iOS 11 Swift Programming Cookbook

Chapter 14. Multitasking

iOS has some really cool multitasking functionalities on select devices, such as the latest iPads. One of these functionalities is PiP, or Picture in Picture. In this chapter, we’ll have a look at some of these exciting features.

14.1 Supporting Split Views

Problem

You would like your universal app on an iPad to allow a side-by-side view. That is to say that you would like the user to be able to drag another completely different app onto the right side of the screen while your app is running, consuming a portion of the screen and forcing your application to resize its contents to fit the smaller screen.

Solution

The easiest solution to supporting side-by-side views is to create your project with the latest version of Xcode, which by default ensures that your app will have split view enabled on larger displays (such as the iPad).

Split view occurs when the user who is running your app slides the right edge of the display toward the left, at which point a drawer of available apps that support split view appears on the screen in a vertically scrollable list (see Figure 14-1). Then the user can choose one of the available apps and tap it, at which point the chosen app is opened and starts consuming the right side of the screen’s real estate. There will then be a bar visible between the app running on the right side and your app on the left side. This bar can be dragged further to the left to give more space to the app on the right or further to the right ...