Get topmost view controller in stack without looping through - ios

I can't loop through my view controllers because I need to only call one method if the current view controller is one in particular. If I loop through, then all methods will get called. I've been using this code:
if let viewControllers = navigationController?.viewControllers {
for viewController in viewControllers {
// some process
if viewController.isKindOfClass(MyViewController) {
println("\(viewController) yes it is")
} else {
self.navigationController?.popViewControllerAnimated(true)
}
}
}
Essentially, I don't want to popViewControllerAnimated if the current view is on a particular view controller. However because of the loop, it's getting called anyway. How can I just return the current view controller without making this loop?

You can get first and last with following Obj-C methods:
[self.navigationController.viewControllers lastObject];
[self.navigationController.viewControllers firstObject];
the methods are not available in Swift but easily doable by extending Array so that you can reuse it in the project.
extension Array {
var lastObject: T {
return self[self.endIndex - 1]
}
}

So since I needed to see if the current, or top most view controller matched a particular view controller, I converted self.navigationController?.visibleViewController to a string and checked if .rangeofString() contained the name of the view controller I was looking for. Worked great.
Update: Although this method worked for me, #Gandalf's suggestion below is probably a much safer bet. That works for me too.

Related

How to pass data between views. When should I use what?

I have a View-Hierarchy like this:
UIViewController (SingleEventViewController)
UIScrollView (EventScrollView)
UIView (contentView)
3xUITableView (SurePeopleTV, MaybePeopleTV, NopePeopleTV (all inherited from the same UITableView)), & all other UI-Elements
The SingleEventViewController stores one Event (passed within the initializer). (All Events are stored in Core-Data).
The three UITableViews are there for displaying the users which are participating (or not or maybe) at the Event. My question is, what are the possibilities to fill the tableViews with the data and what would you recommend in which situation.
Currently I have a property parentVC: SingleEventViewController in all Subviews and get the data like this:
override func loadUsers() {
//class SurePeopleTV
guard let parentController = parentVC else { return }
users = (parentController.thisEvent.eventSureParticipants?.allObjects as! [User])
finishedLoading = true
super.loadUsers()
}
.
func applyDefaultValues() {
//class EventScrollView
guard let parent = parentVC else { return }
titleLabel.text = parent.eventName
}
I'm new to programming but I got a feeling that I should not create a parentVC reference in all of my classes.
An object should not (ideally) know about its parent - if it does they are "tightly coupled". If you change the object's parent, your code may break. In your case, your parent object must have a thisEvent property.
You want your objects to be "loosely coupled", so the object doesn't know about a specific parent object.
In Swift, the usual ways to pass information "back up the chain" is to use the delegate design pattern… https://developer.apple.com/documentation/swift/cocoa_design_patterns or to use closures.
See also https://www.andrewcbancroft.com/2015/04/08/how-delegation-works-a-swift-developer-guide/ for info on delegation
First of all, if you create a reference to the parent ViewController make sure it is weak, otherwise you can run into memory management issues.
Edit: As Ashley Mills said, delegates the way to handle this
The recommended way to pass data between ViewControllers is using something like this
Every time a segue is performed from the view controller this function is in this function is called. This code first checks what identifier the segue has, and if it is the one that you want, you can access a reference to the next view controller and pass data to it.

Detect that from which Page I come to the current Page

I want to know how to do this:
I have 3 view controllers and the first and second view controller are connected to the third one !
I want to know how can I write a code that detect from which one I came to this view controller
I have searched here for my answer But all of the similar questions asked about navigation !!!
The Important thing is that I don't have navigation in my app!!
I don't know if my answer will help you in your specific case, but here is the implementation I see from what you are asking. Maybe it will inspire you.
So imagine your are in your homePage or whatever viewController and you want to navigate throw other, but you want to know from which viewController you came from.
-(void)prepareForSegue:(UIStoryboardSegue *)segue sender:(id)sender
{
if ([segue.identifier isEqualToString:segue_VC1]) {
CustomViewController1* destinationVC = segue.destinationViewController;
destinationVC.fromSegue = #"I AM VC 1";
}
if ([segue.identifier isEqualToString:segue_VC2]) {
CustomViewController2* destinationVC = segue.destinationViewController;
destinationVC.fromSegue = #"I AM VC 2";
}
}
The more important thing you have to know is that you can access attribute from the destination view controller you will access with your segue.
I know this is in Obj C, but the implementation is still the same.
So that when you navigate from a ViewController to an other one, you can set the attribute of the destinationViewController.
Then when you are in the view controller you wanted to navigate you can check :
if ([_fromSegue isEqualToString: "I AM VC 1"])
// do specific stuff when you come from VC 1
else if ([_fromSegue isEqualToString: "I AM VC 2"])
// do specific stuff when you come from VC 2
else
// other case
There are many ways to do that like simply passing a view controller as a property to the new instance. But in your case it might make more sense to create a static variable which holds the stack of the view controllers the same way the navigation controller does that.
If you are doing this only between the UIViewController subclasses I suggest you to create another subclass of it form which all other view controllers inherit. Let us call it TrackedViewController.
class TrackedViewController : UIViewController {
static var currentViewController: TrackedViewController?
static var previousViewController: TrackedViewController?
override func viewWillAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
super.viewWillAppear(animated)
TrackedViewController.previousViewController = TrackedViewController.currentViewController
TrackedViewController.currentViewController = self
}
}
Now you need to change all the view controllers you want to track so that they all inherit from TrackedViewController as class MyViewController : TrackedViewController {. And that is pretty much it. Now at any point anywhere in your project you can find your current view controller via TrackedViewController.currentViewController and the previous view controller via TrackedViewController.previousViewController. So you can say something like:
if let myController = TrackedViewController.previousViewController as? MyViewController {
// Code here if the screen was reached from MyViewController instance
}
Now the way I did it was through the instance of the view controller which may have some side effects.
The biggest problem you may have is that the previous controller is being retained along with the current view controller. That means you may have 2 controllers in memory you do not need.
If you go from controller A to B to C and back to B then the previous view controller is C, not A. This might be desired result or not.
The system will ignore all other view controllers. So if you use one that is not a subclass of TrackedViewController the call will be ignored: A to B to UITableViewController to C will report that the C was presented by B even though there was another screen in between. Again this might be expected result.
So if the point 2 and 3 are good to you then you should only decide weather to fix the point 1. You may use weak to remove the retaining on the two properties but then you lose the information of the previous view controller if the controller is deallocated. So another choice is to use some identifiers:
class TrackedViewController : UIViewController {
static var currentViewControllerID: String?
static var previousViewControllerID: String?
override func viewWillAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
super.viewWillAppear(animated)
TrackedViewController.previousViewControllerID = TrackedViewController.currentViewControllerID
TrackedViewController.currentViewControllerID = self.screenIdentifier
}
var screenIdentifier: String {
return "Default Screen" // TODO: every view controller must override this method and have unique identifier
}
}
Also you may replace strings with some enumeration or something. Combining them with some associated values could then create quite a powerful tool.

How to pass data between Swift files without prepareForSegue?

I currently have three Swift files, one for the main view in a ViewController, and two more which are used for the two views within the first view, which are used for a Segmented Control.
As these don't use segues between each other, I can't use the prepareForSegue method to transfer data between them, so how do transfer the variables and such from one file to another?
This doesn't seem to be a duplicate as other cases such as the one commented are using segues, mine is not.
Are all three Swift classes view controller subclasses?
You have your main view controller with your segmented control. For each segmented, I would create a new view controller subclass.
On your main view controller, for each segment, use a 'Container View' instead of a UIView object.
This will create two new 'screens' in the storyboard, attached to your main view controller with a segue. These new screens will be UIViewControllers, you can change them to be your subclass's as normal.
You can now use your prepareForSegue function as normal to set data in your segmented control view controllers.
So you have something like viewControllerMain, which contains viewSegmentedOne and viewSegmentedTwo, and you want to be able to access `viewControllerMain.myProperty' ?
You can always navigate through the hierarchy to get parent views - but the easiest option could be to include a reference to viewControllerMain in each of the segmented controls
var myParentVC : ViewControllerMain?
then when you create the subviews
mySubView.myParentVC = self
If you are using storyboard for view controllers, then try like this:
let viewController = UIStoryboard(name: "Main", bundle: nil).instantiateViewController(withIdentifier: "Your_VC_Identifier");
viewController.Your_var = Your_value_to_assign
NOTE: Define Your_var in your ViewController class
You just need to create an instance of the view controller you want to display, this is easy such as calling on the storyboard instance (usually the presenting view controller has one) instantiateViewController(withIdentifier:), by using an identifier that you provide in the storyboard file.
One created you can pass the data you want by casting it to your view controller class and present it as you prefer.
One method would be using singleton class . https://cocoacasts.com/what-is-a-singleton-and-how-to-create-one-in-swift/ this is how you can make singleton class.
other method could be using nsuserdefaults.
You need to decide which approach is best according to your requirement.
try this:
let defaults = UserDefaults.standard()
defaults.set(yourdata, forKey: "someObject")
print(defaults.object(forKey: "someObject"))
You can try use Extensions for UIViewController
private var storedDataKey: UInt8 = 0
extension UIViewController {
var storedViewControllerData: UIViewController? {
get {
return objc_getAssociatedObject(self, &storedDataKey) as? UIViewController
}
set(newValue) {
objc_setAssociatedObject(self, &storedDataKey, newValue, objc_AssociationPolicy.OBJC_ASSOCIATION_ASSIGN)
}
}
}
This very useful you can send data with chain like:
viewControllerB.storedViewControllerData = viewControllerA.storedViewControllerData
or
func viewDidLoad() {
doSomething(self.storedViewControllerData)
}

Detecting that back was pressed to get to current view controller

I am using the navigation controller to go back from one view to previous view using the code below.
ChildViewController.swift:
self.navigationController.popViewControllerAnimated(true)
I need a way to detect that the navigation controller went to the previous view in the actual previous view like below.
ParentViewController.swift:
func backWasPressed(viewControllerIdentifier: String!) {
// if back was pressed from this view controller and not from any other view
if viewControllerIdentifier == "ChildViewController" {
// do stuff here
}
}
Is there anyway to do this?
Take a look at UINavigationControllerDelegate
You don't need to know this. You may think you do, but you don't. This entire proposed architecture is specious:
func backWasPressed(viewControllerIdentifier: String!) {
// if back was pressed from this view controller and not from any other view
if viewControllerIdentifier == "ChildViewController" {
// do stuff here
}
}
If a pushed view controller has some info to communicate to a view controller further down the stack, that is the job of the pushed view controller when it is popped. It knows it is being popped, and it knows how to access the other view controller (and you can use a delegate architecture if there's any doubt about that), so the problem is properly solved in that way. It's exactly the same as when a presented view controller needs to communicate back to its presenter at dismissal time.

How do I refer to the title of a view controller from an embedded container view's view?

I have a UIViewController (let's call it "EditViewController") which has a Container View on it (call it "ContainerView") where I switch in and out various subviews (call the one I'm most concerned with "EditDetailsView").
From the EditDetailsView I need to change the title in the navigation bar of the EditViewController. I can't seem to be able to figure out how to reference it.
From inside EditViewController I can simply make a statement like:
self.title = #"Some new title";
and it changes just fine.
But from the EditDetailsView view that is currently the subview of ContainerView nothing seems to work:
self.title = ... is obviously wrong.
super.title = ... doesn't work and seems wrong anyway.
super.super.title = ... errors out as super is not a property found on UIViewController.
Can someone please tell me how to reference the title? I'm kinda lost.
Thanks!
While digging through the parentViewController chain is possible, it is error prone and unrecommended. It is considered a bad design. Imagine you set up your view controller hierarchy in some manner, but after a few months change it a bit and now there is one level deeper. Or, you would like to use the same view controller in several different scenarios. A much better design would be to pass the new title to the container view controller using delegation. Create a delegate protocol, with a method for setting the title.
- (void)childViewController:(ChildViewController*)cvc didChangeToTitle:(NSString*)title;
I know this is an old thread, but in case someone else needs it: to avoid boilerplate code with delegation, and avoid digging into the parentViewController, I did it the other way around.
I've referenced the child view controller from the parent and got their title. So no matter which child you show, you will always get the right title.
This is in Swift 3.
So, basically, this is your parent:
class EditViewController: UIViewController {
override func viewDidLoad() {
if let child = self.childViewControllers.first {
self.title = child.title
}
}
}
And this is your child:
class ContainerView: UIViewController {
override func viewDidLoad() {
self.title = "Sbrubbles"
}
}
Another good way to avoid excess code with delegation is to use RxSwift, if you are familiar to Reactive programming.

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