Programmatically switch view in iOS - ios

Question

I'm new to iOS development and I'm trying to make a simple arithmetic game. It has two views, a kind of start screen with a button to start playing the game and a label with the high score on it, and the view to play the actual game. Here is a screenshot of it:
The code for the game's ViewController looks like this:
#import "AdditionController.h"
#import "ViewController.h"
#interface AdditionController ()
//properties and outlets here
#end
#implementation AdditionController
- (id)initWithNibName:(NSString *)nibNameOrNil bundle:(NSBundle *)nibBundleOrNil
{
self = [super initWithNibName:nibNameOrNil bundle:nibBundleOrNil];
if (self) {
// Custom initialization
}
return self;
}
- (void)viewDidLoad
{
[super viewDidLoad];
// Do any additional setup after loading the view.
[self setBackground];
self.difficulty = 20;
[self setupGame];
}
- (void)didReceiveMemoryWarning
{
[super didReceiveMemoryWarning];
// Dispose of any resources that can be recreated.
}
- (void)setBackground
{
...
}
-(void)setupGame
{
...
}
-(void)writeQuestion
{
...
}
- (void)advanceTimer:(NSTimer *)timer
{
...
}
- (IBAction)checkAnswer:(id)sender {
...
}
- (IBAction)quit:(id)sender {
[self gameOver];
}
- (void)gameOver{
NSString *goodbye = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"You scored %d.", self.score_val];
NSUserDefaults *defaults = [NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults];
// to store
NSNumber *aNumber = [defaults objectForKey:#"hiScore"];
NSInteger anInt = [aNumber intValue];
if (anInt < self.score_val) {
[defaults setObject:[NSNumber numberWithInt:self.score_val] forKey:#"hiScore"];
[defaults synchronize];
goodbye = [goodbye stringByAppendingString:#"\nThat's a new high score!"];
}
UIAlertView *message = [[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:#"Game Over!" message:goodbye delegate:nil cancelButtonTitle:#"OK" otherButtonTitles:nil];
[message show];
// I have been using this method to go back to the start screen.
// But this method doesn't update the new highscore
[self.navigationController popViewControllerAnimated:YES];
// However I should be able to do this if I can setup an ID for the start screen
ViewController *svc = [storyboard instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier:#"StartViewController"];
}
#end
However when I go to View -> Utilities -> Show Identity Inspector, there is no option to set the story board ID, only one to set the restoration ID.
I was wondering if there was anyway to set the storyboard ID, or if I was missing something obvious? I'm using Xcode Version 5.0.2 (5A3005).
Also just wanted to add that I don't seem to be able to select UIViewController from the drop down list!

Answer 1

First, your screenshot clearly shows that you have the UIView selected in the storyboard, not the UIViewController, which is what you can set a storyboard ID on. So if you want to set an ID, you have to make sure you have the actual UIViewController selected.
Second, what you're trying to do by setting a storyboard ID is to create another instance of your first view controller, which is not what you want to do. You still have an instance of this view controller, you just want to get that instance and update the high score on it. You can do this in multiple ways:
You could create a delegate protocol on your second view controller, where it has a delegate method for updating the high score. Then you would set your first view controller as the delegate of the second, implement the delegate protocol method(s) in the first view controller, and call these at the appropriate time from the second view controller.
You could pass a block to the second view controller from the first that can be called with a high score (and any other important information) to let the first view controller know what to update.
You could use the UINavigationController to get the first view controller. If it is the root view controller of the navigation controller, then it'll be easy to get. Then you'll have your reference to the already existing instance and can update the high score however you were already planning on doing so. This one is the least ideal choice, however, because it requires that the second view controller have knowledge of the type of the first view controller, when really that shouldn't be necessary.

Answer 2

More just to add to Gavin's answer,
Whenever I've built simple games within an iOS app before i've created separate UIViews from the object library in storyboard, then I've put them outside the view controller's main view (i.e. move them below 'First Responder' in the document outline view). Then you can make these views properties of your viewController, and swap them in/out whenever you want with something like this when the start button is pressed to reveal self.gameView underneath:
[self.startView removeFromSuperview];
and the same would apply to reveal a self.finishView