SOSideMenusController

A flexible, generic, side menus view controller with a powerfully simple API, similar to the Facebook and Path 2.0 Apps

Yes, another Facebook-style side menus controller. It's the API that makes it unique.

I wanted to make a very simple API that made plain english desires an easy task:

• Slide the main controller back because I touched the main controller again to go back.
• Don't make me set anything other than which controller I want to be on which side.
• Let me temporarily disable sliding to a certain side
• Give me callback blocks for when the animation is finished
• Make it easy to slide left/right, whether pan or swipe
• Make my main controller look a bit more modern (rounded corners)

Easy API

@interface SOSideMenusViewController : UIViewController<UIGestureRecognizerDelegate>

@property (nonatomic, readonly) UIViewController *mainController;  // here  your subclasses can override this and return a UIViewController subclass.
@property (nonatomic, strong) UIViewController *leftController;  // if non-nil, will set canViewLeftController to YES.
@property (nonatomic, strong) UIViewController *rightController;  // etc.
@property (nonatomic, strong) UIViewController *topController;
@property (nonatomic, strong) UIViewController *bottomController;

@property (readonly) CGFloat leftControllerWidth;
@property (readonly) CGFloat rightControllerWidth;
@property (readonly) CGFloat topControllerHeight;
@property (readonly) CGFloat bottomControllerHeight;

// this is if you want to disable swiping without removing the controller
@property BOOL canViewRightController;  
@property BOOL canViewLeftController;
@property BOOL canViewTopController;
@property BOOL canViewBottomController;

// Whether the mainController should use rounded corners (similar to an iPad app).  defaults to YES. 
@property BOOL usesRoundedCorners;  

// defaults to 100.0f (in points).  It means if you pull the main controller past the edge of a side controller, at what maximum distance past that edge can you pull no more?   once you pull past the width of the side controller, the input to output curve follows y(x) = 1 - 1/(x+1)
@property CGFloat elasticity;  

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////  THE ONLY METHODS YOU'LL NEED

- (id)initWithMainController:(UIViewController*)theMainController;  // subclasses override this
- (void)moveToPage:(ViewingPage)toPage 
          duration:(NSTimeInterval)duration
           bounces:(BOOL)bounces
   completionBlock:(void(^)(SOSideMenusViewController *controller, 
                            ViewingPage fromPage, 
                            ViewingPage toPage))completionBlock;

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////  CONVENIENCE METHODS

- (void)showRightControllerWithCompletionBlock:(void(^)(SOSideMenusViewController *controller, 
                                                        ViewingPage fromPage, 
                                                        ViewingPage toPage))completionBlock;

- (void)showLeftControllerWithCompletionBlock:(void(^)(SOSideMenusViewController *controller, 
                                                       ViewingPage fromPage, 
                                                       ViewingPage toPage))completionBlock;

- (void)showMainControllerWithCompletionBlock:(void(^)(SOSideMenusViewController *controller, 
                                                       ViewingPage fromPage, 
                                                       ViewingPage toPage))completionBlock;

- (void)showTopControllerWithCompletionBlock:(void(^)(SOSideMenusViewController *controller, 
                                                      ViewingPage fromPage, 
                                                      ViewingPage toPage))completionBlock;

- (void)showBottomControllerWithCompletionBlock:(void(^)(SOSideMenusViewController *controller, 
                                                         ViewingPage fromPage, 
                                                         ViewingPage toPage))completionBlock;

@end

Summary

This is a container view controller which would make a good foundation for an application controller in your app.

Once initialized with a main controller (typically a UINavigationController), you can use pan/swipe gestures to slide the main controller left or right to reveal a side menu controller (you have to set that property first).

This class was designed for left-right pan/swipe, and was extended for top-bottom controllers, but the intention there was to use those for things like notifications and so there is no pan-swipe functionality there, as that may have also introduced some complexity when dealing with tableviews or scrollviews.

Installation and Usage

• Just import this class' containing folder with the .h/.m and the rounded_corner_overlays folder if you want to use rounded corners on your mainController.

• Initialize the object with a mainController. Then assign any one of the top/left/bottom/rightController objects. It will figure out how to set up the side menus based on that view controller's view size.

• you can explicitly show the side controllers (if they exist and have been assigned to that property) with show...Controller... methods.

• you can disable being able to pan/swipe to a controller (without having to set him to nil) by using the BOOL properties canView...Controller. It's a nice way to temporarily disable using the side menus.

Known Issues

• The top-bottom functionality may need some further work. I wrote this initially for left-right, and recently extended it if you want to use top-bottom for internal messaging / help, but swiping up-down was not implemented as this would most likely conflict with table views and scroll views.

Feedback

Is always welcome! Feel free to create a github issue.

Thanks

Stephen O'Connor