How to hide uitabbarcontroller

Question

I have a problem with UITabBarController. In my application, I want to hide it but without using hidesBottomBarWhenPushed because I want to hide it not when I pushed it. For Example, I want to hide it when I press a Hide button in my application.

I read many articles in google but I cant find out how I can do this.

Answer 1

@karlbecker_com Answer works perfect for both the iPhone 4 and iPhone 5. If anyone is having issues with iOS7 black bar at the bottom set the tabBarController to translucent

#define SYSTEM_VERSION_GREATER_THAN_OR_EQUAL_TO(v)  ([[[UIDevice currentDevice] systemVersion] compare:v options:NSNumericSearch] != NSOrderedAscending)

// To Hide the black line in IOS7 only, this extra bit is required
if (SYSTEM_VERSION_GREATER_THAN_OR_EQUAL_TO(@"7.0")) {
    [self.tabBarController.tabBar setTranslucent:YES];
}  

Answer 2

I am pasting this from my working code... you can call these methods to hide and show the tabbarcontroller.... just pass tabbarcontroller instance to these functions..

// Method call
[self hideTabBar:self.tabBarController];   

---

// Method implementations
- (void)hideTabBar:(UITabBarController *) tabbarcontroller
{
    [UIView beginAnimations:nil context:NULL];
    [UIView setAnimationDuration:0.5];

    for(UIView *view in tabbarcontroller.view.subviews)
    {
        if([view isKindOfClass:[UITabBar class]])
        {
            [view setFrame:CGRectMake(view.frame.origin.x, 480, view.frame.size.width, view.frame.size.height)];
        } 
        else 
        {
            [view setFrame:CGRectMake(view.frame.origin.x, view.frame.origin.y, view.frame.size.width, 480)];
        }
    }

    [UIView commitAnimations];   
}

- (void)showTabBar:(UITabBarController *) tabbarcontroller
{       
    [UIView beginAnimations:nil context:NULL];
    [UIView setAnimationDuration:0.5];
    for(UIView *view in tabbarcontroller.view.subviews)
    {
        NSLog(@"%@", view);

        if([view isKindOfClass:[UITabBar class]])
        {
            [view setFrame:CGRectMake(view.frame.origin.x, 431, view.frame.size.width, view.frame.size.height)];

        } 
        else 
        {
            [view setFrame:CGRectMake(view.frame.origin.x, view.frame.origin.y, view.frame.size.width, 431)];
        }
    }

    [UIView commitAnimations]; 
}

Answer 3

Hiding the tab bar is not an adequate solution, it won't adjust the current view controllers view height.

Instead you may simply transform the tab bar itself, either by it's height (to hide) or an identity transform to reset to visible.

extension UITabBarController {
    func setBarHiddenAnimated(_ hidden:Bool) {
        UIView.animate(withDuration: 0.3, animations: {
            if hidden {
                self.tabBar.transform = CGAffineTransform(translationX: 0, y: self.tabBar.frame.size.height)
            } else {
                self.tabBar.transform = CGAffineTransform.identity
            }
        })
    }
}

Note that you may need to set your view controller to 'extends below bottom bars' and 'extends under opaque bars' to remove the black background during animation.

Answer 4

Modified Setomidor's answer to work on both landscape, portrait, and iPad (the 320 and 480 values only work on iPhone).

- (void) hideTabBar:(UITabBarController *) tabbarcontroller 
{
    CGRect screenRect = [[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds];

    [UIView beginAnimations:nil context:NULL];
    [UIView setAnimationDuration:0.5];
    float fHeight = screenRect.size.height;
    if(  UIDeviceOrientationIsLandscape([UIApplication sharedApplication].statusBarOrientation) )
    {
        fHeight = screenRect.size.width;
    }

    for(UIView *view in tabbarcontroller.view.subviews)
    {
        if([view isKindOfClass:[UITabBar class]])
        {
            [view setFrame:CGRectMake(view.frame.origin.x, fHeight, view.frame.size.width, view.frame.size.height)];
        } 
        else 
        {
            [view setFrame:CGRectMake(view.frame.origin.x, view.frame.origin.y, view.frame.size.width, fHeight)];
            view.backgroundColor = [UIColor blackColor];
        }
    }
    [UIView commitAnimations];
}



- (void) showTabBar:(UITabBarController *) tabbarcontroller 
{   
    CGRect screenRect = [[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds];
    float fHeight = screenRect.size.height - tabbarcontroller.tabBar.frame.size.height;

    if(  UIDeviceOrientationIsLandscape([UIApplication sharedApplication].statusBarOrientation) )
    {
        fHeight = screenRect.size.width - tabbarcontroller.tabBar.frame.size.height;
    }

    [UIView beginAnimations:nil context:NULL];
    [UIView setAnimationDuration:0.5];
    for(UIView *view in tabbarcontroller.view.subviews)
    {   
        if([view isKindOfClass:[UITabBar class]])
        {
            [view setFrame:CGRectMake(view.frame.origin.x, fHeight, view.frame.size.width, view.frame.size.height)];            
        } 
        else 
        {
            [view setFrame:CGRectMake(view.frame.origin.x, view.frame.origin.y, view.frame.size.width, fHeight)];
        }       
    }
    [UIView commitAnimations]; 
}

Also modified the code to handle changes introduced in iOS 6 with UIDevice orientation change and ensure that it works properly even when the device is lying on its back.

Answer 5

Swift and modified version of @Saurabh code

Method

func setTabBarHidden (bool:Bool){
        for view in tabBarController!.view.subviews {
            if (view.isKindOfClass(UITabBar)){
                let tabBar = view as! UITabBar
                UIView.animateWithDuration(0.3, animations: { () -> Void in
                    var offset = CGFloat(50)
                    if (bool == false){
                        offset = -50;
                    }
                    tabBar.frame = CGRect(origin: CGPointMake(tabBar.frame.origin.x, tabBar.frame.origin.y + offset), size: tabBar.frame.size)
             })   
        }
    }
}

To show

override func viewDidLoad() {
     setTabBarHidden(true)
}

To hide

override func viewWillDisappear(animated: Bool) {
    setTabBarHidden(false)
}

Answer 6

in iOS8 it is enough to just set the hidden property of the tabBar
Like in Swift you can

rootTabVC = UITabBarController()
rootTabVC?.tabBar.hidden = true

I do this in my didFinishLaunchingWithOptions in the appdelegate and it works fine, I think if I remember correctly in the older iOS versions you also needed to set the frame of the tabBar to something outside the screen, otherwise the tabbar would not show but it will still occupy the space.