Photos app-like gap between pages in UIScrollView with pagingEnabled

Question

UIScrollView in paging mode assumes the pages are located right next to each other, with no gap. However if you open a photo in the Photos app and swipe through photos, you

Answer 1

So I don't have enough "rep" to post a comment on the answer above. That answer is correct, but there is a BIG issue to be aware of:

If you're using a UIScrollView in a viewController that's part of a UINavigationController, the navigation controller WILL resize the frame of your scrollView.

That is, you have an app that uses a UINavigationController to switch between different views. You push a viewController that has a scrollView and you create this scrollView in the viewController's -init method. You assign it a frame of (0, 0, 340, 480).

Now, go to your viewController's -viewDidAppear method, get the frame of the scrollView you created. You'll find that the width has been reduced to 320 pixels. As such, paging won't work correctly. You'll expect the scrollView to move 340 pixels but it will, instead, move 320.

UINavigationController is a bit notorious for messing with subviews. It moves them and resizes them to accommodate the navigation bar. In short, it's not a team player -- especially in this case. Other places on the web suggest that you not use UINavigationController if you need precise control over your views' size and locations. They suggest that, instead, you create your own navigationController class based on UINavigationBar.

Well that's a ton of work. Fortunately, there's an easier solution: set the frame of the scrollView in your viewController's -viewDidAppear method. At this point, UINavigationController is done messing with the frame, so you can reset it to what it should be and the scrollView will behave properly.

This is relevant for OS 3.0. I have not tested 3.1 or 2.2.1. I've also filed a bug report with Apple suggesting that they modify UINavigationController with a BOOL such as "-shouldAutoarrangeSubviews" so that we can make that class keep its grubby hands off subviews.

Until that comes along, the fix above will give you gaps in a paginated UIScrollView within a UINavigationController.

Answer 2

Apple has released the 2010 WWDC session videos to all members of the iphone developer program. One of the topics discussed is how they created the photos app!!! They build a very similar app step by step and have made all the code available for free.

It does not use private api either. Here is a link to the sample code download. You will probably need to login to gain access.

http://connect.apple.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/MemberSite.woa/wa/getSoftware?code=y&source=x&bundleID=20645

And, here is a link to the iTunes WWDC page:

http://insideapple.apple.com/redir/cbx-cgi.do?v=2&la=en&lc=&a=kGSol9sgPHP%2BtlWtLp%2BEP%2FnxnZarjWJglPBZRHd3oDbACudP51JNGS8KlsFgxZto9X%2BTsnqSbeUSWX0doe%2Fzv%2FN5XV55%2FomsyfRgFBysOnIVggO%2Fn2p%2BiweDK%2F%2FmsIXj