I was trying to create a UIAlertController on ViewWillAppear, it was giving me the below warning.
"Warning: Attempt to present <UIAlertController: 0x7f8798c15df0> on <ViewController: 0x7f8798f81450> whose view is not in the window hierarchy!".
My Understanding it is ready to show the view to the user in ViewWillAppear, but fairly expensive.
However when i moved the same UIAlertController code to ViewDidAppear it was showing the Alert Msg.
Can you please clarify whey the alert msg is not getting show in ViewWillAppear.
UIAlertController is unlike the typical UIAlertView, which inherited from UIView. Adding a UIView in viewDidLoad, appear, etc. is no problem because you are adding it that view controller's view hierarchy.
Now, with UIAlertController, it's a first class view controller. This means that you should present it the same way you would other view controllers - all the same rules apply.
In viewWillAppear, the view controller isn't done being added to the window's hierarchy, so it's a poor choice to present the alert controller. As you found, viewDidAppear is the way to go here.
viewWillAppear: is not a good location to present another view controller since the current one being presented is not yet in the window hierarchy and is also in a transition animation. You should either use viewDidAppear: or add a slight delay before displaying the alert controller.
Most answers on here cover the topic pretty well, I just wanted to add additional details. It typically is not problematic to add child view controllers in viewWillAppear: or even viewDidLoad:. In fact if you use a container view controller in IB then it will be integrated before either of these are called.
The problem is more so to do specifically with the alert controller. Alert controllers function on a different window hierarchy than your typical UI (think Z axis) and manipulate the UI in a more intensive way than a standard container (since it is not a container).
In order for the alert to properly present it must happen after the current view is displayed (there could be a number of reasons here). This is why presenting it in viewDidAppear: worked (since the current vc's view will be fully live).
The same error may occur if parameters of UIAlertController are nil, such as title, message
Related
If I have multiple view controllers being presented and dismissed in any order, can I be sure that iOS calls viewWillAppear methods in the right order (i.e. order of appearance)?
I cannot find any specific information about this in the documentation.
I think this is all you need to know about viewWillAppear from the docs:
This method is called before the view controller's view is about to be added to a view hierarchy and before any animations are configured for showing the view. You can override this method to perform custom tasks associated with displaying the view. For example, you might use this method to change the orientation or style of the status bar to coordinate with the orientation or style of the view being presented. If you override this method, you must call super at some point in your implementation.
Only thing that comes to mind that might not be absolutely clear is that this callback is called on the presenting view controller when presented view controller is going to be dismissed (so presenting view controller is going to appear again).
Therefore if A is a root, A.viewWillAppear will be called before it will appear on the screen. Then, if A presents B, just before B becomes visible, B.viewWillAppear will be called. And when B is being dismissed, A.viewWillAppear will get called again, since its view will appear again.
viewWillAppear() is called the first time the view is displayed and it is also called when the view is displayed again, so it can be called multiple times during the life of the view controller object.
It’s called when the view is about to appear as a result of the user tapping the back button, closing dialog, or when the view controller’s tab is selected in a tab bar controller, or a variety of other reasons. Make sure to call super.viewWillAppear() at some point in the implementation
Summary of question
UINavigationControllerDelegate:didShowViewContoller makes it possible to get notified whenever any view controller has been displayed (as opposed to being loaded), provided its within the context of a navigation stack.
I want to know if such observation is possible for all view controllers if there isn't a navigation stack.
More background
I have an app where view controllers can suddenly appear based upon timers and local notifications firing, thus their appearance is effectively random.
If one VC triggers and gets displayed at the same time as another was in the process of getting displayed then there can be an issue (if you're experienced with iOS you'll be aware if one VC pushes another from within its viewDidLoad, rather than its viewDidAppear you will get an "attempting to present X on Y whose view is not in the window hierarchy" error)
How I solve this is I have a list of VCs to display and they get displayed by a view controller co-ordinator which implements UINavigationControllerDelegate's didShowViewContoller and doesn't display the new VC until didShowViewController has been invoked.
This works perfectly.
But now my problem is I want to do a similar thing for an app that isn't using a navigation controller, and thus I can't use UINavigationControllerDelegate:didShowViewController to observe globally when a view controller has been displayed. Does anybody know of another elegant mechanism for doing so?
in the viewDidLoad method i have this code.
When the application is running its not go to the another viewController, its gives me an error:
Warning: Attempt to present <CompleteCountryViewController: 0x7fb971779be0> on <ViewController: 0x7fb97176f3e0> whose view is not in the window hierarchy!
What can i do, that when the application running its will go to another viewController?
You should not present a view controller in the viewDidLoad method of another controller because you cannot show a view controller (present modally or push) when a transition is already occurring (push, pop, present, dismiss).
My suggestion is that you move the code in your code sample to the viewDidAppear: method. At this point, you know for sure that the transition has completed.
You seem to have a slight misunderstanding of the lifecycle of UIViewController if you want to modally present a view controller inside the viewDidLoad of another one.
viewDidLoad gets called in one view controller after it has been instantiated and its view components have been loaded (thus the name). The view of that view controller is about to be displayed, so it doesn't make much sense to instantiate another view controller at this point and present it on the first one.
Let me give you an example with two view controller A and B.
You instantiate A and its viewDidLoad gets called. So, A is about to be displayed! What you are doing in your code now is to instantiate B at this very point and show it on A. iOS doesn't like that and will give you your error.
I had an issue where I was attempting to present a modal view controller within the viewDidLoad method. The solution for me was to move this call to the viewDidAppear: method.
View controller's view is not in the window's view hierarchy at the point that it has been loaded (when the viewDidLoad message is sent), but it is in the window hierarchy after it has been presented (when the viewDidAppear: message is sent).
I have a custom container view controller: ContainerVC. Its job is to present one of two content view controllers: ContentPortraitVC or ContentLandscapeVC, depending on the current orientation (though it doesn't matter why the container chooses its view, I presume). ContentPortraitVC, at some point pops up ContentModalDetailVC.
So there are two different methods of displaying new content at work here:
the parent-and-child relationship (instigated via addChildViewController and removed via removeFromParentViewController),
the presenting-and-presented relationship (instigated via presentViewController and removed via dismissViewController).
If the ContainerVC adds the ContentPortraitVC, which then presents the ContentModalDetailVC, and then the ContainerVC decides to switch to the ContentLandscapeVC, the ContentModalDetailVC stays visible (why is it not removed when its parent is removed?)
But then, when the ContentPortraitVC is asked to remove the ContentModalDetailVC, nothing happens. The modal display stays put. What is going on?
When you use addChildViewController to add the ContentPortraitVC:
a. The ContentPortraitVC gets its parentViewController property set.
b. You then (as per the Apple documentation) have to manually display the ContentPortraitVC's view. If you follow the documentation you do this by adding it as a child of the ControllerVC's top level view.
The ContentPortraitVC then calls presentViewController to display ContentModalDetailVC.
a. This sets its presentingViewController property (in the debugger this is shown as the _parentModalViewController ivar -- note the ivar is different from the property), and sets the presentedModalViewController property of the ContentPortraitVC (who's ivar is _childModalViewcontroller).
b. Views wise, on iPhone, the ContentModalDetailVC's view will completely replace the views from ContentPortraitVC and ContainerVC, so only the modal view controller's view will be visible. (on iPad, it layers the new UI over the top, but as a sibling of the ControllerVC's view, which in turn is the parent of ContentPortraitVC's view).
So now, you transition from ContentPortraitVC to ContentLandscapeVC.
a. IOS does a bit of magic. It knows that the thing you are removing (ContentPortraitVC) has a presentedViewController currently active, so it changes its parent. It sets the value to nil on ContentPortraitVC, takes the child (the ContentModalDetailVC) and sets its parent to the new view (ContentLandscapeVC). So now the view controller that presented the modal view is no longer its presenting view controller. It is as if ContentLandscapeVC presented it in the first place!
b. In terms of views, you follow the Apple docs to change over the view from ContentPortraitVC to ContentLandscapeVC. But you are simply changing the subviews of ControllerVC's view. On iPhone, the modal view controller is still the only thing being displayed, so making the change doesn't do anything on screen. On iPad, it does (though you probably won't see it, as the modal view is usually full screen).
Now you come to dismiss the modal view. Presumably you do this in ContentPortraitVC, but it no longer has any reference to the thing it presented. So calling [self dismissViewController... does nothing, because ContentPortraitVC is no longer presenting anything, responsibility for that has been passed on to ContentLandscapeVC.
So that's what happens and why. Here's what to do about it.
You can rewire the delegate manually when you change from ContentPortraitVC to ContentLandscapeVC, so the latter is the one that tries to dismiss the modal controller.
You can have the modal controller dismiss itself with [self dismissModalControllerAnimated:YES completion:nil]. I'm going to ask and answer another question on why that works (how does IOS know which to dismiss?), if that seems strange.
You can have the ControllerVC be the one that pops up the modal view and be responsible for removing it.
If you inspect presentingViewController on ContentModalDetailVC, you will see that it is actually presented by ContainerVC and not ContentPortraitVC.
To fix this, you just need to set definesPresentationContext (or use the "Defines Context" checkbox in Interface Builder) on ContentPortraitVC.
This will tell ContentPortraitVC to handle the modal presentation instead of passing up the responder chain to the next view controller that defines presentation context (your root view controller by default).
You will probably want ContentLandscapeVC to define context as well to avoid the same issue.
With both child controllers defining their own presentation context, when ContainerVC decides to swap children, any modal modal will be removed from the new hierarchy along with the child that presented it. No need to do hacky things to try to dismiss before swapping :)
Edit: I should add that the view controller being presented must have its modalPresentationStyle Set to either currentContext or overCurrentContext,
I have an iPad app with a UISplitviewController set as the root view controller of UIWindow. The master view controller (i.e. the view controller of the left view) is the UISplitViewController's delegate with the delegate method shouldHideViewController returns YES, this means when the app first launches the left view will be hidden and can be shown (and hidden) by the user gesture, i want to show the master view when i navigate to detail pages and prevent the user from hiding it using the gesture, i've tried to call shouldHideViewController method on the delegate to let it returns NO the second time it got called but this time it has no effect, the master view keeps hidden in detail pages and can be shown with the user gesture.
any ideas to achieve showing of the master view with this scenario would be highly appreciated.
This may only be a partial answer because I'm not sure what you mean that you call shouldHideViewController method on the delegate. My understanding is that only the UISplitView should call this method. If you call it, then it will not effect the UISplitView, because it wasn't what made the call. In other words, the delegate method is used by UISplitView to get some information (and allow you a place to do additional things to other stuff) but it is not used as a way to tell the UISplitView what to perform.
Having said that, at least for the gesture activation/deactivation, I would think that in splitViewController:shouldHideViewController:inOrientation: you could do something like
[svc setPresentsWithGesture:NO];
I don't see any way to programmatically tell the UISplitViewController to display or hide the master view controller because the delegate only tells it if it should proceed in presenting or hiding the master when it is going to try and do that. It does seem like there should be a way to do this though.