iPhone Landscape FAQ and Solutions

Solution 1:

What's in the documentation:

In your view controller, override shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation: to declare your supported interface orientations. This property will/should be checked by the controller infrastructure everytime the device orientation changes.

- (BOOL)shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)orientation
{
   return  (orientation == UIInterfaceOrientationLandscapeRight);
}

This is the absolute minimum your view controller needs to do. If you want to launch your application in landscape mode, you need to add the following key to your .plist file:

<key>UIInterfaceOrientation</key>
<string>UIInterfaceOrientationLandscapeRight</string>

Apple recommends starting landscape only applications in Landscape Right mode (see the HIG under User Experience Guidelines > Start Instantly).

What's not in the documentation:

A little background:

Everytime you try to load a different view controller other than that loaded from the main nib, your view controller is neither interrogated about it's supported interface orientations nor is its frame set correctly. Only the first view controller bound to the window will be layed out correctly.

Other people have suggested using a "MasterViewController" hooked up to the main window to which other controllers add their views as subviews instead of hooking directly into the window. While I have found this solutions is a viable option, it does not work correctly in the case of modal view controllers added to those said subviews. There's also a problem if you have some subviews that should be able to autorotate (what the master controller will prevent).

The usage of undocumented API's to force a certain interface orientation is not an option either.

The solution:

The best solution I have found so far is a modification of the "MasterViewController" workaround. Instead of using a custom "MasterViewController", a UINavigationController with hidden Navigation Bar and hidden Tab Bar is used. If all other views are pushed/popped from the navigation stack of this controller, auto-rotations of controllers on that stack will be managed correctly.

Modal controllers presented via presentModalViewController:animated: from any of the view controllers on the UINavigationController's navigation stack will be rotated and rendered with correct layout. If you want your modal view controller to be rotatable to a different orientation than that of the parent view controller, you need to return the desired orientation from the shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation method of the parent controller while the modal view is presented. In order to properly restore the interface orientation when the modal controller is dismissed, you need to make sure shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation returns the desired orientation for the parent controller before you call dismissModalViewController:animated:. You can use a private BOOL on your view controller to manage that (e.g. BOOL isModalMailControllerActive_).

I'll add a piece of sample code soon, It's just to late now. Please let me know if any unresolved issues remain or anything is unclear about this post. Feel free to edit and improve.

Solution 2:

I had an interesting requirement for ios application:

main viewController should be only landscape, but all others (which can be pushed from main) can be landscape and portrait.

Problem occours - when I push to a new viewController, which then is rotated to portraited - and the pop back - main view is no longer landscape. Also - opening application, it is not in landscape.

In order to keep main viewcontroller landscape, no matter from what orientation it was popped/pushed, I did the following thing: (in viewWillAppear:)

//set statusbar to the desired rotation position
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] setStatusBarOrientation:UIDeviceOrientationLandscapeLeft animated:NO];

//present/dismiss viewcontroller in order to activate rotating.
UIViewController *mVC = [[[UIViewController alloc] init] autorelease];
[self presentModalViewController:mVC animated:NO];
[self dismissModalViewControllerAnimated:NO];

Hopefully it will help someone!

P.S.Tested on sdk 3.2.5 ios 5.0.1.

P.S. Thanks for all the info in this FAQ!