ti-ui

Titanium SDK UI expert

A practical guide to Titanium SDK UI. Covers layouts, event handling, animations, performance, and platform-specific components for iOS and Android.

Project detection

️ℹ️ auto-detects titanium projects This skill detects Titanium projects and provides UI guidance.

Detection happens automatically. You do not need to run a command.

Titanium project indicator:

• tiapp.xml (required for all Titanium projects)

Applicable to both:

• Alloy projects (app/ folder structure)
• Classic projects (Resources/ folder)

Behavior based on detection:

• Titanium detected: Provide UI guidance for Alloy and Classic, ListView/TableView patterns, and platform differences
• Not detected: State this is for Titanium projects only and skip UI guidance

Quick reference

Topic	Reference
App structures	application-structures.md
Layouts, positioning, units	layouts-and-positioning.md
Events, bubbling, lifecycle	event-handling.md
ScrollView vs ScrollableView	scrolling-views.md
TableView	tableviews.md
ListView templates, performance	listviews-and-performance.md
Touch, swipe, pinch, gestures	gestures.md
Orientation handling	orientation.md
Custom fonts, attributed strings	custom-fonts-styling.md
Animations, 2D/3D matrices	animation-and-matrices.md
Icons, splash screens, densities	icons-and-splash-screens.md
Android action bar, themes	platform-ui-android.md
iOS navigation, 3D Touch	platform-ui-ios.md
VoiceOver, TalkBack, a11y	accessibility-deep-dive.md

Critical rules

Performance

• Do not use Ti.UI.SIZE in ListViews. It causes jerky scrolling. Use fixed heights.
• Prefer ListView over TableView for new apps with large datasets.
• Batch updates with applyProperties to reduce bridge overhead.
• Avoid WebView inside TableView. It kills scrolling performance.

iOS accessibility

• Do not set accessibility properties on container views. It blocks child interaction.
• Do not set accessibilityLabel on text controls on Android. It overrides visible text.

Layout

• Use dp units for cross-platform consistency.
• Android ScrollView is vertical or horizontal, not both. Set scrollType.

Platform-specific properties

🚨 critical: platform-specific properties require modifiers Using Ti.UI.iOS.* or Ti.UI.Android.* properties without platform modifiers will crash cross-platform compilation.

Example of the damage:

// Wrong: adds Ti.UI.iOS to an Android build
const win = Ti.UI.createWindow({
  statusBarStyle: Ti.UI.iOS.StatusBar.LIGHT_CONTENT
})

Correct approaches:

Option 1: TSS modifier (Alloy projects):

"#mainWindow[platform=ios]": {
  statusBarStyle: Ti.UI.iOS.StatusBar.LIGHT_CONTENT
}

Option 2: Conditional code:

if (OS_IOS) {
  $.mainWindow.statusBarStyle = Ti.UI.iOS.StatusBar.LIGHT_CONTENT
}

Properties that always require platform modifiers:

• iOS: statusBarStyle, modalStyle, modalTransitionStyle, any Ti.UI.iOS.*
• Android: actionBar config, any Ti.UI.Android.* constant

For platform-specific UI patterns, see platform-ui-ios.md and platform-ui-android.md.

Event management

• Remove global listeners (Ti.App, Ti.Gesture, Ti.Accelerometer) on pause to save battery.
• Input events bubble up. System events do not.

App architecture

• Limit tabs to 4 or fewer for better UX across platforms.
• Use NavigationWindow for iOS hierarchical navigation.
• Handle androidback to prevent unexpected exits.

Platform differences summary

Feature	iOS	Android
3D Matrix	Full support	No support
Pinch gesture	Full support	Limited
ScrollView	Bidirectional	Unidirectional
TableView	Full support	Full support
ListView	Full support	Full support
Default template image	Left side	Right side
ListView action items	Swipe actions	No
Modal windows	Fills screen, covers tab bar	No effect (always full)
Navigation pattern	NavigationWindow	Back button + Menu

UI design workflow

1. Choose app structure: tab-based or window-based
2. Pick a layout mode: composite, vertical, or horizontal
3. Decide sizing: SIZE or FILL based on component defaults
4. Plan events: bubbling, app-level events, lifecycle
5. Optimize performance: templates, batch updates
6. Apply accessibility per platform
7. Add motion: animations, 2D/3D transforms, transitions

Searching references

When you need specific patterns, grep these terms in the reference files:

• App structure: TabGroup, NavigationWindow, modal, execution context, androidback
• Layouts: dp, Ti.UI.SIZE, Ti.UI.FILL, composite, vertical, horizontal
• Events: addEventListener, cancelBubble, bubbling, Ti.App.fireEvent
• TableView: TableView, TableViewRow, setData, appendRow, className
• ListView: ItemTemplate, bindId, setItems, updateItemAt, marker
• Gestures: swipe, pinch, longpress, shake, accelerometer
• Animation: animate, create2DMatrix, create3DMatrix, autoreverse
• Fonts: fontFamily, PostScript, createAttributedString, ATTRIBUTE_
• Icons/splash: DefaultIcon, appicon, nine-patch, drawable, splash, iTunesArtwork, adaptive
• Android: Action Bar, onCreateOptionsMenu, theme, Material3, talkback
• iOS: 3D Touch, Popover, SplitWindow, badge, NavigationWindow
• Accessibility: accessibilityLabel, VoiceOver, TalkBack, accessibilityHidden

Related skills

For work beyond UI components, use these skills:

Task	Use this skill
Project architecture, services, memory cleanup	ti-expert
Native features (camera, location, push, media)	ti-howtos
Alloy MVC, data binding, widgets	alloy-guides