UISplitViewController iOS 7 Backwards Compatibility

Question

In Xcode 6, I am building a universal app that has a UISplitViewController. On iOS 8 devices that are small, it looks like a normal master/detail relationship, but on larger devices, you see both the master and detail views at the same time.

This works well for iOS 8, but I also need it to support iOS 7. iOS 7 supports UISplitViewController only for iPads, while I currently have it used for both iPad and iPhone.

How can I get around this issue?

I'm not sure exactly what you're asking for...`[[UIDevice currentDevice] systemVersion]` sounds too easy. :) — Phillip Mills, Sep 27 '14 at 13:50
@PhillipMills So in the AppDelegate I would have to switch between two storyboards depending on the version? — erdekhayser, Sep 27 '14 at 13:57

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 10 '15 at 00:38

@macworth as Jack said it is possible but I'm not sure if you can do it from code. I also had a problem (getting the same "only supported when running under UIUserInterfaceIdiomPad" exception) when using a storyboard, however. After much nashing of teeth I figured out it was because I was using an old xcode imported project and did not have Use Sizes Classes checkbox enabled for the storyboard. After enabling that, xcode upgraded the project, and it worked fine.

I also had to make some tweaks to handle cases where a nav controller is used instead of a split view controller. In particular, in the default xcode split view controller project I had to make the following #if 1'd change to prepareForSeque():

- (void)prepareForSegue:(UIStoryboardSegue *)segue sender:(id)sender {
    if ([[segue identifier] isEqualToString:@"showDetail"]) {
        NSIndexPath *indexPath = [self.tableView indexPathForSelectedRow];
        NSDate *object = self.objects[indexPath.row];

#if 1
        DetailViewController *controller = nil;
        if ([segue.destinationViewController isKindOfClass:[UINavigationController class]]) {
            controller = (DetailViewController*)[segue.destinationViewController topViewController];
        }
        else if ([controller isKindOfClass:[UISplitViewController class]]) {
            controller = segue.destinationViewController;
        }
#else
        DetailViewController *controller = (DetailViewController*)[[segue destinationViewController] topViewController];
#endif
        [controller setDetailItem:object];
        controller.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = self.splitViewController.displayModeButtonItem;
        controller.navigationItem.leftItemsSupplementBackButton = YES;
    }
}

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:12

Actually, I found that UISplitViewController works on iPhones running iOS 7 as well if you build using SDK 8 (Xcode 6); the default example project can be run with the following caveats:

The master and detail view controllers are directly controlled by the split view controller.
The array of view controllers contains a direct reference to only the master view controller; the detail view controller is not there.
As a direct consequence of the above, you can't show toolbars inside your master and detail view controllers, because those are controlled using navigation controllers.
When you don't implement any of the new split view delegate protocol methods, you may see notice the detail view controller is shown in portrait mode; this question has the answer to that issue.

Btw, from my short experiments I found that for both iOS 7 and 8 the Autolayout guides are a bit wonky in the detail view; alignments for either the top or bottom layout guide must be adjusted to -64 and -44 respectively.

Tested the above with iPhone 4S on iOS 7.1.2

Hmm, I'm using Xcode6.1, SDK 8.1, iphone 4s simulator 7.1. Wen I do, `UISplitViewController *split = [[UISplitViewController alloc] init];` I get `UISplitViewController is only supported when running under UIUserInterfaceIdiomPad` Any suggestions? — mackworth, Oct 28 '14 at 20:19
@mackworth I think they've only made it compatible when you use interface builder :) — Ja͢ck, Oct 28 '14 at 22:06

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 09 '15 at 04:56

I had this same problem. In your UISplitViewController delegate add reference to the older delegate method

///
/// Used by iOS 7 iPad
///
- (BOOL)splitViewController:(UISplitViewController *)svc shouldHideViewController:(UIViewController *)vc inOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)orientation
{
    return NO;
}

Doing that made it so that on the iOS 7 iPad it shows the master and detail at the same time like it does in iOS 8

UISplitViewController iOS 7 Backwards Compatibility

3 Answers3