How do you call an IBOutlet element's initializer? - ios

Question

I wrote the following subclass of UITextField:
var imageView: UIButton? = nil
var options: [String]? = nil
let padding = UIEdgeInsets(top: 0, left: 5, bottom: 0, right: 30)
override init(frame: CGRect) {
super.init(frame:frame)
self.backgroundColor = Constants.darkPurple
self.textColor = .white
self.layer.cornerRadius = 10
self.clipsToBounds = true
self.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
self.tintColor = .clear
Constants.styleDropDownField(self)
}
required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
super.init(coder: aDecoder)
//fatalError("init(coder:) has not been implemented")
}
}
When I add instances of this class programmatically, it works fine. But when I add an instance of the class in the storyboard and then connect it with an IBAction, it's just a blank white text field without any of the properties I assigned in the class's initializer - it seems that the initializer isn't being called at all. Is there any way to call the element's initializer? Or is there another function, similar to viewDidLoad, that will run when the text field is loaded?

Answer 1

You'll have to call the implementation given in init(frame:) in init(coder:) because this method is called when used from the storyboard. Here is the code:
override init(frame: CGRect) {
super.init(frame:frame)
initialSetup()
}
required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
super.init(coder: aDecoder)
initialSetup()
}
func initialSetup() {
self.backgroundColor = Constants.darkPurple
self.textColor = .white
self.layer.cornerRadius = 10
self.clipsToBounds = true
self.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
self.tintColor = .clear
Constants.styleDropDownField(self)
}

Answer 2

You can't call the initialiser of the component added in storyboard. But you are going in right direction. Create a common method to set these properties.
func commonSetup() {
self.backgroundColor = Constants.darkPurple
self.textColor = .white
self.layer.cornerRadius = 10
self.clipsToBounds = true
self.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
self.tintColor = .clear
Constants.styleDropDownField(self)
}
And call this method from three different methods
override func awakeFromNib() {
super.awakeFromNib()
self.commonSetup()
}
override init(frame: CGRect) {
super.init(frame:frame)
self.commonSetup()
}
//This method will be called when component is initialised from storyboard.
required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
super.init(coder: aDecoder)
self.commonSetup()
}