Send UITableView row From One tableviewController to another - ios

I want to send a UITableViewCell at indexPath.row from one controller to another. I can remove the row using removeObjectAtIndex, but unable to send the removed row into another controller.
I'm trying to store the removed row in an NSMutableArray in one controller, but don't know how to populate it in another controller.
Below is the code -
ViewController *view= [self.storyboard instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier:#"ViewController"];
view.anotherviewArray= [self.arrayFromAFNetworking objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];
If anyone can give me an idea, it would be helpful.

I believe it's bad practice to retain UI elements and pass them around your app. You should instead have some kind of a model containing your data, and pass this model from one view controller to the other. I'd recommend checking out tableview frameworks such as the free Sensible TableView framework, as they do an excellent job of providing such a model for you automatically.

I personally think that it's wrong approach to pass UI object as parameter to another controller.
As I would do it is create some object that encapsulates data model from this cell and pass this object to another view controller.
#interface DataObject : NSObject
#property id field1;
#end
UI part of cell can be easily copied in Interface Builder, so I don't see problem in that. Probably it would be great to have cell class that could fill necessary field from the object with data. This class you can use in both view controller that have to show the same cell
#interface CustomTableViewCell : UITableViewCell
- (void)customizeCellWithDataObject:(DataObject *)dataObject;
#end
I hope it makes sense to you

Assuming that you DO want to set the other data source with only this row, you need to pass it as an array.
view.anotherviewArray= [NSArray arrayWithObject:[self.arrayFromAFNetworking objectAtIndex:indexPath.row]];
But it's hard to tell from the little code that you have provided. I assume that since you are instantiating the viewController you are also transitioning to it below the provided code. If you are trying to set the array for a viewController already presented, you need to access that one, not create another, perhaps by having saved a reference to it an ivar within the current viewController or another accessible class.
I would also not name a ViewController view, it is confusing to anyone reading the code later on.
Editing for my comment below about traversing the hierarchy. Here is some code that I used in one iPad project to return the final presented viewController. This method is in the appDelegate. It is somewhat specific to my project, where there is only one navigationController. But you can adapt it to yours. You would test for a viewController that is of the class of your target view controller.
- (UIViewController *)topViewController {
UIViewController *rootViewController = self.window.rootViewController;
UIViewController *topViewController = rootViewController.presentedViewController;
while (topViewController && topViewController.presentedViewController) {
topViewController = topViewController.presentedViewController;
if ([topViewController isKindOfClass:[UINavigationController class]]) {
UIViewController *presentedViewController = [(UINavigationController *) topViewController topViewController];
if (presentedViewController) {
topViewController = presentedViewController;
}
}
}
return topViewController;
}
The other approach is to set a property to it when it is created and presented. We don't have enough code to get a good idea of your app as a whole. Where are you creating the ViewController instance that you are displaying? By that I mean where you are calling a segue to it, or pushing it onto a navigationController or call presentViewController. Wherever that is, you need to set a property or ivar to it. Let's say that you use a property in your appDelegate as a very generic case.
In your MyAppDelegate.h file you have
#property(nonatomic,strong) ViewController *viewController;
Wherever you first create it you set that property
MyAppDelegate *appDelegate = (MyAppDelegate*)[[UIApplication sharedApplication] delegate];
appDelegate.viewController = [self.storyboard instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier:#"ViewController"];
I now think you are trying to add this to a mutableArray in the other ViewController. Then replacing your code from the tableViewCell above you would use
MyAppDelegate appDelegate = (MyAppDelegate)[[UIApplication sharedApplication] delegate];
[appDelegate.viewController.mutableDataArray addObject:self.arrayFromAFNetworking objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];
[appDelegate.viewController.tableView reloadData];
I will say that it is not great practice to use the appDelegate for the property. But it is a generic answer that would work. It's best to put it in a class which is common to the viewControllers that you are passing data between. Perhaps a single parent which holds these two viewControllers?

Related

How to pass data to a controller via delegate callback having a tab bar controller?

Please have a look at the screenshot of my project for better understanding
I have browsed a lot in stack overflow and other sites regarding writing custom delegates. But in my case the delegate is not getting called. As can be seen in the screenshot, the initial view controller has a button on click of which the tab bar gets called. From the first Tab bar screen, suppose I want to pass the data back to the initial view controller, how do I do? I can even use NSUserDefaults but I want to code the right way. So I came to know that delegates are best way to pass data back from one controller to the previous controller. But since I am using tab bars in between, the delegate is not getting called.. Kindly help,
Following is the code,
I want data to be passed from first tab to the initial controller.
TabScreenController.h:
#protocol TabScreenControllerDelegate <NSObject>
-(void)someFunction:(NSString*)someValue;
#end
#interface TabScreenController : UIViewController
#property (nonatomic, weak) id <TabScreenControllerDelegate> delegate;
#end
InitialViewController.h:
#interface InitialViewController : UIViewController<TabScreenControllerDelegate>
InitialViewController.m:
TabScreenController* controller = [[TabScreenController alloc]init];
[controller setDelegate:self];
//The delegate is not getting called
-(void)someFunction:(NSString *)someValue{
NSLog(#"%#", someValue);
}
The delegate is not getting called perhaps the TabScreenController in InitialViewController.m is a different instance than the one that gets created on clicking the tab.
Please help me regarding this.. How do I handle such scenarios. Let me know if I have not made myself clear..
Thank you
The error is that you are not setting the delegate the existing TabScreenController but instantiating a new TabScreenController and setting the delegate. When using TabBarController all the childViewControllers are already instantiated.
In your case you need to look for TabScreenController and then set its delegate.
NSArray* tabChildViewControllers = tabBarController.viewControllers;
for (UIViewController * childVC in tabChildViewControllers) {
if ([childVC isKindOfClass:[TabScreenController class]]) {
// set your the delegate
}
}

How to pass data from second view to first view without using segues?

I want to pass string data from second view to first view.
My first view contains a UITableView with 4 rows. If user taps on 1st row, programmatically, I push a new view controller.
For example:
if(indexPath.row == 0)
{
UIViewController *controller = [self.storyboard instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier:#"NewView"];
[self.navigationController pushViewController:controller animated:YES];
}
My second view is a tableviewController, wherein user can select any one option from second view which should get passed to first view.
There is no back button as special; since I have used Navigation controller I get navigation back button.
So when user presses navigation back button, data from second view should get passed to first view.
There is multiple ways for doing that.
You can use NSUserDefaults for storing data.
You can use Delegate Methods.
I would recommend against using NSUserDefaults as you do not need persistent behavior, you want to handle messaging between 2 objects. NSUserDefaults are designed to support customization based on a user's preferences. See the snippet from the documentation below.
I would recommend delegation as it is a design pattern used throughout Apple's code and would be very beneficial for you to know well!
The NSUserDefaults class provides a programmatic interface for
interacting with the defaults system. The defaults system allows an
application to customize its behavior to match a user’s preferences.
For example, you can allow users to determine what units of
measurement your application displays or how often documents are
automatically saved. Applications record such preferences by assigning
values to a set of parameters in a user’s defaults database. The
parameters are referred to as defaults since they’re commonly used to
determine an application’s default state at startup or the way it acts
by default.
There are a number of ways of going this.
Create a weak instance variable in the second view that references the first view and use that to get the data to the first view: weak ViewController* firstView. Remember to add an instance variable to capture the data to firstView.
This works but introduces tight coupling between the views. They are now dependent on each other to meet the required functionality.
if (indexPath == 0) {
UIViewController *controller = [self.storyboard instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier:#"NewView"];
MyController *myController = (MyController *)controller;
myController.firstView = self;
[self.navigationController pushViewController:controller animated:YES];
}
Use a block as a completion handler the second view can use call once the data in question has been selected. Define a block on the secondView. Now in your if statement set the completion handler block o the secondView. Now when the data is selected call the completion handler block.
Use the delegate pattern and define a delegate protocol and delegate property for secondView. The firstView will implement the delegate protocol. So when the data is collected you would call in the secondView.
[delegate SecondViewDidCollectData:myData];
Property on SecondView
#property (weak, nonatomic) id<SecondViewDelegate> delegate;
Delegate Protocol defined in SecondView header.
// define the protocol for the delegate
#protocol SecondViewDelegate
// define protocol functions that can be used in any class using this delegate
-(void)SecondViewDidCollectData:(NSData *)data;
#end
You can achieve this using following ways;
You can use NSUserDefaults for storing data.
You can pass the data like below :
yourViewController *vc = [[YourViewController alloc]init];
vc.xyzString = "yourStringToPass";
[self.navigationController popToViewController: vc animated:YES];
Hope this will help.
Add below Code in your tableView didSelectRowAtIndexPath Method.
[self.navigationController.viewControllers enumerateObjectsUsingBlock:^(id obj, NSUInteger idx, BOOL *stop) {
if([obj isKindOfClass:[firstViewController class]]) {
firstViewController *objfirstViewController = obj;
objfirstViewController.xyzString = "yourString";
[self.navigationController popToViewController: objfirstViewController animated:YES];
*stop = YES;
}
}];

instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier and pass data

I am using Storyboard in my app and I want to pass data from one view to another view.
Instead of using segues I am using instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier. In this case I am instantiate from my first TableViewController to a NavigationController which has a second TableViewController attached because I need the navigation in the second TableViewController. Now I want to pass data from my first TableviewController, depending which row was clicked, to my second TableviewController. In this case newTopViewController would be my NavigationController but my problem is now how to pass data from firstTableViewController to the secondTableviewController.
- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView didSelectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
NSString *identifier = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#Top", [menuArray objectAtIndex:indexPath.row]];
UIViewController *newTopViewController = [self.storyboard instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier:identifier];
}
If you instantiate a navigationController, you can use the viewControllers property to get the inner viewController of the navigation controller.
Something like this:
UINavigationController *navigationController = [self.storyboard instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier:identifier];
MBFancyViewController *viewController = navigationController.viewControllers[0];
// setup "inner" view controller
viewController.foo = bar;
[self presentViewController:navigationController animated:YES completion:nil];
newTopViewController.anyVariableToShow= anyVariableToSend;
I do this pretty often on a few of my apps...
//Create new VC
CookViewController *detailViewController = [self.storyboard instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier:#"CookVC"];
//Set recipe
[detailViewController setRecipe:recipe];
//Pop over VC (can be pushed with a nav controller)
[self presentPopupViewController:detailViewController animationType:MJPopupViewAnimationFade];
If you aren't using a navigation controller or segues, then I think you need to reconsider your app design.
Actually it's not just a data pass problem as this is a program control and data transfer question together.
Even you would have to rethink about your app's concept, as you'd like to use storyboard without the meaning of storyboard, it's up to you and I hope you have good reason to do what you do.
So when you decided not to use segue you lost the new and comfortable way of instantiating a new controller and transferring data with it and you have to do the transfer of control and the data in two distinct steps. When you instantiate another scene in storyboard (like you do with instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier:) you just instantiated a new controller and transferred the control but not the data. Just think about it as you instantiated a new controller from a xib in an old way (so you have to use initWithCoder: or awakeFromNib in the second view controller as the storyboard will not call initWithName:bundle:), but did not do anything more.
So you will have a new controller (it named in the identity part of the second storyboard) which is hanging in the universe without any relationship or connection with anything else (as the storyboard picture illustrates it nicely) and you could do with it what you'd like.
So you'd like to do something and you need data from the previous storyboard (ViewController). What you need is making available those data to the second storyboard(ViewController), and as you know there are lot of solution for this which were available long time before even storyboard is existed.
So regarding your code, the "data transfer" is depending on your design, whether the two controllers are subclasses of each other or whatsoever...
If you don't like to deal with subclassing and like to decoupling them as much as possible, the best way just make a property of your data in the first controller and refer to them from the second (after importing the first's .h file) and just refer to it in it's viewDidLoad or in initWithCoder: or anywhere where you need them, as
secondViewControllerdata = firstViewControllerdata.thatDataProperty
Of course you can do the same in reverse and make a property of the second controller and refer to it in your first view controller.
You can define some parameter in UIViewController to receive data:
#property (assign) int param1;
#property (retain) NSMutableArray *param2;
and use below to pass the data:
[newTopViewController setParam1:XX];
[newTopViewController setParam2:XX];

Get the UIViewController in TableView's CustomCell

I have one UIViewController named "MainView" and that has one UITableView named "tblLists"
tblLists generating the customCell - "customCellList".
My question is can I get the MainView's instance(self) in customCellList class.
I tried with superview thing but not get MainView. I want to achieve this without protocol.
So need your help in this.
You can use the responder chain to gain access to the view controller. Assuming your customCell class is a UITableViewCell subclass, the following method should do the job:
#implementation customCell
- (UIViewController *)getViewController
{
id vc = [self nextResponder];
while(![vc isKindOfClass:[UIViewController class]] && vc!=nil)
{
vc = [vc nextResponder];
}
return vc;
}
#end
The above code is courtesy of the Sensible TableView framework.
What you are asking is not a good idea, you should find another way around. It breaks the MCV pattern.
By the way, if you are worried with memory concern using ARC and targeting iOS>=5 you can create a weak reference to the table view itself and get the view controller as its delegate or data source property (of course if the VC is one them). Or you can create a weak reference to the VC itself.
As pointed in the comments is not a good idea, better find another way around. If you need to update you cells value there are a lot of methods to reload tableview data! By means of using KVO, notification, delegation etc on your VC from the model, you can simply trigger a reload to the table view without involving weird references in cells.
Hope this helps.
For those rare times when you want to break MVC.. This assumes you are using a Navigation controller as the rootVC on your window. Updated for Swift 2
func visibleVC() -> UIViewController? {
if let navVC: UINavigationController = UIApplication.sharedApplication().keyWindow?.rootViewController as? UINavigationController {
if let vc: UIViewController = navVC.visibleViewController as? MyViewControllerClass {
return vc
}
}
return nil
}
Also you can access to rootViewController:
UIViewController *controller = [UIApplication sharedApplication].keyWindow.rootViewController;
I have similar question, my case is to change array in View Controller when the value of textfield in Table View custom cell changed.
My solution is add delegate for UITextFiled in cellForRowAt method of tableview, then I can do all my data changing in textFieldDidEndEditing method. Because they are all in one class, the ViewController Class.

initWithNibName help: returning blank screen when trying to pass data

Ok so I am trying to pass a string from one view controller to another via the AppDelegate. I want to stay on the current view while this happens.
This is the main body of the code I am currently using to do this:
AppDelegate *dataCenter = (AppDelegate *)[[UIApplication sharedApplication] delegate];
MyMealViewController *vc = [[MyMealViewController alloc] initWithNibName:nil bundle:nil];
dataCenter.selectedMenuItem = recipeLabel.text;
[self presentViewController:vc animated:YES completion:NULL];
When I run the program I am able to confirm that the string is correctly passed. However, then the view on the simulator just turns black. I assume that this is because initWithNibName is set to nil.
So my question is: how should I change my code so that the string will still be passed, but the current view will continue to be displayed on the iphone. Is there a line of code that I could write that would just reload the current view?
Thanks for your help with this issue. I am new to xcode so I may be making a very basic error. Please let me know if any additional information would be helpful in answering this question.
Edit: It looks like you want to show a list of food items in the first view. Tapping an items opens a detail view. From that detail view, the user can press a button to add it to the meal. Eventually, they can tap a button on the first view to open the meal view, which should contain all of the items that they selected.
If this is the case, keep an array on the first view controller, and make sure the detail (second) view controller has a reference to the first view controller when it is presented. This will let us use that array. Note that there are better ways to architect this, but this will work for now:
#interface FoodListViewController : UIViewController
#property (strong, nonatomic) NSMutableArray *foodItems
#end
#implementation FoodListViewController
- (void)showFoodItem
{
FoodItemDetailViewController *detailViewController = [[FoodItemDetailViewController alloc] initWithNibName:nil bundle:nil];
detailViewController.foodListController = self;
[self presentModalViewController:detailViewController animated:YES];
}
#end
Once the detail view is presented, tapping the 'add to meal' button should add the current 'mealItem' to the array. In your example, you were using strings - if you would rather keep an array of strings for some reason, I'll leave that to you.
#interface FoodItemDetailViewController : UIViewController
#property (nonatomic, weak) FoodItemsViewController *foodListController;
#end
#implementation FoodItemDetailViewController
- (IBAction)buttonTapped:(id)sender
{
[self.foodListController.foodItems addObject:self.mealItem];
// Update the UI to let the user know that the item was added to the meal
}
#end
Finally, when it comes time to present the MealDetailsViewController, just pass it the array that you have been building:
#interface MealDetailsViewController : UIViewController
#property (nonatomic, strong) NSArray *foodItems;
#end
#implementation MealDetailsViewController
// Set foodItems before this view controller is presented, then use it to drive the
// UITableView data source, or find some other way of displaying it.
#end
As you can see, both the second and third view controllers are presented by the first. View controllers (nearly) always form a hierarchy - so keeping your data at the top of that hierarchy (by storing it in FoodListViewController) lets you neatly pass it down the hierarchy as you present other view controllers.

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