Can I disable autolayout for a specific subview at runtime?

I have a view that needs to have its frame manipulated programmatically - it's a kind of document view that wraps to its content which is then scrolled and zoomed around a superview by manipulating the frame origin. Autolayout fights with this at runtime.

Disabling autolayout completely seems a bit harsh because it could reasonably be used to handle layout for the other views. It seems like what I might want is some kind of "null constraint".

I had the same problem. But I have resolved it.
Yes, you can disable auto layout at runtime for a specific UIView, instead of disabling it for the whole xib or storyboard which is set by default in Xcode 4.3 and later.

Set translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints to YES, before you set the frame of your subview:

self.exampleView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = YES;
self.exampleView.frame = CGRectMake(20, 20, 50, 50);

I had a similar issue where Autolayout was overriding some of my frame-setting at run time (I had a dynamic view that in some cases pushed a new view controller...pushing and then pressing Back would reset the initial view).

I got around this by putting my manipulation code in viewDidLayoutSubviews of my View Controller. This seems to get called after whatever constraint mojo gets called, but before viewDidAppear, so the user is none the wiser.

Perhaps just setting translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints to YES (and not adding additional constraints affecting that view) will let you set the frame without fighting the auto layout system.

In iOS 8 you can set an NSLayoutConstraint to be active or not. So if I'm using interface builder, I add all my constraints to an OutletCollection and then activate or deactivate using:

NSLayoutConstraint.deactivateConstraints(self.landscapeConstraintsPad)
NSLayoutConstraint.activateConstraints(self.portraitConstraintsPad)

The particular application I'm using it for here is having different constraints in portrait and landscape mode and I activate/deactivate based on the rotation of the device. It means I can create some complex layout changes all in interface builder for both orientations, and still use auto layout without the verbose auto layout code.

Or you can activate / deactivate using removeConstraints and addConstraints.

I don't know if this will help anyone else, but I wrote a category to make this convenient because I find myself doing this a lot.

UIView+DisableAutolayoutTemporarily.h

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@interface UIView (DisableAutolayoutTemporarily)

// the view as a parameter is a convenience so we don't have to always
// guard against strong-reference cycles
- (void)resizeWithBlock:(void (^)(UIView *view))block;

@end

UIView+DisableAutolayoutTemporarily.m

#import "UIView+DisableAutoResizeTemporarily.h"
@implementation UIView (DisableAutoResizeTemporarily)

- (void)resizeWithBlock:(void (^)(UIView * view))block
{
    UIView *superview = self.superview;
    [self removeFromSuperview];
    [self setTranslatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints:YES];
    __weak UIView *weakSelf = self;
    block(weakSelf);
    [superview addSubview:self];
}

@end

I use it like this:

[cell.argumentLabel resizeWithBlock:^(UIView *view) {
    [view setFrame:frame];
}];

Hope it helps.

You can set the translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints type Boolean, Value Yes in the User Defined Runtime Attributes of the UIView you want in the xib/storyboard.

In my view I had a Label and a Text. The label had pan gesture. The label moves around fine during drag. But when I use the text box keyboard, the label resets its position to the original location defined in auto layout. The issue got resolved when I added the following in swift for the label. I added this in viewWillAppear but it can be added pretty much anywhere you have access to the target field.

self.captionUILabel.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = true

• Open project in 4.5
• Select storyboard
• Open the file inspector
• Under Interface Builder Document uncheck 'Use Autolayout'

You can split across multiple storyboards if you want to use autolayout for some views.

For me it worked to create the subview programmatically, in my case the auto layout was messing with a view that I needed to rotate around its center but once I created this view programmatically it worked.

I've encountered a similar scenario, where I joined a project that was initiated with auto-layout, but I needed to make dynamic adjustments to several views. Here is what has worked for me:

1. Do NOT have views or components laid out in interface builder.

2. Add your views purely programmatically starting with alloc/init and setting their frames appropriately.

3. Done.

This happened to me in a project without storyboards or xib files. All 100% code. I had an ad banner at the bottom and wanted the view bounds to stop at the ad banner. The view would resize itself automatically after loading. I tried every resolution on this page but none of them worked.

I ended up just creating a sub view with the shortened height and placed that in into the main view of the controller. Then all my content went inside the sub view. That solved the problem very easily without doing anything that felt like it was going against the grain.

I am thinking if you want a view that is not the normal size that fills the window then you should use a sub view for that.

Instead of disabling autolayout, I would just calculate the new constraint with the frame you are replacing. That appears to me to be the appropriate way. If you are adjusting components that rely on constraints, adjust them accordingly.

For example, if you have a vertical constraint of 0 between two views (myView and otherView), and you have a pan gesture or something that adjusts the height of myView then you can recalculate the constraint with the adjusted values.

self.verticalConstraint.constant = newMyViewYOriginValue - (self.otherView.frame.origin.y + self.otherView.frame.size.height);
[self.myView needsUpdateConstraints];

For those of you who are using auto layout, please check out my solution here. You should be making @IBOutlet's of the constraints you want to adjust and then change their constants.

if it's xib file:

1. select the .xib file
2. select the "File's Owner"
3. show the Utilities
4. click on: "File Inspector"
5. Under "Interface Builder Document" disable: "Use Autolayout"