Main tab bar is always visible / can't be hidden

[rachelmcr]

Describe the bug

When we navigate to some screens in the app, we want to hide the main tab bar at the bottom of the screen. However, that setting is no longer working, so the tab bar remains visible.

For example, when viewing the System Status Report we want to hide the main tab bar. In UIKit, we use hidesBottomBarWhenPushed to set that, and it has no effect.

To Reproduce Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Open the hub menu.
2. Select Settings.
3. Select Help & Support.
4. Select System Status Report.
5. Note the tab bar is still visible at the bottom of the screen even though it should be hidden.

Screenshots

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/51d9860e-b32e-4809-91ec-526fa60a41d2

[dangermattic]

Thanks for reporting! 👍

[rachelmcr]

It looks like at least for the SSR (and possibly anything in the hub menu) this broke with 280ca8e3966e9687040e1d5c8cb2d757ef50a93b.

The same issue also occurs in other parts of the app (e.g. when refunding a shipping label on an order or editing/creating a new product) but must have a different root cause.

[Ecarrion]

I think this breaks when using HostingViewControllers I have not yet found a solution for it :-/

[iamgabrielma]

Not sure if helps, but when the HubMenu was updated we also started to see problems when hiding the main tab bar in the Point of Sale mode. We worked around it by setting the isHidden property, and explicitly calling for an update to the safeAreaInsets in order to trigger the layout update we needed.

Related PRs for context:

• https://github.com/woocommerce/woocommerce-ios/pull/13785
• https://github.com/woocommerce/woocommerce-ios/pull/13905

While it works fine at the moment, it's a bit delicate as we've already tackled a few regressions due to further changes in the HubMenu.