TableViewController not receiving touches - ios

Question

NOTE: I originally asked this question wondering why didSelectRowAtIndex was not getting called. Digging into it further, I've realized that my core problem is really with one of my views not receiving touch events. I am going to leave this question here for posterity and ask a more clarified version of it. If an admin would like to close or delete this question as appropriate, please go ahead and do so.
I am implementing a sidebar in my app (like a hamburger menu) and I'm using a UITableViewController to do it. I can get the sidebar to show up and cells are initializing correctly.
My code is pretty simple, I am including all of it here. Right now I just have a view controller for the main screen and a table view controller for the sidebar. Any help is appreciated!
Update: it looks like the problem is not that didSelectRowAtIndexPath is not being called -- it's that my SimpleTableViewController is not receiving any touches at all! I tried overriding 'touchesBegan:withEvent:' in both the ViewController and the SimpleTableViewController: the ViewController receives touches just fine, but the table view controller appears to receive nothing.
Further update: I've realized that the issue has to do with how I am doing the animation to reveal the tableview on the right hand side of the screen. Right now I am "pushing" the main application view to the left, which "pulls" the containerView along with it. When I do that, no touches go to the containerView when I tap on it.
However! If I "pull" the containerView on top of the main view, touches are received just fine. Maybe I am missing something elementary here regarding what iOS considers to be the "active" part of the screen where touches are legal?
Code here:
Before -- BROKEN
#IBAction func push() {
// containerView is "pulled" alongside self.view
UIView.animateWithDuration(3.0) {
self.view.frame = CGRectMake(self.originalX - 250, self.originalY, self.view.frame.width, self.view.frame.height)
}
}
Here is a gif showing what the app looks like when touches don't work.
After -- WORKS
#IBAction func push() {
// containerView is "pulled" on top of self.view
UIView.animateWithDuration(3.0) {
self.containerView.frame = CGRectMake(self.originalX - 250, self.originalY, 250, self.frameHeight)
}
}
Here is a gif showing what the app looks like when touches do work. I added some code to change the background color of the main view to illustrate that touches are being received.
Code follows - I previously had my entire implementation here but I've redacted it to include only the relevant parts.
First the main view controller:
import UIKit
class ViewController: UIViewController, SimpleTableViewControllerDelegate {
var x = UIView()
var y = UIView()
var containerView = UIView()
let animationDuration = 1.5;
let delayTime = 0.25;
let animationTime = 0.25;
var tableViewController = SimpleTableViewController()
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
originalX = self.view.frame.origin.x
originalY = self.view.frame.origin.y
frameHeight = self.view.frame.height
frameWidth = self.view.frame.width
containerView.frame = CGRectMake(frameWidth, originalY, 250, frameHeight)
containerView.backgroundColor = UIColor.magentaColor()
containerView.clipsToBounds = false
view.addSubview(containerView)
tableViewController.items = ["Lemon", "Lime", "Agave"]
tableViewController.delegate = self
tableViewController.tableView.dataSource = tableViewController
tableViewController.tableView.delegate = tableViewController
tableViewController.tableView.frame = containerView.bounds
tableViewController.tableView.backgroundColor = UIColor.lightGrayColor()
tableViewController.tableView.scrollsToTop = false
tableViewController.tableView.separatorStyle = .None
tableViewController.tableView.contentInset = UIEdgeInsets(top: 64.0, left: 0, bottom: 0, right: 0)
tableViewController.tableView.reloadData()
addChildViewController(tableViewController)
containerView.addSubview(tableViewController.tableView)
tableViewController.didMoveToParentViewController(self)
}
func didSelectRowAtIndexPath(indexPath: NSIndexPath) {
NSLog("[ViewController] invoked didSelectRowAtIndexPath with \(indexPath.row)")
}
var originalX : CGFloat!
var originalY : CGFloat!
var frameHeight : CGFloat!
var frameWidth : CGFloat!
#IBAction func push() {
UIView.animateWithDuration(animationTime, delay: 0, options: .CurveLinear, animations: {
self.view.frame = CGRectMake(self.originalX - 250, self.originalY, self.view.frame.width, self.view.frame.height)
}, completion: { (var b) -> Void in
})
}
#IBAction func pull() {
UIView.animateWithDuration(animationTime, delay: 0, options: .CurveLinear, animations: {
self.view.frame = CGRectMake(self.originalX, self.originalY, self.view.frame.width, self.view.frame.height)
}, completion: { (var b) -> Void in
})
}
}
For what it's worth, if you'd like to see the whole app (it's just a learning app) you can go here: https://github.com/bitops/sagacious-quack

Answer 1

When you add another view controller's view to your view hierarchy, you have to let both parent and child know, so the parent can forward relevant messages to the child. This is explained in Apple's View Controller Programming Guide, in the "Implementing a Custom Container View Controller" section.
In your case, you need something like this:
[self addChildViewController:tableViewController];
containerView.addSubview(tableViewController.tableView)
[tableViewController didMoveToParentViewController:self];

Answer 2

In viewDidLoad() of ViewController:
//Add these two lines
tableViewController.tableView.dataSource = tableViewController
tableViewController.tableView.delegate = tableViewController
tableViewController.delegate = self
tableViewController.tableView.frame = containerView.bounds
tableViewController.tableView.backgroundColor = UIColor.lightGrayColor()
tableViewController.tableView.scrollsToTop = false
tableViewController.tableView.separatorStyle = .None
tableViewController.tableView.contentInset = UIEdgeInsets(top: 64.0, left: 0, bottom: 0, right: 0)
tableViewController.tableView.reloadData()