I would like to write a custom full-screen container view controller with the intention of putting a UINavigationController in it as a child view controller. The view of the UINavigationController will fill up the view of the container view controller so that it looks like the UINavigationController is the root view controller. (One would want to do something like this to, say, create the sliding sidebar menu UI popularized by Facebook.)

What I've done works EXCEPT there is a glitch when presenting another view controller that hides the status bar when the iPhone is in landscape orientation. Typically, the navigation bar slides up when the status bar disappears and slides down when it reappears. Instead, the navigation bar stays where it is when it is suppose to slide up, and when it is suppose to slide down, it is first positioned with the status bar overlapping it and then jumps to its correct position below the status bar. Basically, I'm trying to have the UINavigationController behave as it would if it were not inside a custom container view controller.

Below is some code that you can run to see the problem, but if you don't want to do that, just take a look at the ContainerViewController class, which implements a minimal custom container view controller. What is it that I'm missing in my custom container view controller that is causing this problem? It works when I use a UITabBarController as the container view controller, so it seems like I'm just missing something in my implementation.

CODE

Four classes:

ContainerViewController
AppDelegate
ViewController
ViewControllerWithStatusBarHidden

ContainerViewController.h

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@interface ContainerViewController : UIViewController

@property (nonatomic) UIViewController * viewController;

@end

ContainerViewController.m

#import "ContainerViewController.h"

// This custom container view controller only has one child view controller,
// whose view fills up the view of the container view controller.
@implementation ContainerViewController

- (UIViewController *)viewController {
    if (self.childViewControllers.count > 0) {
        return [self.childViewControllers firstObject];
    }
    else {
        return nil;
    }
}

- (void)setViewController:(UIViewController *)viewController {
    UIViewController *previousViewController = [self.childViewControllers firstObject];
    if ((previousViewController == nil && viewController != nil)
        || (previousViewController != nil && viewController == nil)
        || (previousViewController != nil && viewController != nil
            && previousViewController != viewController))
    {
        if (previousViewController != nil) {
            // Remove the old child view controller.
            [previousViewController willMoveToParentViewController:nil];
            [previousViewController.view removeFromSuperview];
            [previousViewController removeFromParentViewController];
        }

        if (viewController != nil) {
            // Add the new child view controller.
            [self addChildViewController:viewController];
            self.viewController.view.frame = self.view.bounds;
            self.viewController.view.autoresizingMask = UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleWidth | UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleHeight;
            [self.view addSubview:self.viewController.view];
            [self.viewController didMoveToParentViewController:self];
        }
    }
}

- (UIViewController *)childViewControllerForStatusBarHidden {
    return self.viewController;
}

- (UIViewController *)childViewControllerForStatusBarStyle {
    return self.viewController;
}

@end

AppDelegate.h

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@interface AppDelegate : UIResponder <UIApplicationDelegate>

@property (strong, nonatomic) UIWindow *window;

@end

AppDelegate.m

#import "AppDelegate.h"

#import "ViewController.h"
#import "ContainerViewController.h"

#define MODE 2  // Mode can be 1, 2, or 3.

@implementation AppDelegate

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions
{
    self.window = [[UIWindow alloc] initWithFrame:[[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds]];

    ViewController *vc = [[ViewController alloc] initWithNibName:nil bundle:nil];
    UINavigationController *nav = [[UINavigationController alloc] initWithRootViewController:vc];

#if MODE == 1   // No container view controller.

    self.window.rootViewController = nav;

#elif MODE == 2 // Use custom container view controller.

    ContainerViewController *container = [[ContainerViewController alloc] initWithNibName:nil bundle:nil];
    container.viewController = nav;
    self.window.rootViewController = container;

#elif MODE == 3 // Use tab bar controller as container view controller.

    UITabBarController *tab = [[UITabBarController alloc] initWithNibName:nil bundle:nil];
    tab.viewControllers = @[nav];
    self.window.rootViewController = tab;

#endif

    [self.window makeKeyAndVisible];
    return YES;
}

@end

ViewController.h

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@interface ViewController : UIViewController

@end

ViewController.m

#import "ViewController.h"

#import "ViewControllerWithStatusBarHidden.h"

// This view controller will serve as the content of a navigation controller.
// It also provides a button in the navigation bar to present another view controller.
@implementation ViewController

- (id)initWithNibName:(NSString *)nibNameOrNil bundle:(NSBundle *)nibBundleOrNil
{
    self = [super initWithNibName:nibNameOrNil bundle:nibBundleOrNil];
    if (self) {
        self.title = @"Title";
        self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:@"Present"
                                                                                  style:UIBarButtonItemStylePlain
                                                                                 target:self
                                                                                 action:@selector(pressedPresentButton:)];
    }
    return self;
}

- (void)loadView {
    self.view = [[UIView alloc] init];
    self.view.backgroundColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
}

- (void)pressedPresentButton:(id)sender {
    ViewControllerWithStatusBarHidden *vc = [[ViewControllerWithStatusBarHidden alloc] initWithNibName:nil bundle:nil];

    [self presentViewController:vc animated:YES completion:nil];
}

@end

ViewControllerWithStatusBarHidden.h

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@interface ViewControllerWithStatusBarHidden : UIViewController

@end

ViewControllerWithStatusBarHidden.m

#import "ViewControllerWithStatusBarHidden.h"

// This view controller is meant to be presented and does two things:
// (1) shows a button to dismiss itself and (2) hides the status bar.
@implementation ViewControllerWithStatusBarHidden

- (void)loadView {
    self.view = [[UIView alloc] init];
    self.view.backgroundColor = [UIColor yellowColor];
}

- (void)viewDidLoad {
    [super viewDidLoad];

    UIButton *dismissButton = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeSystem];
    [dismissButton setTitle:@"Dismiss" forState:UIControlStateNormal];
    [dismissButton addTarget:self
                      action:@selector(pressedDismissButton:)
            forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];
    dismissButton.frame = CGRectMake(100, 100, 100, 100);

    [self.view addSubview:dismissButton];
}

- (void)pressedDismissButton:(id)sender {
    [self.presentingViewController dismissViewControllerAnimated:YES completion:nil];
}

- (BOOL)prefersStatusBarHidden {
    return YES;
}

//- (NSUInteger)supportedInterfaceOrientations {
//    return UIInterfaceOrientationMaskPortrait;
//}

@end