Info on Split view Controller

What is split view controller:

The UISplitViewController class is a container view controller that manages the presentation of two side-by-side view controllers. You use this class to implement a master-detail interface, in which the left-side view controller presents a list of items and the right-side presents details of the selected item. Split view controllers are for use exclusively on iPad devices.

A split view controller interposes itself between the application’s window and its child view controllers. As a result, all messages to the visible view controllers must flow through the split view controller. This works generally as you might expect and the flow of messages should be relatively intuitive. 

For example, view appearance and disappearance messages are sent only when the corresponding child view controller actually appears on screen. Thus, when a split view controller is first displayed in a portrait orientation, it calls the viewWillAppear: and viewDidAppear: methods of only the view controller that is shown initially. The view controller that is presented using a popover does not receive those messages until the popover is shown or until the split view controller rotates to a landscape orientation.

The UISplitViewController class is a container view controller that manages two panes of information. The first pane has a fixed width of 320 points and a height that matches the visible window height. The second pane fills the remaining space. In a landscape orientation, the split view controller presents the two panes side-by-side with a small divider separating them. 

Landscape mode

In a portrait orientation, the split view controller shows only the second, larger pane and provides a toolbar button for displaying the first pane using a popover,

Portrait Mode

The easiest way to integrate a split view controller into your application is to start from a new project. The Split View-based Application template in Xcode provides a good starting point for building an interface that incorporates a split view controller. Everything you need to implement the split view interface is already provided.

SplitViewController Template

In the next post i will explain you how to use the split view controller.