Single ViewController with multiple Views in MonoTouch

0
votes

I have an iPad application that has a main ViewController and its main view as usual, but I have a number of overlays (implemented as separate views). I want all of these views to be controlled/owned by the main view controller.

The set of overlay views are packed into a single XIB (only for IB designing purpose, no code behind) and are loaded manually from the main view controller and casted to the appropriate View class for each of them, implemented as separate .cs file for each.

Everything works fine, but because in the views XIB the owner is set to the main ViewController class (in order to generate the designer code for the events, outlets) it also generates a Register attribute for the main view controller class, which colides with the same register attribute already generated in the main view controller XIB designer file.

My question is: Is there a way to prevent MonoTouch/IB from auto-generating the Register attribute for the views XIB?

Thanks, Pedro

I'm using XCode/IB 3.2.6, MonoTouch 4.0.5, MonoDevelop 2.4.2, MonoFramework 2.10.4

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iosattributesxamarin.iosxibviewcontroller
in the MonoTouch documentation on XIB generation it is not clear regarding cross-XIB scenarios. - Pedro Oliveira
I implemented a solution based on the .NET design patterns, will post it in a few hours when StackOverflow will allow me. - Pedro Oliveira

1 Answers

0
votes

Ok, I implemented a solution, it meets my previous requirements but has a few disadvantages, may be suitable for some scenarios and not a good design pattern for others.

I implemented my main view controller in a XIB/code behind and called it MainBaseViewController. It has only the minimum UI elements, because it will mainly be a visual container for all the other views. Then I created a class in a separate .cs file called MainViewController (inherited from (MainBaseViewController), which is a partial class in order to connect to the designer code generated by the views XIB. This class will hold all the logic of the view controller. The only drawback is that any UI elements (outlets) in the MainBaseViewController will be generated as private by MonoTouch and I needed to create some protected accessors in the class implementation, but its ok because it is only the view outlet (but this could be a problem if the base XIB had many controls).

Resuming:

  • The MainBaseViewController class and XIB will have protected accessors for any outlets and only the basic UI container for the other views in the application.

  • The MainViewController is a .cs file and is a partial class that inherits from MainBaseViewController, implements all the logic of the view controller (manages all other views)

  • The views are stored in the MainViews XIB (which has no code behind) and the file owner of the views is the class MainViewController, which generates all outlets and events accessible from the MainViewController class.

  • Separate .cs files implement each specific logic for each view contained in the views XIB and which is created when the main controller loads the views dynamically from the views XIB.

This solution allows to store the views in a separate file, the view controller logic in another one (apart from the UI) and specific view logic sepa

Any other solutions or a better design pattern? Another simpler option would be to just stick all views inside the main controller XIb, losing the independence of the controller and the views.

Thanks, Pedro