MCSMTabBarKit

This is work in progress to provide a custom Tab Bar (and Tab Bar Controller) for situations where the default Tab Bar Controller UITabBarController isn't appropriate.

Examples of where a custom Tab Bar might be useful are:

• To customize the Look and Feel
• Positioning of the Tab Bar
• Illegal Behaviour, such as having a Tab Bar Controller in a Navigation Controller

Currently MCSMTabBar doesn't support badges or drag an drop customization.

MCSMTabBar

To use MCSMTabBar you simply need to initialize an instance and become its Data Source and more than likely its Delegate too:

MCSMTabBar *tabBar = [[MCSMTabBar alloc] initWithStyle:MCSMTabBarStyleDefault];
tabBar.tabBarDataSource = (id<MCSMTabBarDataSource>)self;
tabBar.tabBarDelegate = (id<MCSMTabBarDelegate>)self;

If you want to customize the layout of the Tab Bar you will want to subclass MCSMTabBar and set the style to MCSMTabBarStyleCustom

The Data Source only has 2 methods both of which are required:

@protocol MCSMTabBarDataSource <NSObject>

@required
- (NSUInteger)numberOfTabsInTabBar:(MCSMTabBar *)tabBar;
- (MCSMTabBarItemView *)tabBar:(MCSMTabBar *)tabBar tabBarItemViewForTabAtIndex:(NSUInteger)index;

@end

The Delegate has two optional methods for managing selection and one for managing the width of each tab:

@protocol MCSMTabBarDelegate <NSObject>

@optional
- (BOOL)tabBar:(MCSMTabBar *)tabBar shouldSelectTabAtIndex:(NSUInteger)index;
- (void)tabBar:(MCSMTabBar *)tabBar didSelectTabAtIndex:(NSUInteger)index;
- (CGFloat)tabBar:(MCSMTabBar *)tabBar widthForTabAtIndex:(NSInteger)index;

@end

MCSMTabBarItemView

MCSMTabBarItemView works a lot like UITableViewCell, you simply create one with the relevant data and carry out any layout customization in layoutSubviews

- (MCSMTabBarItemView *)tabBar:(MCSMTabBar *)tabBar tabBarItemViewForTabAtIndex:(NSUInteger)index{

	MCSMTabBarItemView *tabBarItemView = nil;

	tabBarItemView = [[[MCSMTabBarItemView alloc] initWithStyle:tabBar.style] autorelease];
	
	[tabBarItemView setTitle:title];
	[tabBarItemView setImage:image];
	[tabBarItemView setSelectedImage:selectedImage];

	return tabBarItemView;
}

MCSMTabBarController

MCSMTabBarController is designed to be a replacement for UITabBarController, it automatically creates a MCSMTabBar (if one isn't set) and supplies a MCSMTabBarItemView for every UIViewController in the Tab Bar.

You can either initalize one with a style:

MCSMTabBarController *tabBarController = [[MCSMTabBarController alloc] initWithStyle:MCSMTabBarStyleDefault];

Or with a Tab Bar:

MCSMTabBar *tabBar = [[MCSMTabBar alloc] initWithStyle:MCSMTabBarStyleDefault];
MCSMTabBarController *tabBarController = [[MCSMTabBarController alloc] initWithTabBar:tabBar];

You can also set the Tab Bar's position:

tabBarController.tabBarPosition = MCSMTabBarControllerTabBarPositionTop;

Then set the view controllers you want to be in the Tab Bar Controller:

[tabBarController setViewControllers:viewControllers];

If you want to customize the MCSMTabBarItemViews in the Tab Bar, you can become the Tab Bar Controller's Data Source and Implement tabBarController:tabBarItemViewForViewController:

@protocol MCSMTabBarControllerDataSource <NSObject>

@optional
- (MCSMTabBarItemView *)tabBarController:(MCSMTabBarController *)tabBarController tabBarItemViewForViewController:(UIViewController *)viewController;

@end

Like UITabBarController MCSMTabBarController has numerous delegate methods to handle selection and to handle UINavigationControllers so hidesBottomBarWhenPushed can be supported:

@protocol MCSMTabBarControllerDelegate <NSObject>

@optional

- (CGFloat)tabBarController:(MCSMTabBarController *)tabBarController widthForTabAtIndex:(NSInteger)index;
	
- (BOOL)tabBarController:(MCSMTabBarController *)tabBarController shouldSelectViewController:(UIViewController *)viewController;
- (void)tabBarController:(MCSMTabBarController *)tabBarController didSelectViewController:(UIViewController *)viewController;


- (BOOL)tabBarController:(MCSMTabBarController *)tabBarController shouldBecomeDelegateOfNavigationController:(UINavigationController *)navigationController;

- (void)tabBarController:(MCSMTabBarController *)tabBarController navigationController:(UINavigationController *)navigationController willShowViewController:(UIViewController *)viewController animated:(BOOL)animated;
- (void)tabBarController:(MCSMTabBarController *)tabBarController navigationController:(UINavigationController *)navigationController didShowViewController:(UIViewController *)viewController animated:(BOOL)animated;

@end