How to setup Container View so as to swap two children - ios

Question

I am having what seems like a typical Container View problem in iOS. I have a ViewController with two subviews: a UISegmentedControl and a Container View. Now having placed my Container View, in the storyboard, I am not sure how to proceed. Naturally I thought my next step was to subclass UIContainerView to do all the stuff that I read in the iOS Documentation. But there is no such class as UIContainerView. So now, beyond what I was able to place in the storyboard, I am stuck. Hoping someone can help me I will posit what seems like a simple scenario.
Imagine:
One ViewController with two buttons (Cat, Dog) and a ContainerView.
When user clicks on catButton, then the ContainerView should show the CatViewController (and do similarly for dogButton)
Image that already I have the storyboard setup.
For simplicity, let CatViewController contain a single UILabel with the word CAT (and similarly for DogViewController).
also, in the storyboard, I have already created CatViewController and DogViewController as two stand-alone, unreachable, View Controllers.
So at this point, how do I proceed? Since I cannot subclass such a class as UIContainerView, what do I do?
I believe this scenario is simple enough for someone to provide an example, but if you deem it too complicated, please provide an example to yet a simpler scenario. I just want to see how a simple one is done.
P.S. I have already taken a tour here on StackOverflow, such as:
Swapping child views in a container view
and I have already read the docs at https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/featuredarticles/ViewControllerPGforiPhoneOS/CreatingCustomContainerViewControllers/CreatingCustomContainerViewControllers.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40007457-CH18-SW6

Answer 1

I think is better use an UISegmentedControl instead two UIButtons.
The container view subviews (_vwContainer.subviews) contains initially the CatViewController's view, automatically instantiated.
// ViewController.m
#import "ViewController.h"
#interface ViewController ()
#property (weak, nonatomic) IBOutlet UIView *vwContainer;
#end
#implementation ViewController
- (void)viewDidLoad {
[super viewDidLoad];
_vwContainer.clipsToBounds = YES;
}
- (IBAction)onSegmentValueChanged:(UISegmentedControl *)sender {
NSLog(#"Value changed to: %zd",sender.selectedSegmentIndex);
NSLog(#"BEFORE: self.childViewControllers: %#",self.childViewControllers);
NSLog(#"BEFORE: _vwContainer.subviews: %#",_vwContainer.subviews);
// set oldVC & newVC
UIViewController *oldVC = self.childViewControllers.firstObject;
NSString *strIdNewVC;
switch (sender.selectedSegmentIndex) {
case 0: strIdNewVC = #"catVC"; break;
default: strIdNewVC = #"dogVC";
}
UIViewController *newVC = [self.storyboard instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier:strIdNewVC];
//
[oldVC willMoveToParentViewController:nil];
[self addChildViewController:newVC];
// Prepare animation transition, for example left to right
newVC.view.frame = oldVC.view.frame;
CGPoint pntEnd = oldVC.view.center;
CGPoint pntInit = pntEnd;
pntInit.x += oldVC.view.frame.size.width;
newVC.view.center = pntInit;
[self transitionFromViewController:oldVC toViewController:newVC
duration:0.25 options:0
animations:^{
newVC.view.center = pntEnd;
} completion:^(BOOL finished) {
[oldVC removeFromParentViewController];
[newVC didMoveToParentViewController:self];
NSLog(#"AFTER: self.childViewControllers: %#",self.childViewControllers);
NSLog(#"AFTER: _vwContainer.subviews: %#",_vwContainer.subviews);
}];
}
#end