Access underlying UITableView from SwiftUI List - ios

Question

Using a List view, is there a way to access (and therefore modify) the underlying UITableView object without reimplementing the entire List as a UIViewRepresentable?
I've tried initializing a List within my own UIViewRepresentable, but I can't seem to get SwiftUI to initialize the view when I need it to, and I just get an empty basic UIView with no subviews.
This question is to help find an answer for Bottom-first scrolling in SwiftUI.
Alternatively, a library or other project that reimplements UITableView in SwiftUI would also answer this question.

Answer 1

The answer is Yes. There's an amazing library that lets you inspect the underlying UIKit views. Here's a link to it.

Answer 2

The answer is no. As of iOS 13, SwiftUI's List is not currently designed to replace all the functionality and customizability of UITableView. It is designed to meet the most basic use of a UITableView: a standard looking, scrollable, editable list where you can place a relatively simply view in each cell.
In other words, you are giving up customizability for the simplicity of having swipes, navigation, moves, deletes, etc. automatically implemented for you.
I'm sure that as SwiftUI evolves, List (or an equivalent view) will get more customizable, and we'll be able to do things like scroll from the bottom, change padding, etc. The best way to make sure this happens is to file feedback suggestions with Apple. I'm sure the SwiftUI engineers are already hard at work designing the features that will appear at WWDC 2020. The more input they have to guide what the community wants and needs, the better.

Answer 3

I found a library called Rotoscope on GitHub (I am not the author of this).
This library is used to implement RefreshUI also on GitHub by the same author.
How it works is that Rotoscope has a tagging method, which overlays a 0 sized UIViewRepresentable on top of your List (so it's invisible). The view will dig through the chain of views and eventually find the UIHostingView that's hosting the SwiftUI views. Then, it will return the first subview of the hosting view, which should contains a wrapper of UITableView, then you can access the table view object by getting the subview of the wrapper.
The RefreshUI library uses this library to implement a refresh control to the SwiftUI List (you can go into the GitHub link and check out the source to see how it's implemented).
However, I see this more like a hack than an actual method, so it's up to you to decide whether you want to use this or not. There are no guarantee that it will continue working between major updates as Apple could change the internal view layout and this library will break.

Answer 4

You can Do it. But it requires a Hack.
Add Any custom UIView
Use UIResponder to backtrack until you find table View.
Modify UITableView The way you like.
Code Example of Adding Pull to refresh:
//1: create a custom view
final class UIKitView : UIViewRepresentable {
let callback: (UITableView) -> Void
init(leafViewCB: #escaping ((UITableView) -> Void)) {
callback = leafViewCB
}
func makeUIView(context: Context) -> UIView {
let view = UIView.init(frame: CGRect(x: CGFloat.leastNormalMagnitude,
y: CGFloat.leastNormalMagnitude,
width: CGFloat.leastNormalMagnitude,
height: CGFloat.leastNormalMagnitude))
view.backgroundColor = .clear
return view
}
func updateUIView(_ uiView: UIView, context: Context) {
if let superView = uiView.superview {
superView.backgroundColor = uiView.backgroundColor
}
if let tableView = uiView.next(UITableView.self) {
callback(tableView)
}
}
}
extension UIResponder {
func next<T: UIResponder>(_ type: T.Type) -> T? {
return next as? T ?? next?.next(type)
}
}
////Use:
struct Result: Identifiable {
var id = UUID()
var value: String
}
class RefreshableObject: ObservableObject {
let id = UUID()
#Published var items: [Result] = [Result(value: "Binding"),
Result(value: "ObservableObject"),
Result(value: "Published")]
let refreshControl: UIRefreshControl
init() {
refreshControl = UIRefreshControl()
refreshControl.addTarget(self, action:
#selector(self.handleRefreshControl),
for: .valueChanged)
}
#objc func handleRefreshControl(sender: UIRefreshControl) {
DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter(deadline: .now() + 1.5) { [weak self] in
sender.endRefreshing()
self?.items = [Result(value:"new"), Result(value:"data"), Result(value:"after"), Result(value:"refresh")]
}
}
}
struct ContentView: View {
#ObservedObject var refreshableObject = RefreshableObject()
var body: some View {
NavigationView {
Form {
Section(footer: UIKitView.init { (tableView) in
if tableView.refreshControl == nil {
tableView.refreshControl = self.refreshableObject.refreshControl
}
}){
ForEach(refreshableObject.items) { result in
Text(result.value)
}
}
}
.navigationBarTitle("Nav bar")
}
}
}
Screenshot:

Answer 5

To update from refresh action, binding isUpdateOrdered is being used.
this code is based on code I found in web, couldn't find the author
import Foundation
import SwiftUI
class Model: ObservableObject{
#Published var isUpdateOrdered = false{
didSet{
if isUpdateOrdered{
update()
isUpdateOrdered = false
print("we got him!")
}
}
}
var random = 0
#Published var arr = [Int]()
func update(){
isUpdateOrdered = false
//your update code.... maybe some fetch request or POST?
}
}
struct ContentView: View {
#ObservedObject var model = Model()
var body: some View {
NavigationView {
LegacyScrollViewWithRefresh(isUpdateOrdered: $model.isUpdateOrdered) {
VStack{
if model.arr.isEmpty{
//this is important to fill the
//scrollView with invisible data,
//in other case scroll won't work
//because of the constraints.
//You may get rid of them if you like.
Text("refresh!")
ForEach(1..<100){ _ in
Text("")
}
}else{
ForEach(model.arr, id:\.self){ i in
NavigationLink(destination: Text(String(i)), label: { Text("Click me") })
}
}
}
}.environmentObject(model)
}
}
}
struct ContentView_Previews: PreviewProvider {
static var previews: some View {
ContentView()
}
}
struct LegacyScrollViewWithRefresh: UIViewRepresentable {
enum Action {
case idle
case offset(x: CGFloat, y: CGFloat, animated: Bool)
}
typealias Context = UIViewRepresentableContext<Self>
#Binding var action: Action
#Binding var isUpdateOrdered: Bool
private let uiScrollView: UIScrollView
private var uiRefreshControl = UIRefreshControl()
init<Content: View>(isUpdateOrdered: Binding<Bool>, content: Content) {
let hosting = UIHostingController(rootView: content)
hosting.view.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
self._isUpdateOrdered = isUpdateOrdered
uiScrollView = UIScrollView()
uiScrollView.addSubview(hosting.view)
let constraints = [
hosting.view.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: uiScrollView.leadingAnchor),
hosting.view.trailingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: uiScrollView.trailingAnchor),
hosting.view.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: uiScrollView.contentLayoutGuide.topAnchor),
hosting.view.bottomAnchor.constraint(equalTo: uiScrollView.contentLayoutGuide.bottomAnchor),
hosting.view.widthAnchor.constraint(equalTo: uiScrollView.widthAnchor)
]
uiScrollView.addConstraints(constraints)
self._action = Binding.constant(Action.idle)
}
init<Content: View>(isUpdateOrdered: Binding<Bool>, #ViewBuilder content: () -> Content) {
self.init(isUpdateOrdered: isUpdateOrdered, content: content())
}
init<Content: View>(isUpdateOrdered: Binding<Bool>, action: Binding<Action>, #ViewBuilder content: () -> Content) {
self.init(isUpdateOrdered: isUpdateOrdered, content: content())
self._action = action
}
func makeCoordinator() -> Coordinator {
Coordinator(self)
}
func makeUIView(context: Context) -> UIScrollView {
uiScrollView.addSubview(uiRefreshControl)
uiRefreshControl.addTarget(context.coordinator, action: #selector(Coordinator.handleRefreshControl(arguments:)), for: .valueChanged)
return uiScrollView
}
func updateUIView(_ uiView: UIScrollView, context: Context) {
switch self.action {
case .offset(let x, let y, let animated):
uiView.setContentOffset(CGPoint(x: x, y: y), animated: animated)
DispatchQueue.main.async {
self.action = .idle
}
default:
break
}
}
class Coordinator: NSObject {
let legacyScrollView: LegacyScrollViewWithRefresh
init(_ legacyScrollView: LegacyScrollViewWithRefresh) {
self.legacyScrollView = legacyScrollView
}
#objc func handleRefreshControl(arguments: UIRefreshControl){
print("refreshing")
self.legacyScrollView.isUpdateOrdered = true
DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter(deadline: .now() + 2){
arguments.endRefreshing()
//refresh animation will
//always be shown for 2 seconds,
//you may connect this behaviour
//to your update completion
}
}
}
}

Answer 6

There is currently no way to access or modify the underlying UITableView