I have two String arrays: one that holds order numbers, and one that holds addresses.
I pull data from Firebase in viewDidAppear using a function that contains the following:
self.localOrderNumberArray.removeAll()
self.localAddressArray.removeAll()
self.orderNumbers.removeAll()
self.addresses.removeAll()
self.tableView.reloadData()
if onItsWayCompanyNameStoreNumberCourierNumberRootRef != nil {
let deliveryRef = onItsWayCompanyNameStoreNumberCourierNumberRootRef.childByAppendingPath("deliveries")
deliveryRef.observeEventType(.ChildAdded, withBlock: { snapshot in
self.orderNumbers.removeAll()
self.addresses.removeAll()
print(snapshot.value.objectForKey("orderNumber"))
let orderNumberPulledFromFirebase = snapshot.value.objectForKey("orderNumber") as! String
self.localOrderNumberArray.insert(orderNumberPulledFromFirebase, atIndex: 0)
let addressPulledFromFirebase = snapshot.value.objectForKey("address") as! String
self.localAddressArray.insert(addressPulledFromFirebase, atIndex: 0)
self.orderNumbers = self.localOrderNumberArray
self.addresses = self.localAddressArray
self.tableView.reloadData()
})
}
The function fills a UITableView with the data pulled from Firebase.
Everything works great when I first run the app. I can add data to Firebase through a different function, and the function above will pull the new data into the UITableView just fine.
However, when I segue to a different view controller (another UITableView, in this case), and then come back to the view that holds the function above, the function fills the order number and address arrays twice when I add new data.
If I segue to the other UITableView a second time, and then come back to view that holds the function above, the function fills the order number and address arrays three times when I add new data. And so on and so on.
It's the strangest thing. I can't figure it out, and it's about to drive me over the edge. Please help.
You are calling deliveryRef.observeEventType in viewDidAppear. viewDidAppear will be called each time the ViewController is presented. So when you segue to other ViewController and comes back, viewDidAppear will be called again and deliveryRef.observeEventType is registered again. So effectively there are two listeners doing the same job in your viewController which will add duplicate data to the array.
You have to implement a logic to do observeEventType only once in the ViewController.
Related
I have Tab Bar Controller, where I have few view controllers, but I want to pass array of values (workoutNames) to another view in my Tab Bar Controller. I wonder what's best option to do this and I've decided to use way of passing data with property. But when I try to retrieve data I get empty array. I could also use firestore to retrieve data in my Second View Controller, but It lasts too long, so I decided to passing data between views than retrieve data from firestore every time.
First View Controller
class HomeTableViewController: UIViewController
// I need to pass this array to another view
var workoutsName: [String] = []
...
func sendDataToCalendar() {
// IN THIS FUNCTION I RETRIEVE DATA FROM FIRESTORE AND UPDATE ARRAY WITH VALUES
// After all I print this array to check if everything is correct, and my data is here
print("\(workoutsName)")
}
Here is my Second View Controller when I want to use array from First View Controller
class CalendarViewController: UIViewController {
var arrayOfTitles = [String]()
.
.
.
func getArrayFromHome() {
let homeVC = HomeTableViewController()
homeVC.workoutsName = arrayOfTitles
// NOW I PRINT TO CHECK IF DATA EXISTS
print("\(arrayofTitles)"
}
And its empty, so data didn't pass.
Maybe it's not the best way to pass data, but main idea of this is that I will need to use this array in few view controllers. These controllers won't be connected by segue, so I can't use prepareforSegue. It's not one to one relationship (in future I will need this array in few controllers), so I shouldn't use delegate. I don't think that notification will be ok too, so I think that it's best option to pass data by property. But maybe I am wrong, so please correct me.
The reason why it doesn't work is that you instantiate a new HomeTableViewController with empty data.
If this data will be used on lots of place, why not save it locally? user default seems like it fit your needs.
func sendDataToCalendar() {
UserDefaults.standard.set(workoutsName, forKey: "workoutsName")
}
Then you can read it later on
func getWorkoutNameArray() {
let workoutName = UserDefaults.standard.object(forKey: "workoutsName") as? [String]
}
In your getArrayFromHome() function you are not accessing HomeTableViewController instance where you got the data but creating a new instance. That's why the array is empty. You end up with 2 instances of HomeTableViewController, one in use with the correct array and the dummy one created in the function with an empty array.
Would be better if you pass the data in the same place where you have a reference to CalendarViewController.
Let's say that you are creating and presenting CalendarViewController in your HomeTableViewController like:
let calendarViewController = CalendarViewController()
calendarViewController.arrayOfTitles = workoutNames
// Here is the presentation or push of calendarViewController
It will be useful for you to read this SO question
I have two Views:
UITableViewController (View A)
UIViewController (View B)
I was wondering, if it's possible to load and setup the table from View B and then segue to View A, when the loading is done. I need this, since the Table View loads Data from Core Data and that takes some time; I would then show a Loading Animation or something. I have a function called loadData() in View A, which fetches all Elements from Core Data and then calls tableView.reloadData().
Does anyone know, how I could implement this? Or should I somehow show the loading View directly from View A with a SubView or something?
Remember to not think about the specifics but instead, think generally:
You want to move from one VC to another and you have some data that needs to be fetched asynchronically. Let's assume you can't know how long it will take.
My suggestion is to contain all data fetching related to a VC inside that VC itself (or services/facades related to it). So basically you should present the UITableViewController and then have it fetch the data while showing skeleton-cells/spinner/etc.
You want to have separation of concerns which means you don't want your ViewController to handle data related to another view controller.
Think about the following use-case: if you have code to fetch data in the previous VC, before presenting the TVC, what happens when you need to re-fetch the data or refresh something? You will have to duplicate the code in both the VC and the TVC.
That's why it's suggested to keep data fetching inside the view controller that needs it.
If, for some reason, you still want to have your answer for this specific question:
You can have the initial VC create the TVC, but not present it yet, call its methods to fetch the data, and have it send a callback (closure/delegate/etc) when it's done fetching. When the fetching is done, present the TVC.
Here is a quick example:
class MyTableVC: UITableViewController {
private var myData: [Int] = []
public func fetchData(completion: () -> Void) {
//Fetch data asyncly
myData = [1, 2 ,3]
completion()
}
}
class MyVC: ViewController {
private func loadTableVC() {
let tableVC = MyTableVC()
tableVC.fetchData { [weak self] in
self?.present(tableVC, animated: true, completion: nil)
}
}
}
Again, I wouldn't use this due to having tight coupling between the 2 view controllers, but it's always up to you to decide how to design your code.
In all iOS classes that use Firebase you will have code like this,
private func clearObservations() {
// your method for clearing observations, probably something like
blah blah. removeAllObservers()
}
In view controllers, it's essential that you call this in viewWillDisappear (or viewDidDisappear)
override func viewWillDisappear(_ animated: Bool) {
super.viewWillDisappear(animated)
clearObservations()
}
That's fine.
Assume that you have created an observation in a UITableViewCell.
What is the best place in a cell to "clear observations" ?
Note that prepareForReuse is useless, try it.
The only approach we've found is
override func willMove(toSuperview newSuperview: UIView?) {
if newSuperview == nil {
clearObservations()
}
super.willMove(toSuperview: newSuperview)
}
Seems flakey/bizarre though.
What's the deal on this?
Update
Note while "XY Answers" are interesting and informative, if anyone knows the answer to the question that would be great also!
Preface
This was an attempt to answer the question but the question was misunderstood. I'll leave it here as it does have some relevance regarding observers, handles and tableView cell interaction.
While you can go through those gyrations, it's not really needed in most use cases.
For example, if you add and observer to a node, there wouldn't necessarily be a someRef? variable hanging around. So here we are watching the Posts node for new posts
let postsRef = self.ref.child("Posts")
postsRef.observe(.childAdded, with: { snapshot in
print(snapshot) //add the post to the dataSource and reloadTableview/cell
})
Here's another example of watching for any posts that are changed by uid_2
let postsRef = self.ref.child("Posts")
let queryRef = postsRef.queryOrdered(byChild: "poster_id").queryEqual(toValue: "uid_2")
queryRef.observe(.childChanged) { (snapshot) in
print(snapshot) //change the post in the dataSource and reloadTableview/cell
}
No class vars are needed for this functionality and nothing needs be nil'd. The point here being that you do not have to have class vars to get observing functionality and you do not need to keep a handle for every observer (keep reading)
In view controllers, it's essential that you call this
(someRef?.removeAllObservers()) in viewWillDisappear (or Did)..
will use Firebase in the cells of tables.
To clarify; I wouldn't want to put Firebase observers in the cells of tables. The observers should be in whichever viewController controls the tableView that has cells. Cells should pull data from the dataSource array (which is backed by Firebase)
There are some circumstances where you may want to remove all observers, again no need to have a class var or a need to nil a var.
let postsRef = self.ref.child("Posts")
postsRef.removeAllObservers()
There are times when a specific observer needs to be removed (in the case where a node has observers on it's child nodes for example), and in those cases, we store a handle to that observer as say, a class var (keeping them in an array is a tidy way to do it)
class ViewController: UIViewController {
var myPostHandle : DatabaseHandle?
func addObserver() {
let postsRef = self.ref.child("Posts")
self.myPostHandle = postsRef.observe(.childAdded, with: { snapshot in
print(snapshot)
})
func stopObserving() {
if self.myPostHandle != nil {
let postsRef = self.ref.child("Posts")
postsRef.removeObserver(withHandle: self.myPostHandle) //remove only the .childAdded observer
}
}
}
Again though, once the observer is removed, the handle would go out of scope once the class closes.
Tableviews that contain cells are backed by a dataSource and that dataSource get's it's data from firebase. When something is added, changed or removed from Firebase, your app is notified and the array is updated and then the cell refreshed. No need for an observer in the cell itself.
There's no need to add dozens of observers (in the cells) - add one central observer and let it keep the array current. Refresh tableView only when something changes.
EDIT
To Address a comment regarding the use of removeAllObservers: code is worth 1000 words:
Create a new Firebase project with two button actions. Here's the code for button0 which adds an observer to a node:
func button0() {
let testRef = self.ref.child("test_node")
testRef.observe( .value) { snapshot in
print(snapshot)
}
}
when this button0 is clicked, from there on, any adds, changes, or deletes to the test node will print it's contents to the log.
func button1() {
let testRef = self.ref.child("test_node")
testRef.removeAllObservers()
}
This will remove all observers for the node specified. Once clicked, no events will print to the console.
Try it!
It is not right to clear observations in cell and therefore there is not a best place to do it in cell, because, firstly, this approach contradicts MVC pattern. Views only responsible for displaying content and they should only contain code that describes how they must be draw. And in the view controller you give the content for showing by views. Usually content has provided by your model. So controller connects views and model. In your case, when you place clearObservations() in cell class, you also have someRef as a class property, so you have a model in your view class and this is incorrect.
Secondly, if you try to clear observations in table cell you definitely make logic of showing some content in table in wrong way. Cell only show data that has to be generated by some object that conforms to UITableViewDataSource protocol and implements protocol methods. For instance, in cellForRow method you generate cell and setup it with some content from array. This array is generated from model (Firebase service). Your view controller may be this data source object. You have to include array property to controller class and someRef, than you fill array and reload table data. If controller's view disappeared you clear observations, but you do it only inside view controller (in viewWillDisappear()).
Overall, all manipulations with someRef you should do in view controller and therefore "clear observations" also inside controller.
I have created a struct and made an array of that type. The struct consists of two variable:
struct notesarray
{
var prioritycolor : UIColor
var note : String
}
In my secondVC which houses a collectionViewController, I have made an array of type notesarray. I am sending values for prioritycolor and note from firstVC.
I will be setting up CoreData later on, for now I just want this to work in simplest of manners. I am appending data from firstVC to this array like so:
#objc func handleCheckButton()
{
print("Added")
let secondVC = AddedNotesCollectionViewController()
secondVC.allnotes.append(notesarray(prioritycolor: taskTextView.backgroundColor!, note: taskTextView.text))
print(secondVC.allnotes.count)
taskTextView.text = nil
}
allnotes is the name of the array found in secondVC.
For testing purposes I am printing secondVC.allnotes.count but I am just getting '1' in console no matter how many time I add elements to the array.
I have also tested this by placing print(allnotes.count) under viewDidAppear func in secondVC so that whenever I go to secondVC it gives me count of the elements in the array but it also shows '0' every time.
I don't know what I am doing wrong here. Please help me!
Thats because you end up getting a new instance of AddedNotesCollectionViewController every time you press the button.
let secondVC = AddedNotesCollectionViewController()
And new instance is initiated with an empty array and you add one element to it by calling
secondVC.allnotes.append(notesarray(prioritycolor: taskTextView.backgroundColor!, note: taskTextView.text))
Hence count is always one. iOS is correct there my friend :)
What you need:
If second VC is already loaded either by pushing a it on to navigation stack of FirstVC or if its presented then get the reference to the presented/pushed VC rather than creating a new one every time. There are many answers in SO which explains how to access the pushed/modally presented VC :)
If you are about to present/push the SecondVC, as you mentioned in the comments you can always make use of prepareForSegue to pass the data.
If in case your AddedNotesCollectionViewController is never presented then rather consider creating singleton instance of notesArray which you will share between multiple VCs.
Hope it helps
When I go to a viewController I call within my viewDidAppear Method a function:
override func viewDidAppear(animated: Bool) {
getLessons()
}
This methods loads from parse.com a list of data I want to use in a pickerView.
The function itself:
func getLessons(){
var query = PFQuery(className:"Lesson")
query.orderByAscending("name")
query.findObjectsInBackgroundWithBlock {
(objects: [AnyObject]!, error: NSError!) -> Void in
if error == nil {
for object in objects {
var name = object["name"] as String
self.languagePickerKeys.append(object.objectId)
self.languagePickerValues.append(name)
self.selectedLanguage.text = self.languagePickerValues.first // set the first lessons name into the text field
self.selectedLessonObjectId = self.languagePickerKeys.first // set the first objectId for the lesson
self.languagePicker?.reloadAllComponents()
}
} else {
// Log details of the failure
println("\(error.userInfo)")
}
}
println("getLessons done")
}
The thing is, that the textfield is empty, as the getLesson() gets the data async and the data is not available to the textfield.
I also tried to put the getLesson into the viewDidAppear method, but this doesn't help me, the textfield is empty anyway.
What can I do, to have the data from the getLessons() method ready and loaded its first value into my textfield when the view is shown to the user?
You certainly have to get the data from asyncTask before setting it to pickerView.
Here's the ViewController lifecycle after instantiation:
Preparation if being segued to.
Outlet setting
Appearing and Disappearing.
So, you have two options:
Load the data in previous ViewController and then perform the segue. You need to follow these steps for it.
a. Create a segue from previous ViewController to your ViewController.
b. Call the function when you want to go next ViewController which fetches the data, and the end (after getting the data) call performSegueWithIdentifier which will lead to your ViewController.
c. Set the data in prepareForSegue
let navigationController = segue.destinationViewController as UINavigationController
navigationController.data = yourData //you got from async call
Now when you reach your ViewController, you are sure that your data is present, and you can set it to your pickerView.
If you want to do it in the same ViewController: here's is the lifeCycle of ViewController:so you need to call your function in viewDidLoad, and always set your pickerView after completion of the async network call.
Make sure that you initiate all changes to the UI from the main thread e.g. like so:
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), {
selectedLanguage.text = languagePickerValues.first
self.languagePicker?.reloadAllComponents()
})
The problem is that findObjectsInBackgroundWithBlock is an asynchronous method, so even if you fire it in the ViewDidLoad you will never know when you will receive the response data and you can't be sure that the data will be ready by the time you view appear.
I think you have just 2 possibility:
The first one is to load the data in the previous view controller and then just pass the data that got ready to you view controller.
The second is to use a synchronous method (the findobject method maybe?) and put the call in a method that is fired BEFORE the view appear (like the viewWillAppear: method). But your view will stuck for a moment (I think) while the data is retreiving... However this second solution probably resolve your problem but using synchronous method to retrieve data from a slower data source is usually bad design solution.
D.