What's the best way to develop a sideswipe men

Question

It appears that side-swipe menus are becoming a more common interface element as more information gets crammed into each iPhone app. Facebook has included it in their latest version and the new Gmail app appears to include it as well. I was wondering if anybody had thoughts on the most efficient way of developing something like this as it's becoming a more common interface element. While I have my own thoughts on how to build this, I'm curious to hear what other people think.

Answer 1

Both Gmail and Facebook make heavy use of web views, so it's hard to say what's native code and what's rendered HTML. However, looking at the interface, it looks like they've placed a UITableView with a width narrower than the screen width (320pt) underneath of a UIView that contains the content they want to display. Selecting different tableview rows probably swaps out a subview of the content view.

At least, that's how I'd approach the problem. It's hard to dictate what it should be. Just jump right in and start experimenting!

Answer 2

I created a library for this. It is called MFSideMenu.

Among other things it includes support for iphone+ipad, portrait+landscape, menu on the left or right side, UITabBarController, and pan gestures.

Answer 3

Refer to here, a very good starting point: slide out navigation like facebook and path

Answer 4

Even better is JASidePanels. Easily implemented and works for both iPhone and iPad.

Github link: JASidePanels

Answer 5

Check out my solution for this question:

How to create custom slide menu without third party library.?

One single class that you only need to subclass and fill in with content.

Here is the class. For more details, see the above link.

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@interface IS_SlideMenu_View : UIView <UIGestureRecognizerDelegate>
{
    UIView* transparentBgView;
    BOOL hidden;
    int lastOrientation;
}

@property (strong, nonatomic) UIView *menuContainerV;

+ (id)sharedInstance;

- (BOOL)isShown;
- (void)hideSlideMenu;
- (void)showSlideMenu;

@end


#import "IS_SlideMenu_View.h"

@implementation IS_SlideMenu_View

+ (id)sharedInstance
{
    static id _sharedInstance = nil;
    static dispatch_once_t onceToken;
    dispatch_once(&onceToken, ^{
        _sharedInstance = [[[self class] alloc] init];
    });

    return _sharedInstance;
}

- (instancetype)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame
{
    frame = [[[UIApplication sharedApplication] delegate] window].frame;
    self = [super initWithFrame:frame];
    if (self) {
        self.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];

        transparentBgView = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:frame];
        [transparentBgView setBackgroundColor:[UIColor colorWithRed:0 green:0 blue:0 alpha:0.6]];
        [transparentBgView setAlpha:0];
        transparentBgView.autoresizingMask = UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleHeight | UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleWidth;
        UITapGestureRecognizer *tap = [[UITapGestureRecognizer alloc] initWithTarget:self action:@selector(gestureRecognized:)];
        UIPanGestureRecognizer *pan = [[UIPanGestureRecognizer alloc] initWithTarget:self action:@selector(gestureRecognized:)];
        [transparentBgView addGestureRecognizer:tap];
        [transparentBgView addGestureRecognizer:pan];

        [self addSubview:transparentBgView];

        frame.size.width = 280;
        self.menuContainerV = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:frame];
        CALayer *l = self.menuContainerV.layer;
        l.shadowColor = [UIColor blackColor].CGColor;
        l.shadowOffset = CGSizeMake(10, 0);
        l.shadowOpacity = 1;
        l.masksToBounds = NO;
        l.shadowRadius = 10;
        self.menuContainerV.autoresizingMask = UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleHeight;

        [self addSubview: self.menuContainerV];
        hidden = YES;
    }

    //----- SETUP DEVICE ORIENTATION CHANGE NOTIFICATION -----
    UIDevice *device = [UIDevice currentDevice];
    [device beginGeneratingDeviceOrientationNotifications];
    NSNotificationCenter *nc = [NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter];
    [nc addObserver:self selector:@selector(orientationChanged:) name:UIDeviceOrientationDidChangeNotification object:device];

    lastOrientation = [[UIDevice currentDevice] orientation];

    return self;
}

//********** ORIENTATION CHANGED **********
- (void)orientationChanged:(NSNotification *)note
{
    UIDeviceOrientation orientation = [[UIDevice currentDevice] orientation];    
    if(orientation == UIDeviceOrientationPortrait || orientation == UIDeviceOrientationLandscapeLeft || orientation == UIDeviceOrientationLandscapeRight){
        NSLog(@"%ld",orientation);
        if(!hidden && lastOrientation != orientation){
            [self hideSlideMenu];
            hidden = YES;
            lastOrientation = orientation;
        }
    }
}

- (void)showSlideMenu {
    UIWindow* window = [[[UIApplication sharedApplication] delegate] window];
    self.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, window.frame.size.width, window.frame.size.height);

    [self.menuContainerV setTransform:CGAffineTransformMakeTranslation(-window.frame.size.width, 0)];

    [window addSubview:self];
//    [[UIApplication sharedApplication] setStatusBarHidden:YES];

    [UIView animateWithDuration:0.5 animations:^{
        [self.menuContainerV setTransform:CGAffineTransformIdentity];
        [transparentBgView setAlpha:1];
    } completion:^(BOOL finished) {
        NSLog(@"Show complete!");
        hidden = NO;
    }];
}

- (void)gestureRecognized:(UIGestureRecognizer *)recognizer
{
    if ([recognizer isKindOfClass:[UITapGestureRecognizer class]]) {
        [self hideSlideMenu];
    } else if ([recognizer isKindOfClass:[UIPanGestureRecognizer class]]) {
        static CGFloat startX;
        if (recognizer.state == UIGestureRecognizerStateBegan) {
            startX = [recognizer locationInView:self.window].x;
        } else
        if (recognizer.state == UIGestureRecognizerStateChanged) {
            CGFloat touchLocX = [recognizer locationInView:self.window].x;
            if (touchLocX < startX) {
                [self.menuContainerV setTransform:CGAffineTransformMakeTranslation(touchLocX - startX, 0)];
            }
        } else
        if (recognizer.state == UIGestureRecognizerStateEnded) {
            [self hideSlideMenu];
        }
    }
}

- (void)hideSlideMenu
{
    UIWindow* window = [[[UIApplication sharedApplication] delegate] window];
    window.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
    [UIView animateWithDuration:0.5 animations:^{
        [self.menuContainerV setTransform:CGAffineTransformMakeTranslation(-self.window.frame.size.width, 0)];
        [transparentBgView setAlpha:0];
    } completion:^(BOOL finished) {
        [self removeFromSuperview];
        [self.menuContainerV setTransform:CGAffineTransformIdentity];

//        [[UIApplication sharedApplication] setStatusBarHidden:NO];
        hidden = YES;
        NSLog(@"Hide complete!");
    }];
}

- (BOOL)isShown
{
    return !hidden;
}

@end

Answer 6

There is a great library for this by Tom Adriaenssen: Inferis/ViewDeck

It's very easy to use and has a fairly large following.

EDIT:

For something a little more lightweight, check out: mutualmobile/MMDrawerController

It doesn't have all of the features of ViewDeck but is simpler to modify and extend.