IBoutlet and IBAction in a separated class to decompose an UIViewController - ios

Question

In my storyboard I've a ViewController linked with a class named MyViewController.
In this view, there are a lot of #IBOutlet and #IBAction and I would know if it's possible to decompose this ViewController with separated classes which contains #IBOutet and #IBAction.
For example:
class MyViewController
{
#IBOutlet var button1 : UIButton!
#IBOutlet var button2 : UIButton!
...
#IBOutlet var button10 : UIButton!
#IBAction func clickOnButton1(sender : AnyObject!)
{
...
}
#IBAction func clickOnButton2(sender : AnyObject!)
{
...
}
...
#IBAction func clickOnButton10(sender : AnyObject!)
{
...
}
}
Will be...
class MyViewController
{
let buttonsManager = ButtonsManager()
}
class ButtonsManager
{
#IBOutlet var button1 : UIButton!
#IBOutlet var button2 : UIButton!
...
#IBOutlet var button10 : UIButton!
#IBAction func clickOnButton1(sender : AnyObject!)
{
...
}
#IBAction func clickOnButton2(sender : AnyObject!)
{
...
}
...
#IBAction func clickOnButton10(sender : AnyObject!)
{
...
}
}
But the problem is, how can I link buttons IBOutlet and IBAction to ButtonsManager class because the owner of the view inside my Storyboard is MyViewController class?
Thanks!

Answer 1

Disclaimer: I don't know if this is a recommended way of doing this, but I thought it was an interesting question. Either way, I came up with this solution, which at least works. Decide for yourself if it's something you want to do.
First have your ButtonsManager be a subclass of NSObject. That way we can make an instance of ButtonsManager be an IBOutlet itself.
class ButtonsManager: NSObject {
#IBOutlet var button1 : UIButton!
#IBAction func clickOnButton1(sender : AnyObject!) {
print("hello world!")
}
}
I added an outlet for the button, and one action which prints "hello world!". Essentially, you would move all your #IBOutlets and #IBActions into this class.
In your view controller class, add a single #IBOutlet of type ButtonsManager:
class MyViewController {
#IBOutlet var buttonsManager: ButtonsManager?
// rest of class
}
What remains is to hook things up in Interface Builder:
Add a generic "Object" item from the Object Library to the scene.
In the Identity Inspector, set its custom class to "ButtonsManager"
Select the View controller in the scene (e.g. MyViewController) and go to the Connections Inspector.
Make a connection from the buttonsManager Outlet to the ButtonsManager object in the scene
Select the ButtonsManager object again in the scene and go to the Connections Inspector.
You'll find all the outlets and received actions here. Hook them up to your view like you would normally. I.e. make connections by dragging from the outlet/action to the respective view elements.
Compile!
EDIT:
A better solution would probably be to have a reference to the view controller in the ButtonsManager class, rather than the other way around. That would provide much easier access to the view controller class from your IBAction methods. As a bonus, you would have no #IBOutlet keywords in your view controller class.
Remember to change the connections in Interface Builder. That is, remove the connection on MyViewController, and add a connection on ButtonsManager from the myViewController outlet to the MyViewController object in the scene.
class MyViewController {
var testString = "Hello world!"
func testMethod() {
print("Printing some other string here!")
}
// rest of class
}
class ButtonsManager: NSObject {
#IBOutlet var myViewController : MyViewController!
#IBOutlet var button1 : UIButton!
#IBAction func clickOnButton1(sender : AnyObject!) {
print(self.myViewController.testString)
self.myViewController.testMethod()
}
}