Swift - Access IBOutlet in other class - ios

I have a UIView with a TableView and a Button (Big Button). The TableView has a custom Cell. In this cell there is an "Add" button. I want to animate the first button when the user makes click on the Add button.
This is my schema:
This is my code:
class ProductsViewController: UIViewController, UITableViewDelegate, UITableViewDataSource {
#IBOutlet var tableView: UITableView!
#IBOutlet var bigButton: UIButton! <- I WANT TO ANIMATE THAT BUTTON
}
ProductCell class
class ProductCell: UITableViewCell {
#IBAction func addProduct(sender: AnyObject) {
//I WANT TO ACCESS THE BIG BUTTON FROM HERE
}
}
Screen example of my app
I've tried to get the parent controller or the superview to get the IBOutlet but the app is crashing allways

Add block properties to your cells which lets them notify your view controller when they have been clicked. In your view controller block code, you can then access the big button.
See my answer to a similar question. Simply replace the switch example with your button. So replace UISwitch with UIButton.
How can I get index path of cell on switch change event in section based table view
So rather than have the cell try and talk to another cell/button, have the cell notify the controller which can then manage the big button changes.

Although I made a comment about using alternate methods you could also employ a strategy below based on updates to a property stored in the current view controller class. You could just as well use property observation on the ProductsViewController but I assume you'd like to keep OOP focused and reduce the size of your controller.
Subclass the ViewController
One could subclass an existing UIViewController and then create a property in the super class that deals with the value that was changed (row tapped). In that subclass you could then do some animation. Because you would be subclassing you continue to obtain all the benefits and methods defined in your existing controller. In your identity inspector point your Class to the new subclass and create any functional updates to your UI using animation.
class ProductsViewController:... {
var inheritedProperty:UIView = targetView {
willSet {newValue } // is the newValue
didSet {oldValue} //is the old value
}
}
class AnimatedProductsViewController:ProductsViewController {
override var inheritedProperty:UIView {
//do something interesting if the property of super class changed
willSet {newValue } // is the newValue
didSet {oldValue} //is the old value
//you might want to call this method like so
// didSet { animate(newValue) }
}
func animate (view: UIView){
//do animation routine using UIView animation, UIDynamics, etc.
}
}
Property Observation
Whenever the didSelectCell... method is called just set a value to the inheritedProperty. Then add the property observers (see sample code) and react when the property changes (maybe pass a reference to the view you want to animate).
For example: Within the property observer you can just take that view and pass it to your animator function (whatever is going to do the animation). There are many examples on SO of how to animate a view so just search for (UIView animation, UIDynamics, etc).
The normal benefits of separation are encapsulation of functionality and reuse but Swift also guarantees that each set of property observers will fire independently. You'd have to give some more thought to this as to its applicability in this use case.

Do all this things in your viewController
Add target Method to cell's add button in cellForRowAtIndexPath Method
Like This
cell.add.addTarget(self, action: "addProduct:", forControlEvents: UIControlEvents.TouchUpInside)
Define method
func addProduct(button:UIButton)
{
// do button animation here
}

Related

UIStoryboardSegue animates property in subclass

I have a UIStoryboardSegue subclass for replacing current view controller with next view controller.
As we have a Animates property in interface editor, I want to access this property in the subclass.
My code is following:
class ReplaceSegue: UIStoryboardSegue {
override func perform() {
var viewControllers = source.navigationController?.viewControllers.dropLast() ?? []
viewControllers.append(destination)
source.navigationController?.setViewControllers(viewControllers.map {$0}, animated: true) // I dont want this `true` to be hardcoded
}
}
As per comments in UIStoryBoardSegue class
The segue runtime will call +[UIView setAnimationsAreEnabled:] prior
to invoking this method, based on the value of the Animates checkbox
in the Properties Inspector for the segue.
So obviously you can read the value of animate check box by using
UIView.areAnimationsEnabled
So in my custom segue
class MySegue: UIStoryboardSegue {
override func perform() {
debugPrint(UIView.areAnimationsEnabled)
}
}
This prints false if animate checkbox is unchecked or true if it is checked :)
So in your case
class ReplaceSegue: UIStoryboardSegue {
override func perform() {
var viewControllers = source.navigationController?.viewControllers.dropLast() ?? []
viewControllers.append(destination)
source.navigationController?.setViewControllers(viewControllers.map {$0}, animated: UIView.areAnimationsEnabled)
}
}
I hope whats happening is already clear, incase you still have doubt, here is the explanation, iOS checks the animates checkbox value and uses it to set whether animations are enabled or not by calling setAnimationsAreEnabled with the value of animates check box in interface prior to calling perform() method.
So when the control reaches inside perform you can be assured that iOS has already read the value of animates check box and used it to set setAnimationsAreEnabled all you have to do now is to ask areAnimationsEnabled to get the value of animates check box.
So that should provide you the value of animates checkbox :)
Hope it helps :)
You shouldn't need a UIStoryboardSegue subclass for this. The docs state "You can subclass UIStoryboardSegue in situations where you want to provide a custom transition between view controllers". This means that a replacement without without any animation isn't a custom transition, thus shouldn't use a segue subclass.
The correct way to do replacement is to use a Show Detail (e.g. Replace) segue and inside the parent view controller that is managing the child view controllers implement the method showDetailViewController and replace the children, e.g.
#implementation DetailNavigationController
- (void)showDetailViewController:(UIViewController *)vc sender:(id)sender{
[self setViewControllers:#[vc] animated:NO];
}
If you didn't know, the Show Detail segue (after magically instantiating the destination view controller) has a perform method that just calls showDetailViewController on self, and the base UIViewController implementation searches up the view controller hierarchy looking for one that overrides showDetailViewController, so you can intercept it and perform your custom code, before say it goes up to another parent that might implement it also like a split view.

UIView subclass access ViewController methods swift

In a couple of my projects I think I'm not created a great structure in many cases.
It could be a game where I've created a game board (think about chess) with a grid of 8 * 8 cells. Each cell has a gesture recognizer that relies on a subclass (cell.swift), with the game logic in a parent ViewController.
For arguments sake, let us say we want to display to the user which square they have touched.
I've found out how to do this from the subclassed UIView (obvs. create the alert in the subclassed UIView / cell.swift in this example)
UIApplication.shared.keyWindow?.rootViewController?.present(alertController, animated: true, completion: nil)
but it seems to break the structure of the app - but wouldn't it be the same accessing an action in the parent ViewController? What is the best way of approaching this>
Your rootViewController is the VC on the bottom of your stack. It's not a safe way to access the visible VC, and is rarely useful, in general (there are cases, but I doubt your app would find them useful).
What you likely want to use is a delegate pattern. Let's say the parent VC that displays your chess board (let's call this MyBoardViewController), conforms to a protocol like the following. MyView is whatever custom UIView class you're using for the chess squares:
protocol SquareAlertHandler {
func handleSquarePressed(sender : myView)
}
And add the following property to your MyView class:
weak var delegate : SquareAlertHandler?
And replace whatever event handler you're currently using, with the following (I'm assuming you're using a UIButton in IB to handle the press, and have arbitrarily named the outlet 'didPress:'):
#IBAction didPress(sender : UIButton) {
delegate?.handleSquarePressed(self)
}
Now, add the protocol to your MyBoardViewController, and define the method:
class MyBoardViewController : UIViewController, SquareAlertHandler {
... ... ...
func handleSquarePressed(sender : myView) {
// Do something to handle the press, here, like alert the user
}
... ... ...
}
And finally, wherever you create the MyView instances, assign the MyBoardViewController instance as the delegate, and you're good to go.
Depending on your Swift literacy, this may be confusing. Adding code, so that I can at least match up the class names, would help to clarify things.

Present subclassed view controller from another view controller in Swift

I have some problems to use subclasses in Swift, hope someone can help me.
What I have
Two view controllers:
VC1 with just some UIButtons
EffectVC that do some animation depending on the button pressed on VC1
import UIKit
protocol viewAnimation {
func initialStateSet()
func finalStateSet()
}
class EffectVC: UIViewController {
#IBOutlet weak var mainImage: UIImageView!
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
self.initialStateSet()
}
override func viewDidAppear(animated: Bool) {
self.finalStateSet()
}
override func didReceiveMemoryWarning() {
super.didReceiveMemoryWarning()
}
func initialStateSet() {
}
func finalStateSet() {
}
}
class GrowingEffect : EffectVC, viewAnimation {
override func initialStateSet() {
// some stuff
}
override func finalStateSet() {
// other stuff
}
}
The problem
Maybe a simple question but I can't do what I want in Swift: I need to set a subclass according to the button that is pressed.
In other words I need to present subclassed view controller from my VC1 according to which button is pressed on VC1.
If I press the first button for example I want to show the VC 2 with the class GrowingEffect for use some custom stuff (this stuff must change according to the selected button).
What I tried
use IBAction for create my subclassed VC2 and show it
let storyboard = UIStoryboard(name: "Main", bundle: nil)
let destinationViewController : UIViewController = storyboard.instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier("EffectVC") as! GrowingEffect
self.presentViewController(destinationViewController, animated: true, completion: nil)
but I got
Could not cast value of type 'ViewAnimationDemo.EffectVC'
(0x109948570) to 'ViewAnimationDemo.GrowingEffect' (0x109948650).
use PrepareForSegue
but I can't set any subclass
What I really want to do
I know there are some other solution, like not using storyboard, but now I describe exactly what I want to do, hoping this is possibile:
have only one view controller in IB (EffectVC) associate with the class EffectVC. The class EffectVC has some subclasses like GrowingEffect.
In my code I want to instantiate the view controller EffectVC with the subclass that I need: for example instantiate the view controller in IB EffectVC with the class GrowingEffect.
I know that if I have one view controller for every subclass of EffectVC I can do what I want but I don't want so many view controller in IB because they are equal, the only things that I want to change are 2 methods.
I think there are some things mixed up in your setup. You should have 2 view controllers, each set up in its file, and each present in the storyboard with its identifier. It is ok if GrowingEffect inherits from EffectVC.
What you currently do with as! GrowingEffect is actually trying to cast the UIViewController instance you get from calling instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier("EffectVC") to GrowingEffect. This will not work, because it is of type EffectVC.
Rather, you need to call instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier("EffectVC") if button X is pressed, and instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier("GrowingEffect") if button Y is pressed.
EDIT
If you use storyboard, you have to instantiate view controllers using instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier. But you can only get an instance of GrowingEffect, if it is present on the storyboard.
It is not possible to "cast" an instance of EffectVC to GrowingEffect once created.
So, you have two possibilities here:
Use storyboard and put both view controllers on it. Use instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier to instantiate the view controller you need, depending on the button pressed.
Do not use storyboard. Then you can create the needed view controller manually and use your UINavigationController's pushViewController method to present it.
You can't cast from parent class to child class, parent class just doesn't have the capacity to know what the child is doing. You can however cast from a child to parent, so you would want to set your view controller as GrowingEffect, then cast it to Effect, but again there is no strong suit to doing this either unless some method needs the parent class and you are using the child class. It looks like you need a redesign of how you want your view controllers laid out. Now I am assuming you have 2 children, lets call GrowingEffect and ShrinkingEffect. In your designer, you set your 1 to GrowingEffect and the other to ShrinkingEffect and make sure they have unique identifiers. Then you can use your view to present an Effect, and pass in either of those objects.

iOS using xib + global methods for overlay UIView (Swift)

I'm writing an app that should present overlays in specific situations, like for example the lack of location services enabled for the app.
Overlay is a UIView with a UIImageView (background) a UILabel (title) and a UIButton calling a specific action. I want to use Interface Builder to set up the overlay UI but I would like to recall the overlay and show it on different UIViewControllers, depending on when the lack of location services is detected.
I have set up a custom class (subclass of UIView) to link a xib file. Code below:
class LaunchCustomScreen: UIView
{
#IBOutlet var title: UILabel!
#IBOutlet var enableLocationButton: UIButton!
#IBOutlet var waitingIndicator: UIActivityIndicatorView!
#IBOutlet var bckgroundImage: UIImageView!
func setupDefault()
{
title.text = "Location Services Required"
enableLocationButton.setTitle("Enable Location Services", forState: UIControlState.Normal)
enableLocationButton.addTarget(self,
action: "promptUserForLocation",
forControlEvents: UIControlEvents.TouchUpInside)
hideLocButton()
}
func hideLocButton()
{
enableLocationButton.hidden = true
}
func showLocButton()
{
enableLocationButton.hidden = false
}
}
Then I have created the xib file which is of Class LaunchCustomScreen and I linked the IBOutlets to all the objects in it (UILabels, UIBUtton, UIImageView)
Then I have set some global functions to be called from any other UIViewController in order to show/hide the overlay on the specific view controller and configure it with UIButton hidden or visible (it will be hidden with a waiting indicator when user location is still loading). Below related code:
func setupLaunchDefault(vc: UIViewController) -> LaunchCustomScreen
{
for aSubview in vc.view.subviews
{
if aSubview.isKindOfClass(LaunchCustomScreen)
{
NSLog("Found already a launch screen. Removing")
aSubview.removeFromSuperview()
}
}
var screen: LaunchCustomScreen = LaunchCustomScreen()
screen.setupDefault()
return screen
}
func showLaunchAskLocation(vc:UIViewController)
{
var screen = setupLaunchDefault(vc)
screen.bounds = vc.view.bounds
screen.showLocButton()
vc.view.addSubview(screen)
}
Now I'm trying if the solution works and it crashes on the setupLaunchDefault function. Reason is that even if an instance of LaunchCustomSCreen is created, the variables (title, enableLocationButton) are still nil. I though they should be non-nil thanks to the IBOutlet to the xib... what am I missing?
Thank you in advance for your help!
I have set up a custom class (subclass of UIView) to link a xib file
No, you haven't. No such "link" is possible.
what am I missing?
You're not missing anything, because you've already figured it out!
Merely creating a LaunchCustomScreen instance out of thin air (i.e. by saying LaunchCustomScreen(), as you are doing) merely creates an instance of this class. It has nothing whatever to do with the .xib (nib) file! There is no magic "link" whatever between the class and the nib! Thus, nothing happens that would cause these properties to get any value. They are, as you have rightly explained, nil.
You have designed and configured one special particular instance of LaunchCustomScreen in the nib. That is the instance whose outlets are hooked up, within the same nib. So if you want an instance of LaunchCustomScreen with hooked-up outlets, you must load the nib! Loading the nib is exactly equivalent to making an instance of what's in the nib - it is a form of instantiation. And here, it's the form of instantiation you want, because this instance is the instance you want.
So, the answer is: do not say LaunchCustomScreen() to get your LaunchCustomScreen instance (screen). Instead, load the nib to get your LaunchCustomScreen instance - and all will be well.
So, let's say your .xib file is called LaunchCustomScreen.xib. You would say:
let arr = NSBundle.mainBundle().loadNibNamed("LaunchCustomScreen", owner: nil, options: nil)
let screen = arr[0] as UIView
The first result, arr, is an array of top-level objects instantiated from the nib. The first of those objects (probably the only member of the array) is the view you are after! So you cast it to a UIView and you are ready to stick it into your interface. Since the view comes from the nib, its outlets are set, which is what you're after. You can do this as many times as you need to, to get as many "copies" of this view as you like.

Swift: Best way to get value from view

I have a custom UIView (called GridView) that I initialize and then add to a ViewController (DetailViewController). GridView contains several UIButtons and I would like to know in DetailViewController when those buttons are touched. I'm new to Swift and am wondering what is the best pattern to use to get those events?
If you want to do this with notifications, use 1:
func postNotificationName(_ notificationName: String,
object notificationSender: AnyObject?)
in the method that is triggered by your button. Then, in your DetailViewController, add a listener when it is initialized with 2:
func addObserver(_ notificationObserver: AnyObject,
selector notificationSelector: Selector,
name notificationName: String?,
object notificationSender: AnyObject?)
Both functions can be called from NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter().
Another method would be to add callbacks which you connect once you initialize the GridView in your DetailViewController. A callback is essentially a closure:
var callback : (() -> Void)?
which you can instantiate when needed, e.g.
// In DetailViewController initialization
gridView = GridView()
gridView.callback = { self.doSomething() }
In GridView you can trigger the callback like this:
func onButton()
{
callback?()
}
The callback will only execute, if unwrapping succeeds. Please ensure, that you have read Automatic Reference Counting, because these constructs may lead to strong reference cycles.
What's the difference? You can connect the callback only once (at least with the method I've showed here), but when it triggers, the receiver immediately executes its code. For notifications, you can have multiple receivers but there is some delay in event delivery.
Lets assume your GridView implementation is like as follows:
class GridView : UIView {
// Initializing buttons
let button1:UIButton = UIButton(...)
let button2:UIButton = UIButton(...)
// ...
// Adding buttons to view
self.addSubview(button1)
self.addSubview(button2)
// ...
}
Now, we will add selector methods which will be called when a button is touched. Lets assume implementation of your view controller is like as follows:
class DetailViewController : UIViewController {
let myView:GridView = GridView(...)
myView.button1.addTarget(self, action: "actionForButton1:", forControlEvents: UIControlEvents.TouchUpInside)
myView.button2.addTarget(self, action: "actionForButton2:", forControlEvents: UIControlEvents.TouchUpInside)
// ...
func actionForButton1(sender: UIButton!) {
// Your actions when button 1 is pressed
}
// ... Selectors for other buttons
}
I have to say that my example approach is not a good example for encapsulation principles of Object-Oriented Programming, but I have written like this because you are new to Swift and this code is easy to understand. If you want to prevent duplicate codes such as writing different selectors for each button and if you want to set properties of your view as private to prevent access from "outside" like I just did in DetailViewController, there are much much better solutions. I hope it just helps you!
I think you better create a class called GridView that is inherited from the UIView. Then, you can connect all you UI element with you class as IBOutlet or whatever using tag something like that. Later on, you can ask the instance of GridView in DetailViewController so that you can connect as IBAction.
Encapsulation is one of the principles of OOP.

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