View Controllers: How to switch between views programmatically?

Solution 1:

There's a nice example of switching views in Chapter 6 of Beginning iPhone Development. You can see the source code for it here: http://iphonedevbook.com/

SwitchViewController has the code to change views programatically.

- (IBAction)switchViews:(id)sender
{

    if (self.yellowViewController == nil)
    {
        YellowViewController *yellowController = [[YellowViewController alloc]
                initWithNibName:@"YellowView" bundle:nil];
        self.yellowViewController = yellowController;
        [yellowController release];
    }

    [UIView beginAnimations:@"View Flip" context:nil];
    [UIView setAnimationDuration:1.25];
    [UIView setAnimationCurve:UIViewAnimationCurveEaseInOut];

    UIViewController *coming = nil;
    UIViewController *going = nil;
    UIViewAnimationTransition transition;

    if (self.blueViewController.view.superview == nil) 
    {   
        coming = blueViewController;
        going = yellowViewController;
        transition = UIViewAnimationTransitionFlipFromLeft;
    }
    else
    {
        coming = yellowViewController;
        going = blueViewController;
        transition = UIViewAnimationTransitionFlipFromRight;
    }

    [UIView setAnimationTransition: transition forView:self.view cache:YES];
    [coming viewWillAppear:YES];
    [going viewWillDisappear:YES];
    [going.view removeFromSuperview];
    [self.view insertSubview: coming.view atIndex:0];
    [going viewDidDisappear:YES];
    [coming viewDidAppear:YES];

    [UIView commitAnimations];

}

Solution 2:

You can begin from the simplest removeFromSuperview/insertSubview and add code to it little by little.

//SwitchViewController.h
#import 
@class BlueViewController;
@class YellowViewController;

@interface SwitchViewController : UIViewController {
    IBOutlet BlueViewController *blueViewController;
    IBOutlet YellowViewController *yellowViewController;
}
- (IBAction)switchViews:(id)sender;
@property (nonatomic, retain) BlueViewController *blueViewController;
@property (nonatomic, retain) YellowViewController *yellowViewController;
@end

//1. remove yellow view and insert blue view
- (IBAction)switchViews:(id)sender {
    if(self.blueViewController.view.superview == nil)
    {
        [yellowViewController.view removeFromSuperview];
        [self.view insertSubview:blueViewController.view atIndex:0];
    }
}

//2. appear=insert, disappear=remove
if(blueViewController.view.superview == nil)
{
    [blueViewController viewWillAppear:YES];
    [yellowViewController viewWillDisappear:YES];

    [yellowViewController.view removeFromSuperview];
    [self.view insertSubview:self.blueViewController.view atIndex:0];

    [yellowViewController viewDidDisappear:YES];
    [blueViewController viewDidAppear:YES];
}

//3. now add animation
[UIView beginAnimations:@"View Flip" context:nil];
[UIView setAnimationDuration:1.25];
[UIView setAnimationCurve:UIViewAnimationCurveEaseInOut];
//blue view will appear by flipping from right
if(blueViewController.view.superview == nil)
{
    [UIView setAnimationTransition: UIViewAnimationTransitionFlipFromRight 
                            forView:self.view cache:YES];

    [blueViewController viewWillAppear:YES];
    [yellowViewController viewWillDisappear:YES];

    [yellowViewController.view removeFromSuperview];
    [self.view insertSubview:self.blueViewController.view atIndex:0];

    [yellowViewController viewDidDisappear:YES];
    [blueViewController viewDidAppear:YES];
}
[UIView commitAnimations];

Solution 3:

If I understand correctly, what you are trying to accomplish is pretty straightforward.

Just add a UINavigationController on your application delegate and do:

[navigationController pushView:vcA];

Delegates will be called accordingly:

• (void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated;
• (void)viewDidDisappear:(BOOL)animated;
• (void)viewDidLoad;

And when you want to pop the view and push another one:

[navigationController popViewControllerAnimated:true];
[navigationController pushView:vcB];

If you don't want the navigationController showing just use:

[navigationBar setHidden:YES];

Where navigationBar is the UINavigationBar corresponding to your UINavigationController.