View floating above all ViewControllers

Question

Is it possible on iOS that a view always floats above all other views. I ask this because what I would like to achieve is a view that floats above a ViewController, and then a Modal View Controller slides in, whilst that particular view is still floating over that Modal View Controller (hope you get what I am trying to say).

Answer 1

There is. You can add your view to the main window and bring it to front when you have to.

In following code is presumed that _viewConroller and _anotherView are strong properties of appDelegate - configuration could of course be different.

This code would add small blue square on top left corner of the screen.

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {

    self.window = [[UIWindow alloc] initWithFrame:[[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds]];

    _viewController = [[ViewController alloc] initWithNibName:@"ViewController" bundle:nil];
    _anotherView = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame: CGRectMake (0.0,0.0,20.0,20.0)];
    [anotherView setBackgroundColor: [UIColor blueColor]];    

    self.window.rootViewController = self.viewController;
    [self.window makeKeyAndVisible];

    [self.window addSubView: _anotherView];
    [self.window bringSubViewToFront: _anotherView]; //not really needed here but it doesn't do any harm

    return YES;
}

Answer 2

You can do the following if you are using storyboard and autolayout (inspired by the first Answer)

UIStoryboard *sb = [UIStoryboard storyboardWithName:@"Main" bundle:nil];
UIViewController *_vc = [sb instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier:@"FloatingController"];

_anotherView = _vc.view;
[_anotherView setTranslatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints:NO];
[self.window addSubview: _anotherView];

[[VLBConstraintsGenerator sharedInstance] setWidth:200 forView:_anotherView inSuperView:_window];
[[VLBConstraintsGenerator sharedInstance] setHeight:200 forView:_anotherView inSuperView:_window];
[[VLBConstraintsGenerator sharedInstance] setLeading:0 forView:_anotherView inSuperView:_window];


[_anotherView setBackgroundColor:[UIColor grayColor]];

[[_anotherView layer] setBorderWidth:1];
[[_anotherView layer] setBorderColor:[UIColor yellowColor].CGColor];

[self.window makeKeyAndVisible];
[self.window bringSubviewToFront:_anotherView]; //not really needed here but it doesn't do any harm

all you need to do is to drag a view controller into you main storyboard with FloatingController as a storyboard ID

Additional Methods

-(void)setWidth:(CGFloat )theWidth forView:(UIView *)theView inSuperView:(UIView *)theSuperView

{
 assert([theSuperView isEqual:theView.superview]);
    NSLayoutConstraint *cn = [NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem:theView
                                                          attribute:NSLayoutAttributeWidth
                                                          relatedBy:NSLayoutRelationEqual
                                                             toItem:nil
                                                          attribute:NSLayoutAttributeNotAnAttribute
                                                         multiplier:1
                                                           constant:theWidth];


//    [cn setPriority:999];//make it variable according to the orientation
[theSuperView addConstraint:cn];
}


-(void)setHeight:(CGFloat )theHeight forView:(UIView *)theView inSuperView:(UIView *)theSuperView
{
assert([theSuperView isEqual:theView.superview]);

NSLayoutConstraint *cn = [NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem:theView
                                                      attribute:NSLayoutAttributeHeight
                                                      relatedBy:NSLayoutRelationEqual
                                                         toItem:nil
                                                      attribute:NSLayoutAttributeNotAnAttribute
                                                     multiplier:1
                                                       constant:theHeight];

[theSuperView addConstraint:cn];
}

-(void)setLeading:(CGFloat )theLeading forView:(UIView *)theView inSuperView:(UIView *)theSuperView
{
assert([theSuperView isEqual:theView.superview]);

NSLayoutConstraint *cn = [NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem:theView
                                                      attribute:NSLayoutAttributeLeading
                                                      relatedBy:NSLayoutRelationEqual
                                                         toItem:theSuperView
                                                      attribute:NSLayoutAttributeLeading
                                                     multiplier:1
                                                       constant:theLeading];

[theSuperView addConstraint:cn];
}