How to initialize a UIView subclass loaded from a xib? - ios

Question

There are countless answers on how to subclass UIView, but none of them seem to help me.
I have a UIView Subclass
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#interface DarkSeparatorUIView : UIView
#end
And the implementation:
#import "DarkSeparatorUIView.h"
#implementation DarkSeparatorUIView
- (id)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame {
if ((self = [super initWithFrame:frame])) {
// Do something
}
return self;
}
- (id)initWithCoder:(NSCoder *)aDecoder {
if ((self = [super initWithCoder:aDecoder])) {
// Do something
}
return self;
}
#end
In a separate xib I am creating a UIView and marking its class as "DarkSeparatorUIView". I expect that when the view loads that initWithCoder would be called, but it's not. Am I missing something?
Edit: I've tried awakeFromNib and it doesn't work, as well.
Edit2: This works in a fresh project, but not in my current project. I don't know what is different?

Answer 1

- (id)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame
{
self = [super initWithFrame:frame];
if (self) {
// Initialization code
self = [[[NSBundle mainBundle] loadNibNamed:#"DarkSeparatorUIView" owner:self options:nil] objectAtIndex:0];
}
return self;
}
make sure your xib named DarkSeparatorUIView.xib

Answer 2

My issue was that when I created DarkSeparatorUIView, I didn't include it in all of my build targets. If you didn't do this when you created the file, you can click on the file in Project Navigator, then select the File Navigator and select the targets you want the file to be available for.

Answer 3

Apple has created a category on NSBundle declared in UINibloading.h. It adds the method loadNibNamed:owner:options to NSBundle, which makes it pretty easy to load a nib from a bundle.
I have created a category on UIView for this purpose. It defines a single method:
+(instancetype)viewFromNib
Include this category in the header of your custom UIView subclass to enable loading it from a nib using this one liner:
MyView *view = [MyView viewFromNib];
I've put the category in a gist, but the code loading the nib goes like this:
NSString *className = NSStringFromClass([self class]);
NSArray *bundle = [[NSBundle mainBundle] loadNibNamed:className owner:self options:nil];
id view = nil;
for (id object in bundle) {
if ([object isKindOfClass:[self class]]) {
view = object;
}
}