Protocol being called in two different classes at same time - ios

Question

I am a little new to iOS development, coming from a Java / Android background. My understanding is that your custom Protocols or Delegates are like Interfaces in Java land.
If that is the case then I believe these Protocols are also Objects as well.
Case:
Assume 2 ViewControllers, Home and Profile.
1 Presenter, let's call it StuffPresenter gets instantiated individually in both ViewControllers.
StuffPresenter has an initialization method called initWithInteractor that takes in a parameter of Interactor which is a protocol.
Both Home and Profile implement a Protocol called Interactor, which has a method called initStuffInTableView(NSMutableArray *)stuff.
So I have a dilemma where if I am in Home and StuffPresenter relays information then I switch over to Profile, StuffPresenter loads stuff in Home as well as Profile.
Why is this the case?
Here is the code I have setup:
Protocol
#protocol Interactor <NSObject>
- (void)initStuffInTableView:(NSMutableArray *)stuff;
#end
Presenter
#interface Presenter : NSobject
- (id)initWithInteractor:(id<Interactor>)interactor;
- (void)loadStuff;
#end
#implementation {
#private
id<Interactor> _interactor;
}
- (id)initWithInteractor:(id<Interactor>)interactor {
_interactor = interactor;
return self;
}
- (void)loadStuff {
// Load stuff
NSMutableArray *stuff = // Init stuff in array...
[_interactor initStuffInTableView:stuff];
}
#end
Home
#interface HomeViewController : UITableViewController <Interactor>
- (void)initPresenter;
#end
#implementation {
#private
StuffPresenter *_stuffPresenter;
}
- (void)viewDidLoad {
[super viewDidLoad];
[self initPresenter];
[self initPullToRefresh];
}
# pragma mark - init
- (void)initPresenter {
_stuffPresenter = [[StuffPresenter alloc] initWithInteractor:self];
}
- (void)initPullToRefresh {
// Init pull to refresh
// ...
[self.refreshControl addTarget:self
action:#selector(reloadStuff)
forControlEvents:UIControlEventValueChanged];
}
# pragma mark - Interactor
- (void)initStuffInTableView:(NSMutableArray *)stuff {
// Do some work
[self.tableView reloadData];
}
# pragma mark - reloadStuff
- (void)reloadStuff {
[_stuffPresenter loadStuff];
}
# pragma mark - TableView methods here
// TableView methods...
#end
Profile
#interface ProfileViewController : UITableViewController <Interactor>
- (void)initPresenter;
#end
#implementation {
#private
StuffPresenter *_stuffPresenter;
}
- (void)viewDidLoad {
[super viewDidLoad];
[self initPresenter];
}
# pragma mark - init
- (void)initPresenter {
_stuffPresenter = [[StuffPresenter alloc] initWithInteractor:self];
[_stuffPresenter loadStuff];
}
# pragma mark - Interactor
- (void)initStuffInTableView:(NSMutableArray *)stuff {
// Do some work
[self.tableView reloadData];
}
# pragma mark - TableView methods here
// TableView methods...
#end
Problem:
When I go to Profile the app crashes, because initStuffInTableView is being called in Home. Why is this the case?

Answer 1

A protocol is an Objective-C language feature for specifying that a Class (or another protocol) has certain features, for the benefit of the compiler/ARC/the programmer.
A delegate, or delegation, is a design pattern which makes Model View Controller easier. To make the object doing the delegation be more flexible, generally its delegate adopts a protocol.
There are a number of issues in your code:
Your Presenter has a reference cycle with its interactors
You need to call some init method that eventually calls [super init] in your Presenter's initWithInteractor: method.
As others have pointed out, your methods which begin with init violate Objective-C conventions.
It's hard to tell from what you've posted exactly what your problem is, but I'm very suspicious of how it's structured.
You have a single class (Presenter), which you make two instances of, and pass no parameters other than the Interactor.
How could each instance know to load different "stuff" based on which View controller it received as a parameter?

Answer 2

I still want to understand thoroughly what is going on here, but I did solve the problem by doing the following.
In both Home and Profile, I init the StuffPresenter here:
- (void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated {
[super viewWillAppear:animation];
[self initPresenter];
}
And when exiting a controllerview I do the following:
- (void)viewWillDisappear:(BOOL)animated {
[super viewWillDisappear:animated];
_stuffPresenter = nil;
}