How to make a Customized TabBarController with images

First Add a UITabBarController in your storyboard or main window. Then give it a reference from your AppDelegate and override this with a custom tab bar controller class.

Below is a sample screen with a custom tab bar controller:

Here, Contacts, Activity, Chat & History are the 4 tabs where Chat tab is currently selected.

There is an example of a custom class for a UITabBarController with a backgroun image and 3 buttons with custom action & image.

This is the custom tab bar controller class can be look like:

// CustomTabBarController.h

#import 

@interface CustomTabBarController : UITabBarController {
UIButton *settingsButton;
UIButton *infoButton;
UIButton *aboutUsButton;
}

@property (nonatomic, retain) UIButton *settingsButton;
@property (nonatomic, retain) UIButton *infoButton;
@property (nonatomic, retain) UIButton *aboutUsButton;

-(void) addCustomElements;
-(void) selectTab:(int)tabID;

@end

// CustomTabBarController.m

#import "CustomTabBarController.h"

@implementation CustomTabBarController

@synthesize settingsButton, infoButton, aboutUsButton;

- (void)viewDidAppear:(BOOL)animated {
[super viewDidAppear:animated];


}
-(void)viewDidLoad
{
[super viewDidLoad];
[self addCustomElements];
}

-(void)addCustomElements
{
// Background
UIImageView* bgView = [[[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:
          [UIImage imageNamed:@"tabBarBackground.png"]] autorelease];
bgView.frame = CGRectMake(0, 420, 320, 60);
[self.view addSubview:bgView];

// Initialise our two images
UIImage *btnImage = [UIImage imageNamed:@"settings.png"];
UIImage *btnImageSelected = [UIImage imageNamed:
                                 @"settingsSelected.png"];

    //Setup the button
    self.settingsButton = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeCustom];

    // Set the frame (size and position) of the button)
    settingsButton.frame = CGRectMake(10, 426, 100, 54);

    // Set the image for the normal state of the button 
[settingsButton setBackgroundImage:btnImage forState:
                                             UIControlStateNormal];

    // Set the image for the highlighted state of the button
    [settingsButton setBackgroundImage:btnImageSelected forState:
                                        UIControlStateHighlighted];

    // Set the image for the selected state of the button
[settingsButton setBackgroundImage:btnImageSelected forState:
                                           UIControlStateSelected];

    // Set the image for the disabled state of the button
[settingsButton setBackgroundImage:btnImageSelected forState:
                                           UIControlStateDisabled];

    [settingsButton setImage:btnImageSelected forState:
               (UIControlStateHighlighted|UIControlStateSelected)];

    /* Assign the button a "tag" so when our "click" event is called
   we know which button was pressed.*/
[settingsButton setTag:101];

    // Set this button as selected (we will select the others to false
   as we only want Tab 1 to be selected initially).*/
    [settingsButton setSelected:true];


// Now we repeat the process for the other buttons
btnImage = [UIImage imageNamed:@"info.png"];
btnImageSelected = [UIImage imageNamed:@"infoSelected.png"];
self.infoButton = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeCustom];
infoButton.frame = CGRectMake(110, 426, 100, 54);
[infoButton setBackgroundImage:btnImage forState:
                                         UIControlStateNormal];
[infoButton setBackgroundImage:btnImageSelected forState:
                                       UIControlStateSelected];
[infoButton setBackgroundImage:btnImageSelected forState:
                                    UIControlStateHighlighted];
[infoButton setImage:btnImageSelected forState:
           (UIControlStateHighlighted|UIControlStateSelected)];
[infoButton setTag:102];


btnImage = [UIImage imageNamed:@"aboutUs.png"];
btnImageSelected = [UIImage imageNamed:@"aboutUsSelected.png"];
self.aboutUsButton = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeCustom];
aboutUsButton.frame = CGRectMake(210, 426, 100, 54);
[aboutUsButton setBackgroundImage:btnImage forState:
                                            UIControlStateNormal];
[aboutUsButton setBackgroundImage:btnImageSelected forState:
                                          UIControlStateSelected];
[aboutUsButton setBackgroundImage:btnImageSelected forState:
                                       UIControlStateHighlighted];
[aboutUsButton setImage:btnImageSelected forState:
              (UIControlStateHighlighted|UIControlStateSelected)];
[aboutUsButton setTag:103];


// Add my new buttons to the view
[self.view addSubview:settingsButton];
[self.view addSubview:infoButton];
[self.view addSubview:aboutUsButton];


/* Setup event handlers so that the buttonClicked method will
   respond to the touch up inside event.*/
[settingsButton addTarget:self action:@selector(buttonClicked:)
                    forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];
[infoButton addTarget:self action:@selector(buttonClicked:)
                    forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];
[aboutUsButton addTarget:self action:@selector(buttonClicked:)
                    forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];
}

- (void)buttonClicked:(id)sender
{
int tagNum = [sender tag];
[self selectTab:tagNum];
}

- (void)selectTab:(int)tabID
{
switch(tabID)
{
    case 101:
        [settingsButton setSelected:true];
        [infoButton setSelected:false];
        [aboutUsButton setSelected:false];
        break;
    case 102:
        [settingsButton setSelected:false];
        [infoButton setSelected:true];
        [aboutUsButton setSelected:false];
        break;
    case 103:
        [settingsButton setSelected:false];
        [infoButton setSelected:false];
        [aboutUsButton setSelected:true];
        break;
}
self.selectedIndex = tabID;
}

- (void)dealloc {
[settingsButton release];
[infoButton release];
[aboutUsButton release];

[super dealloc];
}

@end

How to send In-app SMS through iOS application

/* This feature is available in iOS 4 or later */

Step 1:

Import the MessageUI Framework into your project and #import the header file into the “.h” file of your controller where you want to open the In-App SMS sheet.

Step 2:

You might already have a button handler IBAction where you want to send the SMS. If not create a Button on your XIB file and write IBActions for it.

Step 3:

The real code

-(IBAction) sendInAppSMS:(id) sender
{
 MFMessageComposeViewController *controller = 
   [[[MFMessageComposeViewController alloc] init] autorelease];

 if([MFMessageComposeViewController canSendText])
   { 
    controller.body = @"Hello from Erfan";
    controller.recipients = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:
                                @"12345678", @"87654321", nil];
    controller.messageComposeDelegate = self;
    [self presentModalViewController:controller animated:YES];  
 }
}

The most important part here is the line [MFMessageComposeViewController canSendText].
When sending a in-app email, you can choose to ignore this (atleast as of now) because most of the devices would have upgraded to iPhone OS 3 and all those devices would have the ability to send in-app email. However, the same doesn’t apply to SMS. Remember that even if a device is running iPhone OS 4, if it’s an iPod touch, it will never be abel to send SMS within app.
In this case, You have to use an if condition to send the SMS. Practically speaking, you should enable/disable the button the user taps to send the sms based on this. You can add the code that does this in your viewDidLoad method.

Step 4:

Implement Delegate Callbacks.
In your header file, implement the callbacks, MFMessageComposeViewControllerDelegate and UINavigationControllerDelegate. If you don’t you will get a warning at the line,

 controller.delegate = self;

You have to handle a callback method of MFMessageComposeViewControllerDelegate so as to dismiss the modal view controller.

- (void)messageComposeViewController:
 (MFMessageComposeViewController *)controller
 didFinishWithResult:(MessageComposeResult)result 
{
 switch (result)
 {
     case MessageComposeResultCancelled:  
        NSLog(@"Cancelled");    
        break; 
   case MessageComposeResultFailed:  
        UIAlertView *alert = [[UIAlertView alloc]
           initWithTitle:@"MyApp" message:@"Unknown Error"
             delegate:self cancelButtonTitle:@”OK”
           otherButtonTitles: nil]; 
        [alert show]; 
        [alert release];  
        break;   
   case MessageComposeResultSent:      
        break; 
   default:  
        break;  
 }  
 [self dismissModalViewControllerAnimated:YES]; 
}

That’s it. Your app should now be able to send SMS using the new Message UI sheet. :-)