UIView's frame gets overridden by Storyboard on initial load - uiview

Question

I need to change the width of a subview depending on, say, available disk space. So I have a selector that's called upon the view controller's viewWillLayoutSubviews as such:
CGRect rect = self.usageView.bounds;
rect.size.width = self.someCalculatedwidth;
[self.usageView setFrame:rect];
[self.usageView setNeedsDisplay];
Really, I just want to change the width of the subview. It works if the view controller is the initial controller; however, if it is transitioned from, say, a Push Segue it stopped working. What happens is I'd see my desired width rendered for moment but then it gets changed to the original width as per its blueprint on the Storyboard.
The behavior feels like the iOS caches the original (storyboard) view in a block during the push segue animation, and upon completion it executes the block which doesn't have my calculations above; thereby overridden the desired view. Any idea?

Answer 1

There are two approaches.
The first approach is to circumvent the problem, with a side benefit of cool animation. Since I have no clue when or how many times or exactly how iOS enforces the auto-constraints, I simply delay my UIView modifications and smooth it out with animation. So I wrap view animation around the code in my selector:
[UIView animateWithDuration:.25 animations:^{
CGRect rect = self.usageView.bounds;
rect.size.width = self.someCalculatedwidth;
[self.usageView setFrame:rect];
[self.usageView setNeedsDisplay];
}];
Then I'd call my selector in my controller's viewDidAppear:animated:
[self performSelector:#selector(resetUsageView) withObject:self afterDelay:0.0];
Now most would say this is a cop-out or a kludge. And that's fair.
In the second approach I attack the root of the problem - auto layout/constraints. I add a Width constraint to my usageView in the storyboard, and connect its IBOutlet to my code.
#property (weak, nonatomic) IBOutlet NSLayoutConstraint *usageViewWidthConstraint;
Then I modify the constraint as per the calculated width in my controller's viewWillAppear:animated:
[self.usageViewWidthConstraint setConstant:self.someCalculatedWidth];
Voila! A one liner.
Now what if I want animation given I got a taste of it from the first approach? Well, constraint changes are outside the realm of animation so basically I'd need a combination of the first and second approaches. I change the UIView's frame for animation, and modify the constraint as well to "set the record straight":
[UIView animateWithDuration:.25 animations:^{
CGRect rect = self.usageView.bounds;
rect.size.width = self.someCalculatedwidth;
[self.usageView setFrame:rect];
[self.usageViewWidthConstraint setConstant:self.someCalculatedWidth]; // <<<<
[self.usageView setNeedsDisplay];
}];