Q:

tabBarController and navigationControllers in landscape mode, episode II

I have a UITabBarController, and each tab handles a different UIViewController that pushes on the stack new controllers as needed. In two of these tabs I need, when a specific controller is reached, the ability to rotate the iPhone and visualize a view in landscape mode. After struggling a lot I have found that it is mandatory subclassing UITabBarController to override shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation. However, if i simply return YES in the implementation, the following undesirable side effect arises:
every controller in every tab is automatically put in landscape mode when rotating the iPhone.
Even overriding shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation in each controller to return NO does not work: when the iPhone is rotated, the controller is put in landscape mode.
I implemented shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation as follows in the subclassed UITabBarController:
- (BOOL)shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)interfaceOrientation
{
    if([self selectedIndex] == 0 || [self selectedIndex] == 3)
        return YES;

    return NO;
}

So that only the two tabs I am interested in actually get support for landscape mode.
Is there a way to support landscape mode for a specific controller on the stack of a particular tab?
I tried, without success,  something like
(BOOL)shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)interfaceOrientation {
if([self selectedIndex] == 0 || [self selectedIndex] == 3)
{   
   if ([[self selectedViewController] isKindOfClass: [landscapeModeViewController class]])
           return YES;
    }

     return NO;

}
Also, I tried using the delegate method didSelectViewController, without success.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thank you.

A:

Here's an extension to UITabBarController that delegates calls to shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation to the currently selected child controller. Using this extension, you don't need to subclass UITabBarController anymore and you can use shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation in your controllers like one would expect.
UITabBarController+Autorotate.h:
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@interface UITabBarController (Autorotate)
@end

UITabBarController+Autorotate.m:
#import "UITabBarController+Autorotate.h"

@implementation UITabBarController (Autorotate)

- (BOOL)shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)interfaceOrientation {
    UIViewController *controller = self.selectedViewController;
    if ([controller isKindOfClass:[UINavigationController class]])
        controller = [(UINavigationController *)controller visibleViewController];
    return [controller shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation:interfaceOrientation];
}

@end

A:

This worked for me:
- (BOOL)shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)interfaceOrientation {
    if(self.selectedIndex == 0 && [[[self.viewControllers objectAtIndex:0] visibleViewController] isKindOfClass:[MyViewController class]])
        return YES;
    else
        return NO;
}

A:

I've been able to use this for a while now (from my app's tab bar controller) without problems:
- (BOOL)shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)interfaceOrientation {
     return [self.selectedViewController shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation:interfaceOrientation];
}

That way, in the appropriate VC, we get to do the real check, in this case for a photo gallery view (what else?):
- (BOOL)shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)interfaceOrientation {
    // Return YES for supported orientations
    return (interfaceOrientation != UIInterfaceOrientationPortraitUpsideDown);
}

My gallery view isn't even at the top-of-stack for a given Nav Controller. It still gets called.
Alas, I just discovered that this doesn't work so well when the VC is lurking within the MoreViewController (as opposed to the four main tabs). In that case, my gallery VC never gets called. I think it's because the VC I've been calling all along is really the nav controller from the selected tab, which then propagates things to the appropriate VC, in this case my photo gallery VC. But for the More VC, things don't work so nicely ... aaaand things go rotationally downhill from there. :\
I tried using the modifications by Andreas (see elsewhere in this thread), to no avail. Clues welcome!

