In an iOS app I have an autolayout issue.
The 2 following screenshots show the problem.
The switch (UISwitch object) on the right is displaced horizontally, when it should be fixed. Can anyone see what is happening?
It is true that the string on the left is changing length, but I think (according to the way I have set the constraints up) the font should be resized or the string split in 2 lines; but not the switch displaced.
Here is the relevant swift code:
import UIKit
class My_ViewController: UIViewController {
let xPanel = UILabel(), yPanel = UILabel(),
khToggle = UISwitch(), khLabel = UILabel()
....
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
layOutUI()
}
override func viewDidAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
super.viewDidAppear(animated)
.....
toggleKeepHide(khToggle)
}
func layOutUI() {
for component in [xPanel,yPanel,khLabel,khToggle] {
component.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
view.addSubview(component)
}
...........
khLabel.numberOfLines = 0
khLabel.adjustsFontSizeToFitWidth = true
khToggle.addTarget(self,
action: #selector(toggleKeepHide(_:)),
for: .valueChanged)
view.addConstraints([
.........
NSLayoutConstraint(item: khToggle, attribute: .right, relatedBy: .equal,
toItem: view, attribute: .right, multiplier: 1.0, constant: -30.0),
NSLayoutConstraint(item: khToggle, attribute: .top, relatedBy: .equal,
toItem: yPanel, attribute: .bottom, multiplier: 1.0,
constant: 50.0),
NSLayoutConstraint(item: khLabel, attribute: .right, relatedBy: .equal,
toItem: khToggle, attribute: .left, multiplier: 1.0, constant: -23.0),
NSLayoutConstraint(item: khLabel, attribute: .centerY, relatedBy: .equal,
toItem: khToggle, attribute: .centerY, multiplier: 1.0, constant: 0.0),
NSLayoutConstraint(item: khLabel, attribute: .left, relatedBy: .equal,
toItem: view, attribute: .left, multiplier: 1.0, constant: 30.0)])
}
@objc func toggleKeepHide(_ sender: UISwitch) {
if sender.isOn {khLabel.text = "Hide this object from the wyxoug list."}
else {khLabel.text = "Keep this object in the wyxoug list."}
}
}
The horizontal constraints for the label and the toggle are competing against each other.
(If you step in to Xcode's visual debugger, you'll find that there is a warning: the UISwitch
instance has an ambiguous width and horizontal position.)
Solution
You have provided absolute values to AutoLayout, and it cannot resolve the requirements. To fix this, introduce some flexibility in to the requirements by setting the compression resistance of the label to a lower value:
khLabel.setCompressionResistance(.defaultLow, for: .horizontal)
Using setContentCompressionResistancePriority does the job. But I don't quite understand why there is ambiguity about the width (I don't fix any width), beside the right of the UISwitch is fixed, since it must be a fixed object I assume its horizontal position is perfectly determinated.
You are telling AutoLayout to pin the layouts to exact values, relative to objects and the superview. But it cannot resolve those exact values against the intrinsic widths of the properties. By providing a lower compression resistance for one of the items, you are telling AutoLayout that one of the item's widths can be be reduced, allowing it to resolve the layout.
OK, I see. This was implicit in my mind that the AutoLayout was free to compress or fold the label. This was my mistake. Though it seems to sometime work that way.
Don't worry, it's not just you. It's a difficult set of APIs, particularly with multi-line labels. Hopefully, one day a few years from now, SwiftUI will make some of these issues a thing of the past.