MDAboutController Demo

Purpose

MDAboutController is a complete About UIViewController package for iOS apps. It automatically fetches info from your Info.plist, and also populates credits from Credits.plist. This repository serves to demonstrate and test the MDAboutController class. Please visit the MDAboutController repository for the actual code :)

MDAboutController is both iPhone (Portrait and Landscape) and iPad compatible, retrieves the app's name and version from your Info.plist, and even chooses the most appropriate icon for the project depending on the device and your choices in Info.plist. Finally, the controller allows you to add credits, links, images, and text via a Credits.plist file (examples below).

If you use MDAboutController in your app, please add it to the list!

Installation

$ git clone https://github.com/mochidev/MDAboutControllerDemo --recursive

To include it into your own projects either download the source, or run the following on your git repo:

$ cd <your_repo>
$ git submodule add git@github.com:mochidev/MDAboutController.git <local_subpath>

This will allow you to update it at anytime by running $ git submodule update.

Usage

Simply add the MDAboutController submodule to your project, and show the controller via UIViewController's presentModalViewController:animated: method.

In your interface, define the following instance variable and method:

// Defined in interface
MDAboutController *aboutController;
- (IBAction)showAbout:(id)sender;

Then, in your UIViewController subclass implementation, implement the following methods:

// Implemented in implementation of a UIViewController subclass
- (void)dealloc
{
    [aboutController release];
    [super dealloc];
}

- (void)didReceiveMemoryWarning
{
    [super didReceiveMemoryWarning];

    // Check if the about controller is being shown
    if (aboutController.parentViewController == nil) {
        // Release and set to nil, so we can recreate it if we need to
        [aboutController release];
        aboutController = nil;
    }
}

- (IBAction)showAbout:(id)sender
{
    // If the view controller doesn't already exist, create it
    if (!aboutController) {
        aboutController = [[MDAboutController alloc] init];
    }
    
    // Present to user!
    [self presentModalViewController:aboutController animated:YES];
}

Alternatively, if you create the view controller as a part of a navigation controller stack, it will support loading UIWebViews and other specified view controllers. This can be easily done by using the MDAboutNavigationController class, a subclass of UINavigationController, in the same way as MDAboutController was used above. Please see the MDAboutControllerDemo/MDAboutControllerViewController.m file for examples.

To add a custom controller to the navigation stack, first, make sure your about controller is part of a navigation stack. Then, in your Credits.plist, add a list item with the Controller key set to the class name of your custom UIViewController subclass.

If you would like to include Email support directly in your app, please add the MessageUI framework to your project, otherwise a new message will be created in Mail.app. The subject will be populated with "App Name 1.0 (55) Support" automatically.

If you would like to edit the style of an MDAboutController (as is done in the first demo), subclass MDACStyle and return values you wish to change. Then, when you create your controller, initialize it with that style:

- (IBAction)showAbout:(id)sender
{
    // If the view controller doesn't already exist, create it
    if (!aboutController) {
        aboutController = [[MDAboutController alloc] initWithStyle:[MyStyle style]];
    }
    
    // Present to user!
    [self presentModalViewController:aboutController animated:YES];
}

- (IBAction)showNavAbout:(id)sender
{
    // If the view controller doesn't already exist, create it
    if (!aboutNavController) {
        aboutNavController = [[MDAboutNavigationController alloc] initWithStyle:[MyStyle style]];
    }
    
    // Present to user!
    [self presentModalViewController:aboutNavController animated:YES];
}

Two styles are included by default. To get the default iOS user interface, simply create the controller with [[MDAboutController alloc] init], and [MDACStyle style] will automatically be used. Additionally, the MDACMochiDevStyle style class is included to illustrate how a different style may look.

Credits.plist

---

To get the most out of MDAboutViewController, be sure to include a Credits.plist file in your project's resources. This will allow you to add credits, links, images, and text to your about screen. The property list must be configured as an array of dictionaries, with each dictionary representing one section of the about screen.

Each dictionary should have a Type key of type string, which can have a value of List for a group of links or credits, Text for blocks of text or copyright strings, or Image for images.

Type == List Keys:

• Items - an array of dictionaries with mandatory key Name and other optional keys that descripe the rows:
  • Name - a required string which will be used as the row text.
  • Role - an optional string shown in lower case in front of the Name string.
  • Link - an optional URL string to link to if the text is tapped.
  • Email - an optional Email string that will open an email panel.
  • EmailName - an optional name to use in the To: field of the email panel.
  • Controller - an optional controller to push on a navigation stack.
• Title - an optional title string to include above the group.

Type == Text Keys:

• Text - the text to represent.
• Link - an optional URL string to link to if the text is tapped.
• Size - an optional font size of type number. The default is 13pt.
• Alignment - an optional string representing the text alignment. Can be either Left, Right, or the default, Center.

Type == Image Keys:

• Image - the name of the image file, much like it is referenced from UIImage's imageNamed: method.

For Open Source Software

---

If you have open source software which you'd like to add to MDAboutController automatically upon loading, simply implement a + (NSDictionary *)MDAboutControllerTextCreditDictionary class method as shown below. Valid keys are Text and Link, both NSStrings. If your open source user doesn't use MDAboutController, nothing will happen and code will continue to run just fine. If they do, a single line entry will automatically show up at the bottom of the controller to credit your code.

@implementation MyOpenSourceMainClass

+ (NSDictionary *)MDAboutControllerTextCreditDictionary
{
    if (self == [<#MyOpenSourceMainClass#> class]) { // change <#MyOpenSourceMainClass#> to whatever the class name actually is!
        return [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:@"Super awesome stuff powered by MyOpenSourceMainClass, by Mr. Awesome!", @"Text",
                                                          @"https://awesomesauce.com/", @"Link", nil];
    }
    return nil;
}

...

@end

To Do

• List group titles
• App portfolio for more info on other apps
• Images in lists

Coding Style Guidelines

Please see https://mochidev.com/codestyle

License

Copyright (c) 2012 Dimitri Bouniol, Mochi Development, Inc.

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software, associated artwork, and documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

1. The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
2. Neither the name of Mochi Development, Inc. nor the names of its contributors or products may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

EleMints, the EleMints Icon, Mochi Dev, and the Mochi Development logo are copyright Mochi Development, Inc.

Also, it'd be super awesome if you left in the credit line generated automatically by the code that links back to this page :)

Credits

• Created by Dimitri Bouniol for Mochi Development, Inc.
• Contributed to by Doron Katz of DoronKatz.com
• Contributed to by Denis Hennessy of Peer Assembly