Xcode should i use storyboard

This creates a new relationship arrow between the two scenes. This is also an embed relationship, like the one you saw earlier. The tab bar controller has two embed relationships, one for each tab. The navigation controller itself has an embed relationship with the table view controller. When you made this new connection, a new tab was added to the tab bar controller named Item. For this app, you want this new scene to be the first tab, so drag the tabs around to change their order:.

Build and run to try it out. The first tab now contains a table view inside a navigation controller. In their current state, the tabs are not expressive at all. Each should have its own icon and name to represent its views. This instance defines the name and the image that should appear on the tab bar. In the Document Outline, under the Item 2 Scene , you will find an item named Item 2 that has a star icon beside it.

Select it and, in the Attributes inspector , change its Title to Gestures. Now, try another way to set the title. In the navigation controller, double-click the word Item at the bottom of the tab bar and type the new name Players. You can add the images now. Open Assets. Back in Main. Build and run and marvel at your pretty tab bar. So far, the Players tab shows an empty list because the table view in this screen has no cells. There are two ways a table view can operate:.

Select the table view and, from the Attributes inspector , change the value of the Content drop-down to Static Cells. Now, you can customize the cells. Drag a Horizontal Stack View onto your cell. Finally, add two labels within the Vertical Stack View. This is where Auto Layout comes in. Select the Horizontal Stack view you added in the cell, then click on the Add New Constraints button that looks like a tie fighter.

That button will open a dialog that lets you specify constraint values. Specify the constraints to add for the Stack view as follows:.

With each set of constraints you add, the controls on the storyboard adjust their positions to match. Sometimes, Xcode is able to suggest the constraints you need to add to fix it. Click on the small red circle and it will show you the layout errors. Click the new red circle and tap Change Priority. Change the font size of the lower label to 14 and set the image of the Image view to 4Stars. Then, use the Size inspector to change the default height of the cells in the table view to 60 and uncheck Automatic for both the table view and the cell.

You can either duplicate the cells you just created or tell the table view to show more. Your last step is to give your cells some real data. This screen will not be functional without code to make it work, but nothing is holding you back from creating the interface for these forms.

Add a Bar Button Item to the upper-right corner of the scene. The corner will highlight automatically as you drag the button over that area. Then, change its System Type to Add. Drag a navigation controller onto your scene. It will come with a table view controller. Then, control-drag from the Add button to the newly-added navigation controller.

Select Show from the pop-up menu. With NIBs, any arbitrary view can be designed, which the developer can then attach to a view controller as-needed. The clear advantage to this approach is that each component is easier to develop, easier to test, and easier to debug. NIBs share the merge conflict problems we saw with Storyboards, but to a lesser extent, as NIB files operate at a smaller scale.

As a simple use case, a view template containing a username and a password text field could be implemented with the hypothetical TTLoginView and TTSignupView views, both of which could originate from the same NIB. Another way of looking at it is that NIBs and Storyboards are implemented with code, so their functionality will naturally be a subset.

The greatest advantage of creating an iOS UI programmatically: if you know how to code a user interface, then you know what happens under the hood , whereas the same is not necessarily true of NIBs and Storyboards. To make a comparison: a calculator is a useful tool. Visual HTML RAD environments represent a typical borderline case: they are used to generate often poorly written code, claiming that no HTML knowledge is needed, and that everything can be done visually.

But no web developer would implement a web page without getting his or her hands dirty: they know that manually handling the raw HTML and CSS will lead to more modular, more efficient code. So, mastering the coding of iOS user interfaces gives you more control over and greater awareness of how these pieces fit together, which raises your upper-bound as a developer.

There are also cases in which custom iOS code is the only option for UI design. Dynamic layouts, where view elements are moved around and the flow or layout adjusts significantly based on content, are typical examples. All code has semantic meaning, so resolving conflicts is no more difficult than usual. Refactoring code that was written long ago or by someone else also becomes much more complicated: when elements are being positioned and animated with custom methods and magic numbers, debugging sessions can become arduous.

Any view implemented programmatically can be designed in a reusable fashion. In general, code-made UIs can always be used. For the rest of the developers out there, the Xcode army knife provides three tools which can be used all at once, in the same project, effectively. As examined in this turtorial, Storyboards add a noticeable simplification to iOS UI design and visual flow. They also eliminate boilerplate code; but all this comes at a price, paid in flexibility.

NIBs, meanwhile, offer more flexibility by focusing on a single view, but with no visual flow. For all they can do to make the Mac platform better for users and developers, I just find it odd that they decide to make using Storyboards a priority. Not to mention, zoom still doesn't work in Mac storyboards unless they fixed it in 8. I haven't updated yet Not really trying to side scroll a gigantic macOS storyboard on my 13 Macbook Pro, so I hope they fixed that.

If I have to use storyboards, could this be limited to the initial screen then it's not a serious problem or should all the windows be in the storyboard which would be an incredible mess for me. You could break up the windows across several diff storyboards. Did the concept of storyboard references make it to the Mac version? One thing this Xcode change does is invalidate prevously printed books which only focus on XIB uage.

It makes it much more difficult for someone new to the platform to find useful references and examples to follow; very much frustrates the learning process. I've been struggeling a bit with finding good ways for the various controllers wired up with segues to reference one another mostly up the chain. Mostly I've been resorting to using global variables to capture 'self' for the various controllers so that UI elements can find one another when needed.

With storyboard, I can't seem to do the same and it seems like simple things can't be done without hairy looking back-flips. I could post some simple examples of trouble I'm running into if anyone would like to comment further. Books on Xcode have been a shameless liability for years. The authors had a habit of writing about betas to make their printing deadlines, the books themselves can't be updated without a reprint and re-purchase, and they routinely risked being out of date before they hit the shelves.

Then the authors go silent when their customers have questions, and end up here looking for support, trying to ask questions about misleading details that vaporized with two year old betas. Now, Apple appears to treat Xcode as a permanent beta, a not uncommon practice in the tech industry these days. New versions come out less than two weeks apart. Best to go all in with digital and only get your Xcode references from the Mother Ship.

It's the only way to be sure, and even then Apple leaves much to shear discovery on the dev's part. They made storyboards too iOS-ish. And I'm open to giving them another try Maybe I will have that moment, but I'm kind of doubtful. Posts by other devs seem to indicate that I'm not alone in my feelings. I don't think it's a better way to do things, it's just different, probably worse currently at least IMO. Disruptive changes should be weighed against productivity gained for future projects.

Where can I send your video? Do experienced iOS developers use Storyboards? And now the cons If the benefits sound nice, consider the cons, too, before making a decision about whether to build your app with Storyboards.

Code reviews are tricky: If you conduct code reviews on your team, reviewing changes to a Storyboard file is… difficult. Again, the format is XML with lots of hard-to-understand attributes and elements, so reviewing a diff and making constructive comments is just not easy.

And yes, my MBP is fast.