Loading UITableViewController Programmatically Without Storyboards - ios

Question

I am trying to launch a UITableViewController as a RootController from AppDelegate without using Storyboards.
Here is my TasksTableViewController:
class TasksTableViewController: UITableViewController {
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
}
override init(nibName nibNameOrNil: String?, bundle nibBundleOrNil: NSBundle?) {
super.init(nibName: nibNameOrNil, bundle: nibBundleOrNil)
}
required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
super.init(coder: aDecoder)
}
The nib file is called TasksTableViewController. The view property of the TasksTableViewController is hooked up to a UITableView control on the nib.
The AppDelegate looks like this:
func application(application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [NSObject: AnyObject]?) -> Bool {
window = UIWindow(frame: UIScreen.mainScreen().bounds)
let controller = TasksTableViewController(nibName: "TasksTableViewController", bundle: nil)
window?.rootViewController = controller
window?.makeKeyAndVisible()
return true
}
All I see is a black screen. There is no data binding to the UITableView control but I was hoping to see an empty uiTableview control and not the black screen. What am I doing wrong?
UPDATE:
Here is the code that got it working:
#UIApplicationMain
class AppDelegate: UIResponder, UIApplicationDelegate {
var window: UIWindow?
func application(application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [NSObject: AnyObject]?) -> Bool {
self.window = UIWindow(frame: UIScreen.mainScreen().bounds)
let controller = TasksTableViewController(nibName: "TasksTableViewController", bundle: nil)
if let window = self.window {
window.backgroundColor = UIColor.blueColor()
window.rootViewController = controller
window.makeKeyAndVisible()
}
return true
}

Answer 1

Try something of this sort:
func application(application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [NSObject: AnyObject]?) -> Bool {
let controller = TasksTableViewController(nibName: "TasksTableViewController", bundle: nil)
if let window = self.window{
window.rootViewController = controller
}
}
Put in break points to confirm that it was created properly before adding it to the window. Also, there isn't a reason to instantiate a new window upon launch so don't do that.. At this point double check that the VC is in fact displayed by putting a breakpoint in viewDidAppear. Consider making TasksTableViewController a subclass of UIViewController that has a tableview inside it as this is common practice. Subclassing UITableView is usually not recommended nor is using it as a ViewController. If you laid out a custom tableview in a xib that you want to use, you can instantiate one in view did load or init on the root view controller, add it as a subview, and set the frame to cover up the entire screen. I highly recommend this approach.