Controller initialized before app even goes to it - ios

Question

So the problem seems to be with my profileViewController. I set the current user after I am done signing up in this snippet of code.
class func setCurrent(_ user: User, writeToUserDefaults: Bool = true) {
print(user)
print("")
if writeToUserDefaults {
let data = NSKeyedArchiver.archivedData(withRootObject: user)
UserDefaults.standard.set(data, forKey: "currentUser")
UserDefaults.standard.synchronize()
}
_current = user
print(_current)
}
Then After That it goes to my profileViewController and tries to look for the user which turns out to be null. Why would it go there before I even went to the viewcontroller. Why is it nil?
Below is my profile view controller and my viewDidLoad
class ProfileeViewController: UICollectionViewController, UICollectionViewDelegateFlowLayout {
var profileHandle: DatabaseHandle = 0
var profileRef: DatabaseReference?
let cellID = "cellID"
let profileSetupTransition = AlterProfileViewController()
let settingView = SettingsViewController()
var userEvents = [Event]()
var userId: String?
var user: User?
var emptyLabel: UILabel?
var currentUserName: String = ""
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
collectionView?.backgroundColor = UIColor.white
let user = self.user ?? User.current
profileHandle = UserService.observeProfile(for: user) { [unowned self](ref, user, events) in
self.profileRef = ref
self.user = user
self.userEvents = events
// self.jobs = allJobs
// self.reciepts = allReciepts
// print(self.userEvents)
// print(self.reciepts)
DispatchQueue.main.async {
self.collectionView?.reloadData()
}
}
The method where I call setCurrent is below
// will handle the sign up of a user
#objc func handleSignUp(){
// first we cant to take sure that all of the fields are filled
var profilePic: String = ""
// will take the user selected image and load it to firebase
let imageName = NSUUID().uuidString
guard let username = self.nameTextField.text,
let confirmPassword = self.confirmPasswordTextField.text,
let email = self.emailTextField.text,
let password = self.passwordTextField.text,
!username.isEmpty,
!email.isEmpty,
!password.isEmpty,
!confirmPassword.isEmpty
else {
print("Required fields are not all filled!")
return
}
if self.validateEmail(enteredEmail:email) != true{
let alertController = UIAlertController(title: "Error", message: "Please Enter A Valid Email", preferredStyle: .alert)
let defaultAction = UIAlertAction(title: "Ok", style: .cancel, handler: nil)
alertController.addAction(defaultAction)
self.present(alertController, animated: true, completion: nil)
}
// will make sure user is validated before it even tries to create user
// will make sure the password and confirm password textfields have the same value if so it will print an error
if self.passwordTextField.text != self.confirmPasswordTextField.text {
let alertController = UIAlertController(title: "Error", message: "Passwords Don't Match", preferredStyle: .alert)
let defaultAction = UIAlertAction(title: "Ok", style: .cancel, handler: nil)
alertController.addAction(defaultAction)
self.present(alertController, animated: true, completion: nil)
}
//create a reference to the sotrage database in firebase
let storageRef = Storage.storage().reference().child("profile_images").child("\(imageName).PNG")
//following function does the work of putting it into firebase
//notice I also set the value of profilepic oo it can be saved in the updated user instance in the database
if let userImage = selectedImageFromPicker,let uploadData = UIImageJPEGRepresentation(userImage, 0.1){
AuthService.createUser(controller: self, email: email, password: password) { (authUser) in
guard let firUser = authUser else{
return
}
storageRef.putData(uploadData, metadata: nil, completion: { (metadata, error) in
if error != nil {
print(error ?? "")
return
}
profilePic = (metadata?.downloadURL()!.absoluteString)!
//printing to make sure values are contained in these strings
print(profilePic)
print(username)
UserService.create(firUser, username: username, profilePic: profilePic, location: self.userLocation!, completion: { (user) in
guard let user = user else {
print("User not loaded into firebase db")
return
}
User.setCurrent(user, writeToUserDefaults: true)
// will set the current user for userdefaults to work
print(user.profilePic ?? "")
print(user.username ?? "")
// self.delegate?.finishSigningUp()
self.finishSigningUp()
})
})
}
}
}
Then this method is called to move the user to the homeviewController and set it as root
func finishSigningUp() {
print("Finish signing up from signup view controller")
print("Attempting to return to root view controller")
let homeController = HomeViewController()
//should change the root view controller to the homecontroller when done signing up
self.view.window?.rootViewController = homeController
self.view.window?.makeKeyAndVisible()
}

Answer 1

When you do User.current is going to retrieve on the user default the current user that you previously saved on the user defaults on your setCurrent method right ?
Did you check if the user is correctly saved on the User defaults with the key "currentUser" ? Maybe that's why it's nil.
Why would it go there before I even went to the viewcontroller ? Maybe you are doing some kinf of asynchronous method computation and even when it is not finished, you move to the vie controller. You move to it without the result of your asynchronous method and it's logic that your values are nil because you don't let them to be set. That's an hypothesis as I see your piece of code and you call some asynchronous methods on your code flow.