Ionic 4 tabs: How to create custom tabs

Question

I am trying to style my tabs to look like what's shown in the link.

.

I currently have the default tab style and I don't know how to go about adjusting it to look like what is shown in the linked image. Any help from the community will be appreciated.

Answer 1

Here is my crack at it,

TESTED ON CHROME Pixel 2 XL emulator this is important because the variables I used will absolutely look different on different screen ratios. I personally used 411x823 which is the screen dimension on a Pixel 2 XL phone. You will need to handle all of the necessary screen dimension cases on your own through css media queries to get a general solution.

Initial Screen: this is what I started with. I started with what looks like the default tabs ionic application. Like what you have. Since we're dealing with only html and scss that is what I will show.

tabs-page.scss starting file.

.tabbar {
  justify-content: center;
}

.tab-button {
  max-width: 200px;
}

::ng-deep ion-icon.icon-button {
  background: var(--ion-color-primary-tint)!important;
  color: white;
  border-radius: 50%!important;
}

tabs-page.html starting file.

<ion-tabs>
  <ion-tab-bar *ngIf="tabSlot === 'bottom'" slot="bottom">

    <ion-tab-button tab="marketplace">
      <ion-icon mode="md" name="home"></ion-icon>
      <ion-label>Marketplace</ion-label>
    </ion-tab-button>

    <ion-tab-button tab="friends">
      <ion-icon name="contacts"></ion-icon>
      <ion-label>Friends</ion-label>
      <ion-badge *ngIf="friendCount > 0" color="danger">{{friendCount}}</ion-badge>
    </ion-tab-button>

    <ion-tab-button (click)="openRequestPage()">
      <ion-icon name="add-circle-outline" class="icon-button"></ion-icon>
      <ion-label>Request</ion-label>
    </ion-tab-button>

    <ion-tab-button tab="notifications">
      <ion-icon name="notifications"></ion-icon>
      <ion-label>Notifications</ion-label>
      <ion-badge *ngIf="notificationCount > 0" color="danger">{{notificationCount}}</ion-badge>
    </ion-tab-button>

    <ion-tab-button tab="settings">
      <ion-icon name="settings"></ion-icon>
      <ion-label>Settings</ion-label>
    </ion-tab-button>

  </ion-tab-bar>
</ion-tabs>

End Screen: This is what you're looking for in a rough sense.

End result: this is what I ended up creating from the code I had started with. The solution involves using the box-shadow css attribute to give the "negative" border-radius styling. And then what you need to do is position your center button slightly above your tab-bar. I used this tutorial to guide me. Also looking up how box-shadow works helps with getting the specifics sorted out.

tabs-page.scss ending file.

.tabbar {
  justify-content: center;
}

.tab-button {
  max-width: 200px;
}

::ng-deep ion-icon.icon-button {
  background: var(--ion-color-primary-tint)!important;
  color: white;
  border-radius: 50%!important;
}

:host ::ng-deep .tabs-inner {
  position: unset!important;
  contain: size style!important;
}

.bottom-tab-bar {
  --background: transparent;
  --border: 0;
}

ion-tab-button {
  --background: beige;
}

.button-center {
  --background: transparent!important;
  ion-icon {
    height: 50px;
    width: 50px;
    font-size: 75px;
  }
}

ion-tab-bar {
  &:before {
    box-shadow: 0 387px 0 300px beige;
    position: absolute;
    margin-top: -48px;
    padding: 56px;
    border-radius: 65%;
    content: '';
  }
}

.inner-left-btn {
  border-radius: 0 39% 0 0; // create the curved style on the left side of the center
}

.inner-right-btn {
  border-radius: 39% 0 0 0; // create the curved style on the right side of the center
}

.inner-center-btn {
  position: absolute;
  left: calc(50% - 35px); // position your button in the center
  bottom: 20px; // position your button slightly above the half bezel
  font-size: 70px;
  --background: transparent;
}

tabs-page.html ending file.

<ion-tabs>
  <ion-icon name="add-circle-outline" class="icon-button inner-center-btn" (click)="openRequestPage()"></ion-icon>

  <ion-tab-bar *ngIf="tabSlot === 'bottom'" slot="bottom" class="bottom-tab-bar">

    <ion-tab-button tab="marketplace">
      <ion-icon mode="md" name="home"></ion-icon>
      <ion-label>Marketplace</ion-label>
    </ion-tab-button>

    <ion-tab-button tab="friends" class="inner-left-btn">
      <ion-icon name="contacts"></ion-icon>
      <ion-label>Friends</ion-label>
      <ion-badge *ngIf="friendCount > 0" color="danger">{{friendCount}}</ion-badge>
    </ion-tab-button>

    <ion-tab-button class="button-center">
      <div></div>
    </ion-tab-button>

    <ion-tab-button tab="notifications" class="inner-right-btn">
      <ion-icon name="notifications"></ion-icon>
      <ion-label>Notifications</ion-label>
      <ion-badge *ngIf="notificationCount > 0" color="danger">{{notificationCount}}</ion-badge>
    </ion-tab-button>

    <ion-tab-button tab="settings">
      <ion-icon name="settings"></ion-icon>
      <ion-label>Settings</ion-label>
    </ion-tab-button>

  </ion-tab-bar>
</ion-tabs>