Recipe

There are three components required to make a split view work: the master view, the detail view and the split view that encapsulates them both.

To create these views and wire them up:

1. Create a subclass of DialogViewController for the master view:

public class MasterViewController : DialogViewController {
    public MasterViewController () : base (null)
    {
       Root = new RootElement ("Items") {
          new Section () {
             from num in Enumerable.Range (1, 10)
             select (Element) new StringElement("Item " + num)
          }  
       };
    }

    public override bool ShouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation
      (UIInterfaceOrientation toInterfaceOrientation)
    {
       return true;
    }
}

2. Create a subclass of UIViewController for the detail view:

public class DetailViewController : UIViewController
{
    UILabel label;
    public DetailViewController () : base()
    {
        View.BackgroundColor = UIColor.White;
        label = new UILabel(new RectangleF(100,100,300,50));
        label.Text = "This is the detail view";
        View.AddSubview (label);
    }

    public override bool ShouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation (UIInterfaceOrientation toInterfaceOrientation)
    {
        return true;
    }
}

3. Create a subclass of UISplitViewController, and assign the master and detail classes to its ViewControllers property.

public class SplitViewContoller : UISplitViewController
{
    UIViewController masterView, detailView;

    public SplitViewContoller () : base()
    {
        // create our master and detail views
        masterView = new MasterViewController ();
        detailView = new DetailViewController ();
        // create an array of controllers from them and then
        // assign it to the controllers property
        ViewControllers = new UIViewController[]
                { masterView, detailView }; // order is important
    }

    public override bool ShouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation
        (UIInterfaceOrientation toInterfaceOrientation)
    {
        return true;
    }
}

4. Finally create and assign the SplitViewController in the AppDelegate:

splitView = new SplitViewContoller();
window.RootViewController = splitView;

Additional Information

The example above does not include any interaction between the views. See the [Communicating Between Detail and Master Controllers] recipe. It also does not allow you to view the master view in portrait orientation, which is explained in the [Showing and Hiding the Master View Button (SplitView)] recipe.

In iOS 5, you can also force the master view to appear in portrait orientation, by implementing the following delegate in the SplitViewController:

ShouldHideViewController = (svc, viewController, inOrientation) => {
    return false; // default behaviour is true
};