How to lock orientation of one view controller to

Question

Since my app got support for all orientation. I would like to lock only portrait mode to specific UIViewController.

(e.g. Assume it was Tabbed Application and when SignIn View appear modally, I only want that SignIn View to the portrait mode only no matter how the user rotate the device or how the current device orientation will be)

Answer 1

bmjohns -> You are my life saviour. That is the only working solution (With the AppUtility struct)

I've created this class:

class Helper{
    struct AppUtility {

        static func lockOrientation(_ orientation: UIInterfaceOrientationMask) {

            if let delegate = UIApplication.shared.delegate as? AppDelegate {
                delegate.orientationLock = orientation
            }
        }

        /// OPTIONAL Added method to adjust lock and rotate to the desired orientation
        static func lockOrientation(_ orientation: UIInterfaceOrientationMask, andRotateTo rotateOrientation:UIInterfaceOrientation) {

            self.lockOrientation(orientation)

            UIDevice.current.setValue(rotateOrientation.rawValue, forKey: "orientation")
        }

    }
}

and followed your instructions, and everything works perfectly for Swift 3 -> xcode version 8.2.1

Answer 2

This is a generic solution for your problem and others related.

1. Create auxiliar class UIHelper and put on the following methods:

    /**This method returns top view controller in application  */
    class func topViewController() -> UIViewController?
    {
        let helper = UIHelper()
        return helper.topViewControllerWithRootViewController(rootViewController: UIApplication.shared.keyWindow?.rootViewController)
    }

    /**This is a recursive method to select the top View Controller in a app, either with TabBarController or not */
    private func topViewControllerWithRootViewController(rootViewController:UIViewController?) -> UIViewController?
    {
        if(rootViewController != nil)
        {
            // UITabBarController
            if let tabBarController = rootViewController as? UITabBarController,
                let selectedViewController = tabBarController.selectedViewController {
                return self.topViewControllerWithRootViewController(rootViewController: selectedViewController)
            }

            // UINavigationController
            if let navigationController = rootViewController as? UINavigationController ,let visibleViewController = navigationController.visibleViewController {
                return self.topViewControllerWithRootViewController(rootViewController: visibleViewController)
            }

            if ((rootViewController!.presentedViewController) != nil) {
                let presentedViewController = rootViewController!.presentedViewController;
                return self.topViewControllerWithRootViewController(rootViewController: presentedViewController!);
            }else
            {
                return rootViewController
            }
        }

        return nil
    }

2. Create a Protocol with your desire behavior, for your specific case will be portrait.

protocol orientationIsOnlyPortrait {}

Nota: If you want, add it in the top of UIHelper Class.

3. Extend your View Controller

In your case:

class Any_ViewController: UIViewController,orientationIsOnlyPortrait {

   ....

}

4. In app delegate class add this method:

 func application(_ application: UIApplication, supportedInterfaceOrientationsFor window: UIWindow?) -> UIInterfaceOrientationMask {
        let presentedViewController = UIHelper.topViewController()
        if presentedViewController is orientationIsOnlyPortrait {
            return .portrait
        }
        return .all
    }

Final Notes:

• If you that more class are in portrait mode, just extend that protocol.
• If you want others behaviors from view controllers, create other protocols and follow the same structure.
• This example solves the problem with orientations changes after push view controllers

Answer 3

As of iOS 10 and 11, iPad supports Slide Over and Split View. To enable an app in Slide Over and Split View, Requires full screen must be unchecked. That means the accepted answer cannot be used if the app wants to support Slide Over and Split View. See more from Apple's Adopting Multitasking Enhancements on iPad here.

I have a solution that allows (1) unchecking Requires full screen, (2) just one function to be implemented in appDelegate (especially if you don't want to / can't modify the target view controllers), and (3) avoid recursive calls. No need of helper class nor extensions.

appDelegate.swift (Swift 4)

func application(_ application: UIApplication,
                 supportedInterfaceOrientationsFor window: UIWindow?) -> UIInterfaceOrientationMask {
    // Search for the visible view controller
    var vc = window?.rootViewController
    // Dig through tab bar and navigation, regardless their order 
    while (vc is UITabBarController) || (vc is UINavigationController) {
        if let c = vc as? UINavigationController {
            vc = c.topViewController
        } else if let c = vc as? UITabBarController {
            vc = c.selectedViewController
        }
    }
    // Look for model view controller
    while (vc?.presentedViewController) != nil {
        vc = vc!.presentedViewController
    }
    print("vc = " + (vc != nil ? String(describing: type(of: vc!)) : "nil"))
    // Final check if it's our target class.  Also make sure it isn't exiting.
    // Otherwise, system will mistakenly rotate the presentingViewController.
    if (vc is TargetViewController) && !(vc!.isBeingDismissed) {
        return [.portrait]
    }
    return [.all]
}

Edit

@bmjohns pointed out that this function is not called on iPad. I verified and yes it was not called. So, I did a bit more testing and found out some facts:

1. I unchecked Requires full screen because I want to enable Slide Over and Slide View on iPad. That requires the app to support all 4 orientation for iPad, in Info.plist: Supported interface orientations (iPad).

My app works same way as Facebook: on iPhone, most of the time it is locked to portrait. When viewing image in full screen, allows users to rotate landscape for better view. On iPad, users can rotate to any orientation in any view controllers. So, the app looks nice when iPad is stand on Smart Cover (landscape left).

2. For iPad to call application(_:supportedInterfaceOrientationsFor), in Info.plist, only keep portrait for iPad. The app will lose Slide Over + Split View ability. But you can lock or unlock the orientation for any view controller, in just one place and no need to modify ViewController class.

3. Finally, this function get called on view controller's life cycle, when view is displayed/removed. If your app need to lock/unlock/change orientation in other time, it might not work

Answer 4

Create new extension with

import UIKit

extension UINavigationController {
    override open var supportedInterfaceOrientations: UIInterfaceOrientationMask {
        return .portrait
    }
}

extension UITabBarController {
    override open var supportedInterfaceOrientations: UIInterfaceOrientationMask {
        return .portrait
    }
}

Answer 5

Thanks to @bmjohn's answer above. Here is a working Xamarin / C# version of the that answer's code, to save others the time of transcription:

AppDelegate.cs

 public UIInterfaceOrientationMask OrientationLock = UIInterfaceOrientationMask.All;
 public override UIInterfaceOrientationMask GetSupportedInterfaceOrientations(UIApplication application, UIWindow forWindow)
 {
     return this.OrientationLock;
 }

Static OrientationUtility.cs class:

public static class OrientationUtility
{
    public static void LockOrientation(UIInterfaceOrientationMask orientation)
    {
        var appdelegate = (AppDelegate) UIApplication.SharedApplication.Delegate;
        if(appdelegate != null)
        {
            appdelegate.OrientationLock = orientation;
        }
    }

    public static void LockOrientation(UIInterfaceOrientationMask orientation, UIInterfaceOrientation RotateToOrientation)
    {
        LockOrientation(orientation);

        UIDevice.CurrentDevice.SetValueForKey(new NSNumber((int)RotateToOrientation), new NSString("orientation"));
    }
}

View Controller:

    public override void ViewDidAppear(bool animated)
    {
       base.ViewWillAppear(animated);
       OrientationUtility.LockOrientation(UIInterfaceOrientationMask.Portrait, UIInterfaceOrientation.Portrait);
    }

    public override void ViewWillDisappear(bool animated)
    {
        base.ViewWillDisappear(animated);
        OrientationUtility.LockOrientation(UIInterfaceOrientationMask.All);
    }

Answer 6

A bunch of great answers in this thread, but none quite matched my needs. I have a tabbed app with navigation controllers in each tab, and one view needed to rotate, while the others needed to be locked in portrait. The navigation controller wasn't resizing it's subviews properly, for some reason. Found a solution (in Swift 3) by combining with this answer, and the layout issues disappeared. Create the struct as suggest by @bmjohns:

import UIKit

struct OrientationLock {

    static func lock(to orientation: UIInterfaceOrientationMask) {
        if let delegate = UIApplication.shared.delegate as? AppDelegate {
            delegate.orientationLock = orientation
        }
    }

    static func lock(to orientation: UIInterfaceOrientationMask, andRotateTo rotateOrientation: UIInterfaceOrientation) {
        self.lock(to: orientation)
        UIDevice.current.setValue(rotateOrientation.rawValue, forKey: "orientation")
    }
} 

Then subclass UITabBarController:

    import UIKit

class TabBarController: UITabBarController, UITabBarControllerDelegate {
    required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
        super.init(coder: aDecoder)
        self.delegate = self
    }

    func tabBarControllerSupportedInterfaceOrientations(_ tabBarController: UITabBarController) -> UIInterfaceOrientationMask {
        if tabBarController.selectedViewController is MyViewControllerNotInANavigationControllerThatShouldRotate {
            return .allButUpsideDown
        } else if let navController = tabBarController.selectedViewController as? UINavigationController, navController.topViewController is MyViewControllerInANavControllerThatShouldRotate {
            return .allButUpsideDown
        } else {
            //Lock view that should not be able to rotate
            return .portrait
        }
    }

    func tabBarController(_ tabBarController: UITabBarController, shouldSelect viewController: UIViewController) -> Bool {
        if viewController is MyViewControllerNotInANavigationControllerThatShouldRotate {
            OrientationLock.lock(to: .allButUpsideDown)
        } else if let navController = viewController as? UINavigationController, navController.topViewController is MyViewControllerInANavigationControllerThatShouldRotate {
            OrientationLock.lock(to: .allButUpsideDown)
        } else {
            //Lock orientation and rotate to desired orientation
            OrientationLock.lock(to: .portrait, andRotateTo: .portrait)
        }
        return true
    }
}

Don't forget to change the class of the TabBarController in the storyboard to the newly created subclass.