| Inherits from | |
| Conforms to | |
| Framework | /System/Library/Frameworks/UIKit.framework |
| Availability | Available in iOS 3.2 and later. |
| Companion guide | |
| Declared in | UISplitViewController.h |
The UISplitViewController class is a container view controller that manages the presentation of two side-by-side view controllers. You use this class to implement a master-detail interface, in which the left-side view controller presents a list of items and the right-side presents details of the selected item. Split view controllers are for use exclusively on iPad devices. Attempting to create one on other devices results in an exception.
After creating and initializing an instance of this class, you must assign two view controllers to the viewControllers property. The split view controller has no significant interface of its own. Its job is to coordinate the presentation of its two child view controllers and to manage the transitions among different orientations.
A split view controller supports the same interface orientations as its currently visible child view controllers. Both view controllers are displayed in landscape orientations but only the detail view controller is displayed in portrait orientations. When transitioning between orientations, the split view controller sends messages to its delegate object to coordinate the display of a popover with the hidden view controller. For more information on the methods of this delegate object, see UISplitViewControllerDelegate Protocol Reference.
Note: A split view controller does not provide any inherent support for managing the communication between the custom view controllers you assign to it. It is your responsibility to determine the best way to do that. However, the delegation pattern often works well for master-detail interfaces. To implement such a pattern, your master view controller sends messages to a custom delegate object whenever the selected item changed or some other relevant event occurred. The detail view controller would then assign itself as the delegate of the master and would use the associated messages to refresh its contents.
A split view controller interposes itself between the application’s window and its child view controllers. As a result, all messages to the visible view controllers must flow through the split view controller. This works generally as you might expect and the flow of messages should be relatively intuitive. For example, view appearance and disappearance messages are sent only when the corresponding child view controller actually appears on screen. Thus, when a split view controller is first displayed in a portrait orientation, it calls the viewWillAppear: and viewDidAppear: methods of only the view controller that is shown initially. The view controller that is presented using a popover does not receive those messages until the popover is shown or until the split view controller rotates to a landscape orientation.
viewControllers property
delegate property
For more about Objective-C properties, see “Properties” in The Objective-C Programming Language.
The delegate you want to receive split view controller messages.
@property(nonatomic, assign) id <UISplitViewControllerDelegate> delegate
The split view controller uses its delegate to manage the showing and hiding of related view controllers. For more information about the methods you can implement in your delegate, see UISplitViewControllerDelegate Protocol Reference.
UISplitViewController.hThe array of view controllers managed by the receiver.
@property(nonatomic, copy) NSArray *viewControllers
The array in this property must contain exactly two view controllers. The view controllers are presented left-to-right in the split view interface when it is in a landscape orientation. Thus, the view controller at index 0 is displayed on the left side and the view controller at index 1 is displayed on the right side of the interface.
The first view controller in this array is typically hidden when the device is in a portrait orientation. Assign a delegate object to the receiver if you want to coordinate the display of this view controller using a popover.
UISplitViewController.hLast updated: 2010-05-20