I don't know how to make the title specific, I'll explain what I need here.
My question:
This is for a weather app, where I allow the user to change the city they want to check the weather for. The problem is that I created the view controllers programmatically. Meaning the prepareForSegue override function doesn't apply.
Now I did find the answer for what to do instead of the prepareForSegue (bellow is the code), however, where should I be calling the function since it is not an override.
Code:
func prepareForSegue() {
let changeCityVC = ChangeCityViewController()
changeCityVC.delegate = self
present(changeCityVC, animated: true, completion: nil)
}
Thanks,
Your prepareForSegue method doesn't actually prepare for a segue. It simply creates a VC and presents it. So it should really be called presentChangeCityVC or something like that.
As to where to call the method, just call it whenever you want to present your VC! Let's suppose you have a button that says "Change City". You can call the method in the button's target:
func changeCityButtonPressed() {
presentChangeCityVC()
}
Two options jump into my head:
Add a property to the view controller that is going to be presented, something like "titleText". Then when you create that view controller, set the value for that property and use viewDidLoad to assign titleText to the title of the view controller that you are transitioning too.
Create a protocol and add a delegate property on the new view controller of that type. In the first view controller, assign the creator as the delegate. Then in viewDidLoad (or wherever), the new view controller can ask the delegate (the presenter in the case) for whatever info it needs (i.e. the title).
Related
Throughout my app I use a navigation controller to push and pop my view controllers. When I pop from one ViewController, I check to see if I can reload the data in the previous one with this:
_ = self.navigationController?.popViewController(animated: true)
if let previousViewController = self.navigationController?.viewControllers.last as? AnimalsVC {
previousViewController.tableView.reloadData()
}
This works every time, but now I need to do the same with another view, but it's not apart of the navigation controller because I modally present (instead of pushing it to the navigation controller). Now there's no way I can access the previous ViewController like before and I can not figure out how to access the previous ViewController.
How can I access the previous ViewController to reload the tableview like the example code without accessing the navigation controller?
I know this is possible with notifications, but I prefer not to use that method if possible!
First of all, It's not necessary to access the previous ViewController to reload tableview(or any other func)
I recommend you to use Delegate to achieve the same feature.
Holding a reference to the previous viewController in the way you mentioned will make your app very hard to maintain when your app gets more complicated.
You can call tableview.reloadData() in viewWillAppear method in the controller that you present modally
I'm trying to figure out how to navigate around my app. But i'm a little lost.
I have a UIViewController that loads some data, then displays the data in a CollectionView. Then I have another UIViewController for the detailed view. I then trigger a segue to go to it, I pass the data etc.
self.performSegueWithIdentifier("detailViewSeque", sender: nil)
But the part i'm lost on is getting back to my main view, if I just trigger another segue then it loads all the data / view again. The data has already been loaded once, I really don't want to keep loading it.
I feel like I'm doing things wrong, that theres some super obvious way to handle this scenario.
Could someone point me in the right direction?
This is good situation to use an unwind segue (for more information: What are Unwind segues for and how do you use them?). Here's how to setup one up:
Firstly, create an #IBAction in the view controller you want to segue to, that takes a UIStoryboardSegue as its only argument. For example:
#IBAction func unwindToHere(segue: UIStoryboardSegue) {
// If you need you have access to the previous view controller
// through the segue object.
}
Secondly, you need to create the unwind segue in IB. To do this ctrl-drag from the view controller you want to segue from, to Exit and select the unwindToHere method:
Thirdly, you need to give your segue and identifier. To do this select your segue (see below - your segue will not be visible like normal segues); then use the Attribute Editor to give your segue an identifier.
Now you can use your segue. On the view controller you want to segue from, call:
self.performSegueWithIdentifier("YourID", sender: self)
To rephrase your needs "I have data that I need to keep around somewhere that isn't associated with a view controller".
You have a few options here. Your goal is basically to store it somewhere that isn't going to go out of memory.
The AppDelegate gets used for this purpose a lot but Singleton variable works as well.
I would personally create a singleton, say CatPictureRetriever with
private let _CatPictureRetriever SharedInstance = CatPictureRetriever()
class CatPictureRetriever {
static let sharedInstance = CatPictureRetriever()
var catPictures : NSArray?;
func gimmeCatPictures -> NSArray? {
return catPictures
}
}
Now you can get your pictures though your CatPictureRetriever anywhere
var pictures = CatPictureRetriever.sharedInstance.gimmeCatPictures()
I'm trying to learn Swift and I'm trying to develop the famous note application.
There is an array bound to a tableview and another view for adding notes.
At second view textfieldshouldreturn event triggers a segue and goes back to tableview.
I wanted to learn if this is the right way. Because by doing this way I'm manipulating a variable in another view controller. I'm not a MVC master but I felt like it is wrong. Here is my code snippet:
func textFieldShouldReturn(textField: UITextField) -> Bool {
self.performSegueWithIdentifier("backSegue", sender: self)
return true
}
override func prepareForSegue(segue: UIStoryboardSegue, sender: AnyObject?) {
if(segue.identifier == "backSegue"){
let navController = segue.destinationViewController as UINavigationController;
let myController = navController.topViewController as NotesTableViewController;
if(self.ourTextField?.text != nil || self.ourTextField?.text != ""){
myController.notes.append(self.ourTextField?.text ?? "");
}
}
}
Thank you.
Your question is not really about prepareForSegue but the relationship between view controllers. The reason that your design "feels wrong" is that it is. The problem is that your note writing view controller knows too much about the view controller that is using it because it is directly manipulating a variable from the calling view controller. In order to directly manipulate the variable, it must know the class of the caller.
Why is this a problem? It makes your note writing view controller less reusable. If you write the note writing view controller correctly, then you could reuse it in other apps. To make it reusable, you need to decouple the note writing view controller from the caller - it must not know who exactly is calling it.
So the question becomes, how do I pass data back to the caller if I don't know who called me? The answer is delegation.
Delegation works like this:
You create a protocol which describes a method or methods that the implementor of that protocol will implement. In your case, you could use a protocol like NoteWriterDelegate that implements the method takeNote(note: String).
protocol NoteWriterDelegate {
func takeNote(note: String)
}
Define this in the file along with your note writing view controller.
Your note writer will have an optional pointer to the delegate:
weak var delegate: NoteWriterDelegate?
You need to declare your first view controller as a NoteWriterDelegate:
class ViewController: UITableViewController, NoteWriterDelegate
And then implement the required method in your first view controller:
func takeNote(note: String) {
notes.append(note)
}
When you call prepareForSegue in preparation for moving to the note writing view controller, you pass yourself as the delegate:
destinationViewController.delegate = self
In the note writing view controller, when you have a note to pass back to the caller, you call takeNote on the delegate:
delegate?.takeNote(self.ourTextField?.text ?? "")
By doing it this way, your note writer only knows that it is talking to a NoteWriterDelegate. If you want to reuse this in the future, you just drop your note writer class into another project, implement the delegate, and it works without you having to touch the code in the note writer class.
I would recommend passing data via prepareForSegue in most cases. It's pretty simple to set up and easy to understand.
However, I would recommend never updating UI elements (labels, text fields, etc.) on the destination view directly. In my opinion, this is bad coupling that creates a lot of problems.
Instead, create a property or properties on the destination view controller that the caller can set in prepareForSegue to pass data to it. These should be special purpose properties used exclusively for passing data. The destination view controller is then in charge of using the data in these properties to update its UI or internal state.
Delegation is a valid approach, but I find it to be overkill for most situations. It requires more setup and is more abstract. This abstraction isn't needed in a lot of view controller relationships. If you discover you need to reuse a view controller, you can always refactor to use delegation later.
I do not believe that the prepareSegue is the ideal way for passing data between view controllers...at least not directly.
I share your concerns about using prepareForSegue to pass values between view controllers. The source view controller shouldn’t know anything about the destination view controller (and the other way around, for that matter). Ideally view controllers should be separate islands with no visibility into one another.
To address the coupling that storyboards seem to encourage, I’ve often used some form of the mediator pattern to pass data between view controllers. Here is a pretty good blog post on how to implement a version of this pattern around storyboards: http://coding.tabasoft.it/ios/mediator-pattern-in-swift/ . As always, this pattern may not be the best fit for all situations, but I feel it has been a good solution in a lot of my past projects.
Basically, how the mediator pattern would work within the storyboard paradigm is that in each view controller’s prepareForSegue method, the the segue object is passed to the mediator object. The view controller doesn’t care what’s inside or where the navigation is going next; it just knows it’s about to not be visible. The mediator, which has just been passed the segue object (containing the source and destination view controllers), is then responsible for passing data between the source and destination view controllers.
Using this pattern, each view controller is blissfully unaware of the existence of the other. The mediator class, on the other hand, must know about the relationships between the view controllers (and the view controllers' interfaces) in the navigation path. Obviously if the navigation changes, or the view controllers themselves change, the mediator class will need to adjust. Each view controller, however, need not have any dependence on each other, and therefore need not be updated to to accommodate changes in the navigation path or changes to the other view controllers along that navigation path.
It is not 'the' right way, but it is a right way. Especially in storyboard applications.
Here is an alternative way of passing value and calling the view.
var myNewVC = NewViewController()
myNewVC.data = self
navigationController?.presentViewController(myNewVC, animated: true, completion: nil)
I'm having trouble piecing this all together. I have a view controller that opens up another (pushes it on to the navigation stack). On that presented view controller, the user enters a value in a text view. When the user pushes the back button in the navigation, I want to be able to pass the value that they entered in the text view back to the presenting controller.
I've looked for a way to use unwind segue with the back button but haven't found anything. When I create my back button (programmatically) I use initWithTitle:style:target:action but I'm not sure how in implementing the action method that I'll be able to access the value set in the presented controller. Might have to use a delegate to link the two, but not sure of the exact integration point for this scenario.
I feel like I'm so close here and a little help would get me there. Thanks!
The two most common models to use for this interaction are for the child view controller to have either a delegate or a completion block. Either would be set in the prepareForSegue method. My personal preference is the completion block method just because it keeps code contained, but ymmv.
There are also multiple models for detecting when your child view controller is dismissed and you need to invoke the delegate and/or completion:
Use a custom back button. Not a fan of this as it can be an issue to create a back button that really looks and acts like the Apple original, especially if supporting iOS 6 and iOS 7.
Hook viewDidDisappear and see if you're still in the navigation controller's viewControllers array. This is better as the back button works right, but it still feels kind of hokey.
Use the UINavigationBarDelegate method navigationBar:shouldPopItem: This is attractive, especially if you have other validation that needs to happen like checking for saved/unsaved values. To implement this you'll have to subclass UINavigationController and forward the method to your child view controller.
EDIT: Details on Option 2:
-(void)viewDidDisappear:(BOOL)animated
{
[super viewDidDisappear:animated];
if(![self.navigationController.viewControllers containsObject:self])
{
// We're not still in the navigation stack so we must've been
// popped. If we were pushed, viewDidDisappear would be called
// but viewControllers containsObject:self would be true
}
}
EDIT: Clarified Option 3: in your navigation controller subclass
- (BOOL)navigationBar:(UINavigationBar *)navigationBar shouldPopItem:(UINavigationItem *)item
{
UIViewController* top = self.topViewController;
if([top respondsToSelector:#selector(navigationBar:shouldPopItem:)])
return [(id)top navigationBar:navigationBar shouldPopItem:item];
return [super navigationBar:navigationBar shouldPopItem:item];
}
Then you can implement navigationBar:shouldPopItem: in the classes that need the functionality.
the back button does not actually comes up with any event associated with itself so that you can pass the values between the previous and to be Popped ViewController.
You would have to implement Delegate pattern to pass values. In this case as you cant catch when backButton is pressed, you need to use custom leftBarButtonItem or use a image with < in itself.
I'm trying to update a Label in the 2nd VC from the 1st VC within the prepareForSegue method.
-(void)prepareForSegue:(UIStoryboardSegue *)segue sender:(id)sender
{
MYSecondViewController* secondVC = (MYSecondViewController*)segue.destinationViewController;
secondVC.titleLabel.text = #"First VC Says: You Are Second!!"; //This doesn't work
secondVC.dataPassString = #"First VC Says: You Are Second!!"; //This works + secondVC viewDidLoad
}
If I update the Label directly, it doesn't work.
If I update a String Property and then assign it to the Label in the Second VC viewDidLoad, it does work.
Does it mean that upon prepareForSegue call the second VC viewDidLoad method was not called yet?
Was some init method called (so the NSString object could pass)? If yes, which one?
Is there a way to update IBOutlets in the 2nd VC from the 1st VC?
The short answer is: Don't do that.
You should treat another view controller's views as private and never try to manipulate them. It breaks the OOD principle of encapsulation.
What you want to do is to add (string or other type) properties to your destination view controller, and set THOSE in prepareForSegue. Then in your destination view controller's viewWillAppear method, copy those property values into the view controllers' views.
In your case, the datePassString property is exactly what you want.
That way, if you change the structure of your second view controller down the road, and decide to display the information to a different view, you don't break the link between the 2 view controllers. Your destination view controller can still fetch the data from it's source, and do something different with it.
P.S. as the other poster said, the reason setting secondVC.titleLabel.text fails is that in prepareForSegue, the destination view controller's views haven't been loaded yet.
If you add in this line in your "prepareForSegue" method:
if(!secondVC.titleLabel)
NSLog(#"titleLabel is null and it likely hasn't been loaded yet")
You'll see that the view hasn't been loaded until it's time for it to appear (which happens after prepareForSegue). That's why the datePassString property you're using is working while the IBOutlets are null until the view is loaded.