pushViewController with scaling animation, that shows background

Question

I have finding way to call pushViewController with scaling animation, like facebook iPhone app main menu icon click animation. (new viewController is popup from center, and it scales to original size.)

I searched several way to change animation of pushViewController.

First, I tried this:

viewController.view.transform = CGAffineTransformMakeScale(0.5f, 0.5f);
[UIView animateWithDuration:0.5f animations:^{ 
    viewController.view.transform = CGAffineTransformMakeScale(1.0f, 1.0f);
}];
[self.navigationController pushViewController:viewController animated:NO];

but there is problem, old viewController is disappeared when animation starts, there's only white background.

If I use CATransition to change animation, I can show both old & new viewController both, but there's no scaling animation, only move in, push in, fade in animations.

I want to show both new & old view controller like CATransition animations, and need the way to implement my custom animation.

Here is my last suggestion, dirty way:

[self.view addSubview:viewController.view];
viewController.view.transform = CGAffineTransformMakeScale(0.5f, 0.5f);
[UIView animateWithDuration:0.5f
                      delay:0.0f
                    options:UIViewAnimationCurveEaseInOut
                 animations:^{
    viewController.view.alpha = 1.0f;
    viewController.view.transform = CGAffineTransformMakeScale(1.0f, 1.0f); 
} completion:^(BOOL finished) {
    [self.navigationController pushViewController:viewController animated:NO];
    [viewController release];
}];

First, I added new viewController.view as subview, I can show animation with new & old view both. When animation is ended, pushViewController later.

this way I can implement what I thought, but I think it is dirty way, and there's remain problem:

Navigation bar items are not change immediately, It is changed after animation ends.

Is there any simple, clear way to implement this animation? I think it is impossible to do that without change original implentation of pushViewController, should I do subclassing pushViewController?

Thanks to read, and your help.

Answer 1

In answer to the original question, I'm not sure if you consider this an improvement or not, but I think you might be able to include the navigator bar in the view that's being transformed (a) in IB, add a navigationBar to your view being transitioned to, (b) animate the hiding of the root navigation controller's navigation bar before you start your animation (so it slides off as your new view is sliding in), and (c) in your completion block of your animation, hide your new view's added navigation bar and unhide the root navigation controller's navigation bar. Maybe this renders something closer to what you intended, though probably different than you originally conceived. It's not perfect, though. The code, might look something like:

MyViewController *newController = [[MyViewController alloc] initWithNibName:@"MyView" bundle:nil];
newController.view.transform = CGAffineTransformMakeScale(0.1f, 0.1f);
[self.navigationController setNavigationBarHidden:YES animated:YES];
[self.view addSubview:newController.view];

[UIView animateWithDuration:0.5f
                      delay:0.0f
                    options:UIViewAnimationCurveEaseInOut
                 animations:^{
                     newController.view.alpha = 1.0f;
                     newController.view.transform = CGAffineTransformMakeScale(1.0f, 1.0f); 
                 } completion:^(BOOL finished) {
                     [newController.view removeFromSuperview];
                     [self.navigationController pushViewController:newController animated:NO];
                     [newController.tempBar setHidden:YES];
                     [self.navigationController setNavigationBarHidden:NO animated:NO];
                 }];

It's adding a little more "dirt" to your "dirty way", but it might render the effect that you're looking for. You just want to make the temporary navigation bar in your new view to look as much like what the eventual root navigation controller's navigation bar will look like, and the user should be none the wiser. If this still doesn't quite achieve what you're looking for, you can just hide the root navigation controller's bar altogether, and always put your navigation on your views themselves, in which case the effect will be entirely seamless as you transition to your new view.

Alternatively, you could stay with your existing code and just set the title of the current view before you transition, that way it might look like the title change happened up front. But then you probably have to do stuff about resetting it when you return, setting the back button, etc., so it might not be worth it.

As an aside, and this is a little tangential to the original question (so I apologize in advance), but in response to the other suggestion that you shouldn't animate the view controller, but rather only views, I would like to voice a word of caution. Yes, technically that's right, but I'm nervous whether this will encourage people to adopt the bad practice of adding new views by (a) creating a new view controller; (b) animate the adding of that view controller's view to be a subview of the current view; but (c) not doing anything with that new view controller to add it to your view controller hierarchy (such as pushViewController or presentViewController).

If that's what was intended to the other answer, I have to say that I think this is a very bad idea. (If that's not what was intended, then my apologies, but I think it's easy for people to misconstrue the suggestion.) Bottom line, I have recently seen people do things like:

MyViewController *newController = [[MyViewController alloc] initWithNibName:@"MyView" bundle:nil];

// do some animation around adding the new view as a subview of your current view 
// but neglect to ever invoke pushViewController or presentViewController

[self.view addSubview:newController.view];

This is not recommended for a couple of reasons. First, if it's an ARC project, your view controller will be discarded when newController falls out of scope. (There seem to be a spate of these sorts of questions being posted on SO resulting from exceptions being thrown as people transition to ARC.) Sure, you can fix this by making newController an ivar of your main controller so it won't fall out of scope, but be careful to remember to set it to nil when the main controller is eventually dealloc'ed or as you remove your subview, or else you can get a leak. And if you're in a non-ARC project, it's even easier to leak, so make sure to release the view controller when the subview is removed to prevent leaks.

Second, and probably more importantly, while the above code seems to work (or at least if you make the controller an ivar), but you end up with a disconnect between your hierarchy of your view controllers and that of your views. (In session 102 of WWDC 2011 about a different topic, view controller containment, it includes a lengthy, yet relevant, discussion of the importance of keeping view controller hierarchies and view hierarchies coordinated, e.g. rotation events may not be properly sent to your new view's controller because the controller isn't in the controller hierarchy, so iOS won't know to send them to your controller.) Bottom line, if you use another view controller's view to add as a subview of your current view, it is fragile, is susceptible to breaking on iOS upgrades, and things like rotation events will not be passed to your new view's view controller properly. If you do so, at least be aware that this is not good practice and make your own risk-assessment as to whether you want to do that. It's not necessary to bypass the proper view controller hierarchy, and I personally would like to dissuade people inclined to do so.

Bottom line, if you're transitioning to a view of a different view controller, you really want to stick to pushViewController or presentViewController, and do your animation around the new controller's view (and usually it's nowhere near as complicated as this animation ... generally it's incredibly simple and I've done all sorts of fade and flip animations with much greater ease ... it's the use of the transform that is making this complicated).

Alternative, if you want to animate a new UIView subview and not deal with view controllers at all, just make sure it's not another view controller's view, but rather, for example, a view you create programmatically that uses the same view controller as your originating view. And if you decide to use another view controller's view as a subview of your existing controller, just do so with the knowledge that it's a little fragile and some events may not be transmitted to your new view controller as you expect and it might not be as "future proof" as you may want.