Autolayout needed if only support one orientation? - xcode

Is Autolayout needed to setup for any subview, if my application only support one orientation (e.g., landscape right), applied for all UIViewControllers?
Yes, of course in the case of using animation I agree. But for the normal case, do I need AutoLayout?
Note: I am using XCode7, Swift, ios9

Understanding Auto Layout
Auto Layout dynamically calculates the size and position of all the
views in your view hierarchy, based on constraints placed on those
views. For example, you can constrain a button so that it is
horizontally centered with an Image view and so that the button’s top
edge always remains 8 points below the image’s bottom. If the image
view’s size or position changes, the button’s position automatically
adjusts to match.
This constraint-based approach to design allows you to build user
interfaces that dynamically respond to both internal and external
changes.
Unless you are making an app for one specific screen size, you will want to
use Auto Layout.
Use cases:
You want to support different size classes.
You want to support different screen sizes.
The content displayed by the app changes.
The app supports internationalization.
The app supports Dynamic Type (iOS).
Most of these changes can occur at runtime, and they require a dynamic
response from your app. Others, like support for different screen
sizes, represent the app adapting to different environments. Even
through the screen size won’t typically change at runtime, creating an
adaptive interface lets your app run equally well on an iPhone 4S, an
iPhone 6 Plus, or even an iPad. Auto Layout is also a key component
for supporting Slide Over and Split Views on the iPad.

Auto layout is not required at all. Even for multiple orientations.
However, If you don't use it, you'll have to manage placement for all the different sized devices yourself. So you might as well use it.

Related

Adaptive Layout in Xcode 7.0.1

I have an app that displays properly in portrait view but truncates in landscape view:
From the research I have done it looks like I need to understand Size Classes and Adaptive Layout. However, I am only concerned with layout on iPhone 6, not across different devices (eg iPad).
Before jumping into Adaptive Layout and Size Classes, which seems quite a complex topic, I just wanted to ask if there is a simple way to make this app display properly in both portrait and landscape for iPhone 6.
Thanks in advance!
Yes, you can do it without size classes, but it requires a reasonable modification to your UI.
If you think about it then having a picker always visible makes no sense for you. Looking at your image I am puzzled as to which date is currently being adjusted.
What you want to do instead, is to make your picker appear after user clicks on one of the dates. You can make it slide up from the bottom. In addition, you can add a label above it which will clearly indicate which date the user is currently modifying. That label can be placed in the toolbar to make it easy to add "Done" and "Cancel" buttons to the left and to the right.
In my view it would make much more sense and would also solve your problem. The rest of the UI can be put in the scroll view if you don't have enough space on old devices (e.g. 3.5 inch iPhones)

Set object properties depending on Size Class in iOS8

I am new to iOS development, I have read about size classes, I have a question about setting properties (or just calling methods with some parameter) depending on ViewController's size class. I am developing a simple radio app, for app design I decided to use Collection View in which I want display logo image. Because I develop universal app and I want to place images in 3 columns or rows on both iPhone snd iPad versions, I need 4 Collection Views for iPhone and iPad for portrait and landscape orientations. For example for iPhone's Collection View I set 75x75 image size for cell, for iPad's 200x200. So for one object (radio station) I need to create 2 image sets, because I do not want just to use the biggest iPad's images on iPhone for two reasons: higher CPU usage, scale issues.
So question is which is the best solution to create objects in array for Collection View with appropriate image size depending on Size Class? Is it good solution to use UITraitCollection to determine Size Class in the viewDidLoad method?
You question indicates you need first to take time to learn some stuff on iOS.
Like you I had to start and learn : it is no problem.
have a closer to auto layoutin iOS
www.raywenderlich.com
then see how easy and fun is iOS development (just need to practice to understand how easy it is). Here is a tutorial for collection views:
www.raywenderlich.com
image scaled
in your image asset
place image with name terminated with
nothing, #2x, 3x
-> easy way to scale image : I use sketch.

Autolayout just not working for every screen size

My app is a game and the menus have many labels and buttons and I cannot get all of the different screen sizes(iPhone 4/5/6/6+) to look acceptable from the same set of constraints.
Is there a way that you use to synchronize all the views together to look the same on all different screen sizes?
The project is locked to only portrait so I don't need to consider rotation.
For Autolayout, you
Consider the screen sizes you want to support.
Which view/buttons/labels/imageview etc you want to remain fixed while in
different screen size.
Which view/buttons/labels/imageview etc can be scaled to fit the screen.
Now if by scaling the things you can fit on the screen then you are good to go. But if you still can't find way then you would probably need to you use scrollview and and add a UIView (let's call it content view) to it put your all stuff in it and constraint them vertically all the way from top to bottom.This video can help you if you want to use scrollview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnQsFlMGDsI

Custom elements in watchkit

I was reading Apple Watch Human Interface Guidelines and i'm curious if there is any way in displaying custom UI elements, other than those provided by default by Apple (like tables, buttons or labels). How did they managed to do this:
Did they use images?
While we haven't seen everything that Apple are doing with the core Watch OS apps, it is already clear there are many API functions that they are reserving for their own use at this stage. It's almost certain they were using some of those API functions to create these views.
There is no way to create truly custom UI elements with the current WatchKit API (i.e. entirely new custom classes doing custom drawing). That said, with some creativity, it would be possible to create most of the interface you depict with the current tools available to third party developers. This is almost certainly not the way Apple created it, but you could:
Create a group.
Put inside the group a button with a background image that represents one state of the coloured circle.
At runtime, visually animate the button image as needed by swapping through multiple images that rendered the various states of progress of the circle x colour options. Yes, the starting point would be thinking about 360 images for the circle states x the number of tints. (It is possible to apply a tint to a template image in WatchKit, but as far as I am aware you cannot apply a gradient.)
Add two labels to the group for the large number and subscript, and align both of these to be centred vertically and horizontally in the group.
You can set the tint of the page title at top left by setting the global tint of the application. By changing the global tint at runtime you could change these for each page.
It is not currently possible to change the colour of the page dots at the bottom. These are not set by the global tint and it is not possible currently to change these programatically.
Apple have indicated that later in 2015 third party developers will be able to build fully native apps, but even then, they have not given any indication of whether the API functionality available to us is broader, or whether our API will be essentially the same as it is now, with the one addition that at least some of the current WatchKit App Extension code will be able to run on the device when the iPhone is not present/charged.

Using size classes and autolayout in xcode 6

I'm looking for some help with the new storeyboards and size classes in xcode 6. I'm looking to build a fairly simple interface with a few labels and text field, however I'm having problems making this look correct for the different devices.
As you can see from the attached image iphone 6 picks up the constraints and size set for the iphone, which looks daft (forcing the label for Score, for example, closer to the left because of the constraint) and doesn't make use of the screen size. Is there no way in xcode to build a layout and have it proportionately adjust to the screen size? Buttons and labels increase in size by x amount?
I can build completely separately for ipad and iphone and was happy to do this in previous versions of xcode but this seems to be defeating the whole point of size classes, and even if I was to do this my problem is still the iphone 6 and 6 plus which would pick up the iphone layout and look ridiculous.
I'm tearing my hair out with this so would appreciate any help.
Maybe constraint the lower elements to the bottom of the screen rather than the top. Other than that I think you don't have many options.
You can change your layout for different views using compact and regular widths and heights. Click on wAnyhAny at the bottom of your screen. This will provide a grid view pop up, which lets you customize view for different screen sizes. As you select different boxes, the bottom will tell you what size the view applies to.
You can change four things in a size class:
1. The constant for a constraint
2. If a constraint is installed in the view hierarchy
3. If a view is installed in the view hierarchy
4. The font used for many types of views showing text
This means if you want a different label or constraint for your iPad view, you can add that constraint just for that view using size classes.

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