Chapter 7. Advanced view controllers

When we started our look at view controllers in chapter 5, we promised that we’d return to the more advanced view controllers that manage several pages of content at once. That’s the purpose of this chapter: to introduce you to the final fundamental building block of iOS that allows you to build complex multipage applications.

In this chapter, we’ll take an in-depth look at three view controllers: the tab bar controller, the navigation controller, and the unique split view controller (at the time of writing, it’s only available on the iPad). We’ll also take a briefer look at the flipside controller that appears in one of Xcode’s iOS templates and talk about some modal controllers that you’ll see later in the book.

As in the previous chapter on view controllers, we’ll offer skeletal examples: the main purpose is to provide you with the reusable programming frameworks that will let you use these controllers in your own programs. Let’s kick off the discussion with the tab bar view controller.

7.1. The tab bar view controller

7.2. The navigation controller

7.3. Using the flipside controller

7.4. The split view controller

7.5. Popover and modal view controllers

7.6. Combining view controllers in universal applications

7.7. Summary