How to set a delegate in Swift - ios

Question

I want to send my UserModel with all user informations from a ViewController (ShowUserViewController) to another ViewController (ChatViewController) with a delegate but its not working.
In my ShowUserViewControllers user are all informations I want to send to the ChatViewController.
var user: UserModel?
In my ChatViewController I have the following declaration where I want to send my datas:
var currentUser: UserModel?
Here my protocol:
protocol UserInfoToChatID {
func observeUserID(user: UserModel)
}
Here I prepare the segue and set delegate by tapping the button:
} else if segue.identifier == "UserInfoToChatVC" {
let chatVC = segue.destination as! ChatViewController
chatVC.currentUser = self.user
}
}
var delegate: UserInfoToChatID?
#IBAction func chatButtonTapped(_ sender: UIBarButtonItem) {
delegate?.observeUserID(user: user!)
}
At last I call the delegate in my ChatViewController:
extension ChatViewController: UserInfoToChatID {
func observeUserID(user: UserModel) {
self.currentUser = user
performSegue(withIdentifier: "UserInfoToChatVC", sender: self)
}
}

Answer 1

If you need to pass data from one ViewController to another, you don't have to use delegates for this. You can just pass this data as sender parameter of performSegue method:
performSegue(withIdentifier: "UserInfoToChatVC", sender: user!)
then in prepare for segue just downcast sender as UserModel and assign destination's currentUser variable
...
} else if segue.identifier == "UserInfoToChatVC" {
let chatVC = segue.destination as! ChatViewController
chatVC.currentUser = sender as! UserModel
}
}
But in your case you actually don't have to pass user as sender. You can just assign destination's currentUser variable as ShowUserViewController's global variable user
...
} else if segue.identifier == "UserInfoToChatVC" {
let chatVC = segue.destination as! ChatViewController
chatVC.currentUser = user!
}
}

Answer 2

2 things:
first, if you just want to pass data from one viewController to other viewController you don't need to use delegate pattern, just pass the object to the next viewController on prepare form segue.
second, if you want to implement the delegate pattern you should have one viewController than call to the delegate and the other implement the functions.
example:
protocol ExampleDelegate: class {
func delegateFunction()
}
class A {
//have delegate var
weak var delegate: ExampleDelegate?
// someWhere in the code when needed call to the delegate function...
delegate?.delegateFunction()
}
Class B: ExampleDelegate {
func delegateFunction() {
// do some code....
}
//when you move to the next viewControoler(to A in that case)
override func prepare(for segue: UIStoryboardSegue, sender: Any?) {
if segue.identifier == "AClass" {
if let vc = segue.destination as? A {
vc.delegate = self
}
}
}

Answer 3

To pass the UserModel object forward, from ShowUserViewController to ChatViewController, you should use something called Dependency Injection:
So you'll do something like this inside ShowUserViewController:
#IBAction func chatButtonTapped(_ sender: UIBarButtonItem) {
performSegue(withIdentifier: "UserInfoToChatVC", sender: nil)
}
Note: The sender parameter should be the object that initiated the segue. It could be self, i.e. the ShowUserViewController object, but I'd advise against passing the UserModel object, because that object did not initiate the segue, and has nothing to do with navigation at all. It should be injected inside the Destination Controller later on.
In the same file, override the prepare(for:) method:
override func prepare(for segue: UIStoryboardSegue, sender: Any?) {
if segue.identifier == "UserInfoToChatVC" {
let chatVC = segue.destination as! ChatViewController
chatVC.currentUser = self.user
}
}
I believe you've mostly done this part right, but you may need to communicate back from ChatViewController to ShowUserViewController.
In that case, you can and should use Delegation.
Create something like this inside ShowUserViewController:
protocol ChatViewControllerDelegate: class {
func didUpdateUser(_ model: UserModel)
}
class ChatViewController: UIViewControler {
var user: UserModel?
weak var delegate: ChatViewControllerDelegate?
/* more code */
func someEventHappened() {
delegate?.didUpdateUser(self.user!)
}
}
Finally, there is an additional line to be added to the prepare(for:) method:
override func prepare(for segue: UIStoryboardSegue, sender: Any?) {
if segue.identifier == "UserInfoToChatVC" {
let chatVC = segue.destination as! ChatViewController
chatVC.currentUser = self.user
// Add this line...
chatVC.delegate = self
}
}
And specify that the ShowUserViewController implements the ChatViewControllerDelegate protocol, then override the didUpdateUser(_:) method:
func didUpdateUser(_ model: UserModel) {
// Some code here
}