How to disable autolayout for individual UI elements (UIlabel)

Question

I need to change the position of a label inside a Viewcontroller that uses autolayout. Before to do this I used

[arriveTimeLabel setTranslatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints:YES];
[departTimeLabel setTranslatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints:YES];

but that yields some runtime warnings

 Break on objc_exception_throw to catch this in the debugger.
The methods in the UIConstraintBasedLayoutDebugging category on UIView listed in <UIKit/UIView.h> may also be helpful.
2013-08-15 23:25:58.791 Vicinitime[78327:c07] Unable to simultaneously satisfy constraints.
    Probably at least one of the constraints in the following list is one you don't want. Try this: (1) look at each constraint and try to figure out which you don't expect; (2) find the code that added the unwanted constraint or constraints and fix it. (Note: If you're seeing NSAutoresizingMaskLayoutConstraints that you don't understand, refer to the documentation for the UIView property translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints) 
(
    "<NSLayoutConstraint:0x9173a20 UIScrollView:0x9580190.bottom == UIView:0x9173890.bottom>",
    "<NSLayoutConstraint:0x9171fe0 V:|-(138)-[UILabel:0x958cf70]   (Names: '|':UIScrollView:0x9580190 )>",
    "<NSLayoutConstraint:0x91739a0 V:|-(0)-[UIScrollView:0x9580190]   (Names: '|':UIView:0x9173890 )>",
    "<NSAutoresizingMaskLayoutConstraint:0xab6ec90 h=--& v=&-& UILabel:0x958cf70.midY == -6.3989*UIScrollView:0x9580190.height>",
    "<NSAutoresizingMaskLayoutConstraint:0xab6eef0 h=--& v=&-& V:[UILabel:0x958cf70(25)]>",
    "<NSAutoresizingMaskLayoutConstraint:0xab6dbd0 h=--& v=--& V:[UIView:0x9173890(455)]>"
)

Will attempt to recover by breaking constraint 
<NSLayoutConstraint:0x9171fe0 V:|-(138)-[UILabel:0x958cf70]   (Names: '|':UIScrollView:0x9580190 )>

So I looked around and saw that to fix that problem I have to set [arriveTimeLabel setTranslatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints:NO]; [departTimeLabel setTranslatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints:NO];

to no. The problem is that now the labels arn't changing position programmatically.

If you need to code to set the labels programatically:

    if(travelTimeInt <= activityTimeInt){

        [timeBreakdownButtonImage setBackgroundImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"timeBreakdownBackground7.png"] forState:UIControlStateNormal];
        NSLog(@"got to setting label place");

        [self.arriveTimeLabel  setFrame:CGRectMake(67, 170, 41, 25)];

        [self.departTimeLabel  setFrame:CGRectMake(211, 170, 41, 25)];



    }
    if(travelTimeInt * 7 >= activityTimeInt){

            [timeBreakdownButtonImage setBackgroundImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"timeBreakdownBackground6.png"] forState:UIControlStateNormal];

          NSLog(@"got to setting label place");

            self.arriveTimeLabel.frame = CGRectMake(71, 170, 41, 25);

       self.departTimeLabel.frame = CGRectMake(207, 170, 41, 25);

    }

So is there a way to change the position of uilabel with autolayout on? maybe disable autolayout?

Disabling autolayout option individually for each component is not possible as of now. — Puneet Sharma, Aug 16 '13 at 06:32
Yes ofcourse you can disable it for whole ViewController. Select the nib associated with your ViewController -> Go to File Inspector -> Uncheck "Use Autolayout" in Interface Builder Document Section. — Puneet Sharma, Aug 16 '13 at 06:58
I am using storyboard so if i disable it then it disables for entire storyboard — Spenciefy, Aug 16 '13 at 07:05
You need to create a separate storyboard with Autolayout unchecked, and move all of your without Autolayout ViewControllers there and then simply link your storyboards. — Puneet Sharma, Aug 16 '13 at 07:12

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 16 '13 at 08:53

4

If you're using Autolayout then your UIViews are positioned based on their NSLayoutConstraints.

To move them, rather than set their frames you need to alter the constraints.

answered Aug 16 '13 at 08:53

Mike Pollard

10,195
2
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score 1 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:30

Disabling autolayout for a subview can be done as mentioned here: Can I disable autolayout for a specific subview at runtime?

The other option would be to create two storyboards, one with auto-layout on, and other with auto-layout off. Then load the respective storyboard by checking the Device System Version(assuming you are targeting iOS versions earlier than 6 too). For this, add this macro to your AppDelegate:

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

and then:

UIStoryboard *mainStoryboard = nil;

if (SYSTEM_VERSION_GREATER_THAN_OR_EQUAL_TO(@"6.0")) 
{
     mainStoryboard = [UIStoryboard storyboardWithName:@"AutoLayoutStoryboard" bundle:nil];
} 
else 
{
     mainStoryboard = [UIStoryboard storyboardWithName:@"NoAutoLayoutStoryboard" bundle:nil];
}

//load initial view controller
UIViewController *rootView = [mainStoryboard instantiateInitialViewController];
self.window = [[UIWindow alloc] initWithFrame:[[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds]];
self.window.rootViewController = rootView;
[self.window makeKeyAndVisible];

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 19 '14 at 19:13

I'm working on a project that was initiated with auto layout, but I needed to dynamically adjust some frames in code. This is what I did to not be impaired by automatically generated run time constraints (courtesy of auto layout):

1) Do NOT have views or components laid out in interface builder.

2) Add your views purely programmatically starting with alloc/init and setting their frames appropriately.

3) Done.

Hope that helps!

ps. you can also experiment with stripping constraints from views with:

[view removeConstraints:view.constraints] but i've had more luck with the pure code approach.

How to disable autolayout for individual UI elements (UIlabel)

3 Answers3