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
#interface CustomNavigationController : UINavigationController <UIAlertViewDelegate, UINavigationBarDelegate> {
BOOL alertViewClicked;
BOOL regularPop;
}
#end
CustomNavigationController.m :
#import "CustomNavigationController.h"
#import "SettingsTableController.h"
#implementation CustomNavigationController
- (BOOL)navigationBar:(UINavigationBar *)navigationBar shouldPopItem:(UINavigationItem *)item {
if (regularPop) {
regularPop = FALSE;
return YES;
}
if (alertViewClicked) {
alertViewClicked = FALSE;
return YES;
}
if ([self.topViewController isMemberOfClass:[SettingsTableViewController class]]) {
UIAlertView * exitAlert = [[[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:#"Are you sure you want to quit?" message:nil delegate:self cancelButtonTitle:#"Cancel" otherButtonTitles:#"Yes", nil] autorelease];
[exitAlert show];
return NO;
}
else {
regularPop = TRUE;
[self popViewControllerAnimated:YES];
return NO;
}
}
-(void)alertView:(UIAlertView *)alertView clickedButtonAtIndex:(NSInteger)buttonIndex {
if (buttonIndex == 0) {
//Cancel button
}
else if (buttonIndex == 1) {
//Yes button
alertViewClicked = TRUE;
[self popViewControllerAnimated:YES];
}
}
#end
The weird logic with the "regularPop" bool is because for some reason just returning "YES" on shouldPopItem only pops the navbar, not the view associated with the navBar - for that to happen you have to directly call popViewControllerAnimated (which then calls shouldPopItem as part of its logic.)
For reference, the route I took after giving up on ShouldPopItem() is to replace the back button with a UIBarButtonItem that has a custom UIButton assigned as it's CustomView. The UIButton is crafted to look like the original back button using two images for the normal and the pressed state. Finally, hiding the original back button is required.
Way too much code for what it's supposed to do. So yeah, thanks Apple.
BTW: Another possibility is creating a UIButton with the secret UIButtonType 101 (which is actually the back button) but I avoided this as it may break at any later iOS version.
Override only UINavigationBarDelegate methods in a UINavigationController subclass and it should simply work. Be cautious that the protocol methods are also called when you push or pop a view controller from inside your code and not only when the back button is pressed. This is because them are push/pop notifications not button pressed actions.
Xamarin does provide the IUINavigationBarDelegate interface to allow you to implement the UINavigationBarDelegate as part of your custom UINavigationController class.
The interface however does not require that the ShouldPopItem method be implemented. All the interface does is add the appropriate Protocol attribute to the class so it can be used as a UINavigationBarDelegate.
So in addition you need to add the ShouldPopItem declaration to the class as follows:
[Export ("navigationBar:shouldPopItem:")]
public bool ShouldPopItem (UINavigationBar navigationBar, UINavigationItem item)
{
}
I've merged this solution with a native Obj-C solution. This is the way I'm currently handling the cancellation of the BACK button in iOS
It seems that it is possible to handle the shouldPopItem method of the NavigationBar in this way:
Subclass a UINavigationController
Mark your custom UINavigationController with the IUINavigationBarDelegate
Add this method with the Export attribute
[Export ("navigationBar:shouldPopItem:")]
public bool ShouldPopItem (UINavigationBar navigationBar, UINavigationItem item)
{
}
Now you can handle popping in the ShoulPopItem method. An example to this is to create an interface like this
public interface INavigationBackButton
{
// This method should return TRUE to cancel the "back operation" or "FALSE" to allow normal back
bool BackButtonPressed();
}
Then mark your UIViewController which needs to handle the back button with this interface. Implement something like this
public bool BackButtonPressed()
{
bool needToCancel = // Put your logic here. Remember to return true to CANCEL the back operation (like in Android)
return needToCancel;
}
Then in your ShouldPopItem Implementation have something like this
tanks to: https://github.com/onegray/UIViewController-BackButtonHandler/blob/master/UIViewController%2BBackButtonHandler.m
[Export("navigationBar:shouldPopItem:")]
public bool ShouldPopItem(UINavigationBar navigationBar, UINavigationItem item)
{
if (this.ViewControllers.Length < this.NavigationBar.Items.Length)
return true;
bool shouldPop = true;
UIViewController controller = this.TopViewController;
if (controller is INavigationBackButton)
shouldPop = !((INavigationBackButton)controller).BackButtonPressed();
if (shouldPop)
{
//MonoTouch.CoreFoundation.DispatchQueue.DispatchAsync
CoreFoundation.DispatchQueue.MainQueue.DispatchAsync(
() =>
{
PopViewController(true);
});
}
else
{
// Workaround for iOS7.1. Thanks to #boliva - http://stackoverflow.com/posts/comments/34452906
foreach (UIView subview in this.NavigationBar.Subviews)
{
if(subview.Alpha < 1f)
UIView.Animate(.25f, () => subview.Alpha = 1);
}
}
return false;
}

Dialogs (Real ones)

Having tried a number of different solutions I keep coming back to this. I need a Window.ShowDialog, using the ViewModelLocator class as a factory via a UnityContainer.
Basically I have a View(and ViewModel) which on a button press on the the view needs to create a dialog (taking a couple of parameters in its constructor) that will process some logic and eventally return a result to the caller (along with the results of all the logic it computed).
Maybe I'm wrong for stilll looking at this from a Windows Forms perspective, but I know exactly what I want to do and I want to ideally do it using WPF and MVVM. I'm trying to make this work for a project, and ultimately don't want to have to go back to vanilla WPF in order to make it work.
I break the rules to implement a dialogwindow but tried to reduce it to a minimum. I have a method OpenDialog in my BaseViewModel:
public void OpenDialog(DialogViewModel model)
{
this.MessengerInstance.Send<DialogViewModel, MainWindow>(model);
}
And in my MainWindow:
Messenger.Default.Register<DialogViewModel>(this, model =>
{
// Instantiate the dialog box
var dlg = new DialogWindow();
// Configure the dialog box
dlg.Owner = this;
dlg.Content = model;
// Open the dialog box modally
dlg.ShowDialog();
});
That way i only have a loose coupling between my viewmodel and my MainView.
You can do the same for closing, my BaseDialogViewModel has a method:
public void CloseDialog()
{
this.MessengerInstance.Send<PopUpAction, DialogWindow>(PopUpAction.Close);
}
(PopupAction is just an enum) and my DialogWindow registers for that:
Messenger.Default.Register<PopUpAction>(this, action =>
{
switch (action)
{
case PopUpAction.Close:
this.Close();
break;
}
});
You could also leave the receiver away when sending, to keep the view class out of the viewmodel but either way i think it's a acceptable solution :)
You can do that. Just create an instance of a page/usercontrol/window and call instance.ShowDialog().
Here's my T4 templates to generate a view/viewmodel with the messaging for closing a window and other tricks.

Modules and Panels issue

I have the following problem.
In my application I have several modules and each of them have components CollapsableTitleWindow (extends Panel). After opening the window it is added to the container which is in the main application (CollapsableTitleWindowContainer). In these windows you can open another window (and so on).
Now, what is the problem.
When I change (reload) any module and I want to open a new window (sub window) with the already loaded window I get this error:
TypeError: Error #1009: Cannot access a property or method of a null object reference.
at mx.containers::Panel/layoutChrome()[C:\autobuild\3.2.0\frameworks\projects\framework\src\mx\containers\Panel.as:1405]
at com::CollapsableTitleWindow/layoutChrome()[D:\Flex 3 Workspace\WesobCrm\src\com\CollapsableTitleWindow.as:216]
at mx.core::Container/updateDisplayList()[C:\autobuild\3.2.0\frameworks\projects\framework\src\mx\core\Container.as:2867] (...)
Indicates that the main applications have object Panel
Please help.
P.S. I found a similar problem on http://www.nabble.com/Flex-Module-issue-with-Panel-td20168053.html
ADDED:
I extendes the Panel class and do something like that:
override protected function layoutChrome(unscaledWidth:Number, unscaledHeight:Number):void
{
use namespace mx_internal;
if(!(mx_internal::titleBarBackground is TitleBackground)) {
mx_internal::titleBarBackground = new TitleBackground();
}
super.layoutChrome(unscaledWidth, unscaledHeight);
}
But now i had something like that:
Before
(source: ak.bx.pl)
After
(source: ak.bx.pl)
You can see that it loos style declaration.
I found a solution but it is bad pratice:
I add in my main application
public function getProductWindow():ProductWindow {
return new ProductWindow();
}
And change in the module:
From
var productWindow:ProductWindow = new ProductWindow();
To
var productWindow:ProductWindow = Application.application.getProductWindow();
If anyone have a better solution ?

unable to get focus on canvas

I am creating a canvas in actionscript like :
private var cvs_preview:Canvas = null;
private function show_preview():void
{
this.cvs_preview = new Canvas();
this.cvs_preview.id = "cvs_preview_1";
this.cvs_preview.setStyle('backgroundColor', 0x000000);
this.cvs_preview.setStyle('backgroundAlpha', 1);
this.cvs_preview.setStyle('borderColor', 0x417FDD);
this.cvs_preview.setStyle('cornerRadius', 10);
this.cvs_preview.setStyle('borderStyle', 'solid');
this.cvs_preview.setStyle('dropShadowEnabled', true);
var pt:Point = image.localToGlobal(new Point(image.x, image.y));
this.cvs_preview.x = pt.x - 50;
this.cvs_preview.y = pt.y - 50;
this.cvs_preview.height = 200;
this.cvs_preview.width = 250;
//this.cvs_preview.addEventListener(FlexEvent.CREATION_COMPLETE, get_focus_on_canvas);
//this.cvs_preview.focusManager.setFocus(
//this.cvs_preview.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, end_preview_on_focus_change);
this.cvs_preview.addEventListener(FocusEvent.MOUSE_FOCUS_CHANGE, end_preview_on_focus_change);
Application.application.addChild(this.cvs_preview); //add as top-most visible container
btn_mini_preview.enabled = false;
}
So on the focus change i want to run the "end_preview_on_focus_change()"
but this is not working.
As per my understanding, i think the canvas not getting any focus in the first place. I was trying to use focusManager.setFocus to do that after the canvas's creation complete. but even that is giving me an error.
the code i was trying on Creation.Complete is :
private function get_focus_on_canvas(e:FlexEvent)
{
focusManager.setFocus(e.target);
//Alert.show("testing img complete");
}
this is giving me an error "1118: Implicit coercion of a value with static type Object to a possibly unrelated type mx.managers:IFocusManagerComponent."
basically i just want to use the focus out event of the canvas.
Can someone help me with this...
I have been on this issue since a long time.
Regards
Zeeshan
The error is correct. You have an object of type Object which you are trying to use as an IFocusManagerComponent. This will not work. To accomplish that line of code, you need to do something like
focusManager.setFocus( IFocusManagerComponent( e.target ) );
This, of course, assumes that the target implements IFocusManagerComponent. It will give you an error otherwise (and likely will in this case because Canvas is not listed as an IFocusManagerComponent). The good news is that Canvas does have a drawFocus method which will accomplish the same thing.
As to your MOUSE_FOCUS_CHANGE event, that will only be fired if an object already HAS focus and then loses it. I think you are better off using FlexEvent.CREATION_COMPLETE. This will ensure that the component has registered itself with all of the appropriate classes in the Flex SDK so that the FocusManager can even be aware of the new object. Whatever you do, do not try to set focus on something which has not been added to the stage (ie: Event.ADDED has been called).
As another piece of advice -- Event.ADDED bubbles, make sure that event.currentTarget == event.target to make sure that you are listening to the correct object. Otherwise, you might be calling the same function multiple times erroneously.
Only a few classes implement IFocusManagerComponent as others mentioned and Canvas is not one of them. If you really must call FocusManager.setFocus() you will have to extend the canvas class to implement this interface and use that class instead. You don't have to write any methods to implement this interface, all methods have already been implemented by UIComponent itself
//FocusableCanvas.as (include appropriate package and import statements)
public class FocusableCanvas extends Canvas implements IFocusManagerComponent
{
public function FocusableCanvas()
{
super();
}
}
//Now use this class instead of Canvas
this.cvs_preview = new FocusableCanvas();
//setFocus in creation complete handler
FocusManager.setFocus(IFocusManagerComponent(e.target));
But if all you want to do is to set focus on the canvas upon it's creation, you can call canvas.setFocus() from the creationComplete handler instead.
private function get_focus_on_canvas(e:FlexEvent)
{
Canvas(e.currentTarget).setFocus();
trace("done");
}
I see two problems, and no perfect solutions. With any luck, this can help you out.
First of all, e.target returns an object typecast with type Object. This explains your implict coercion error, because Object does not implement IFocusManagerComponent.
Second, iFocusManagerComponent is only implemented by Accordion, AdvancedListBase, Button, ButtonBar, ChartBase, ComboBase, DateChooser, DateField, HTML, ListBase, MenuBar, NumericStepper, TabNavigator, TextArea, TextInput, UIMovieClip as per this entry in the Flex 3.4 AS3 Reference.
This leads me to believe that a Canvas element cannot take focus and has simply inherited access to the FocusManager through inheritance of UIComponent.
The only solutions I can see are to utilize something other than Canvas to handle your focus related concerns, or subclass Canvas and implement iFocusManagerComponent, though that looks fairly complex.
Edit
Apologies for missing drawFocus in the above solution.
Please try;
private function get_focus_on_canvas(e:FlexEvent)
{
this.cvs_preview.setFocus();
}

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