UINavigationController doesn't work in a the moreNavigationController of a UITabBarController

Question

I'm dealing with UINavigationControllers in my application, all handled by an UITabBarController. Everything works fine until my controllers fall into the automatically generated "More" tab.

I reproduced the problem in the simplistic example. Am I doing something wrong? I can't figure out.

Thanks for your help.

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@interface testAppDelegate : NSObject <UIApplicationDelegate, UITabBarControllerDelegate>
{
    UIWindow *window;
    UITabBarController *tabBarController;
}
@property (nonatomic, retain) IBOutlet UIWindow *window;
@property (nonatomic, retain) IBOutlet UITabBarController *tabBarController;
@end

@implementation testAppDelegate
@synthesize window, tabBarController;

- (void)applicationDidFinishLaunching:(UIApplication *)application
{
    tabBarController = [[UITabBarController alloc] initWithNibName:nil bundle:nil];

    UINavigationController *ctrl1 = [[[UINavigationController alloc] initWithNibName:nil bundle: nil] autorelease];
    ctrl1.tabBarItem = [[[UITabBarItem alloc] initWithTabBarSystemItem:UITabBarSystemItemFeatured tag:1] autorelease];

    UINavigationController *ctrl2 = [[[UINavigationController alloc] initWithNibName:nil bundle: nil] autorelease];
    ctrl2.tabBarItem = [[[UITabBarItem alloc] initWithTabBarSystemItem:UITabBarSystemItemFavorites tag:2] autorelease];

    UINavigationController *ctrl3 = [[[UINavigationController alloc] initWithNibName:nil bundle: nil] autorelease];
    ctrl3.tabBarItem = [[[UITabBarItem alloc] initWithTabBarSystemItem:UITabBarSystemItemBookmarks tag:3] autorelease];

    UINavigationController *ctrl4 = [[[UINavigationController alloc] initWithNibName:nil bundle: nil] autorelease];
    ctrl4.tabBarItem = [[[UITabBarItem alloc] initWithTabBarSystemItem:UITabBarSystemItemContacts tag:4] autorelease];

    // This one won't work
    UINavigationController *ctrl5 = [[[UINavigationController alloc] initWithNibName:nil bundle: nil] autorelease];
    ctrl5.tabBarItem = [[[UITabBarItem alloc] initWithTabBarSystemItem:UITabBarSystemItemMostRecent tag:5] autorelease];

    // This one will work
    UIViewController *ctrl6 = [[[UIViewController alloc] initWithNibName:nil bundle: nil] autorelease];
    ctrl6.tabBarItem = [[[UITabBarItem alloc] initWithTabBarSystemItem:UITabBarSystemItemDownloads tag:6] autorelease];

    tabBarController.viewControllers = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:ctrl1, ctrl2, ctrl3, ctrl4, ctrl5, ctrl6, nil];

    [window addSubview:tabBarController.view];
    [window makeKeyAndVisible];
}

- (void)dealloc
{
    [tabBarController release];
    [window release];
    [super dealloc];
}

@end

Pierre Bernard Pierre Bernard · Accepted Answer · 2009-09-07T15:23:31

Short answer: you cannot nest navigation controllers

Longer answer: you are doing it wrong. A better way to create what you want goes like this:

NSMutableArray *viewControllers = [NSMutableArray array];

[viewControllers addObject:[[[ConverterViewController alloc] init] autorelease]];
[viewControllers addObject:[[[UINavigationController alloc]
                             initWithRootViewController:[[[CurrencyViewController alloc] init] autorelease]] autorelease]];
[viewControllers addObject:[[[UINavigationController alloc]
                             initWithRootViewController:[[[HistoryViewController alloc] init] autorelease]] autorelease]];
[viewControllers addObject:[[[UINavigationController alloc]
                             initWithRootViewController:[[[SetupViewController alloc] init] autorelease]] autorelease]];
[viewControllers addObject:[[[UINavigationController alloc]
                             initWithRootViewController:[[[HelpViewController alloc] init] autorelease]] autorelease]];
[viewControllers addObject:[[[LinksViewController alloc] init] autorelease]];

self.viewControllers = viewControllers;
self.customizableViewControllers = [viewControllers arrayByRemovingFirstObject];


@implementation HelpViewController

#pragma mark -
#pragma mark Initialization

- (id)init
{
    if ((self = [super initWithNibName:@"HelpView" bundle:nil]) != nil) {
        self.title = NSLocalizedString(@"Help", @"Help"); 
        self.tabBarItem.image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"question.png"];
    }

    return self;
}

UINavigationController doesn't work in a the moreNavigationController of a UITabBarController

3 Answers