Push View Controller from app delegate in tab bar - ios

Question

Im trying to display a ViewController, from my openURL function inside my AppDelegate class, but im not having any luck. Ive tried every solution i could find on the internet, im not sure what im doing wrong... please note i have a tabbed application..
I dont really want to use self.tabBarController.selectedIndex because I really want to display a custom built controller like so:
CategoryTableViewController *controller = nil;
NSUInteger catId = 6;
NSString *title = #"Cat Title!";
NSManagedObjectContext *inMemoryContext = [xyzclient newContextUsingInMemoryStore:YES];
controller = [[CategoryTableViewController alloc] initWithManagedObjectContext:inMemoryContext];
[(CategoryTableViewController *) controller setParentCategory:catId];
[(CategoryTableViewController *) controller setFilterCategory:NO];
[(CategoryTableViewController *) controller setStopRefresh:YES];
controller.title = title;
[self.tabBarController.selectedViewController.navigationController pushViewController:controller animated:YES];
Here is the code ive written:
- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application openURL:(NSURL *)url sourceApplication:(NSString *)sourceApplication annotation:(id)annotation {
NSString *scheme = [url scheme];
if ([scheme hasPrefix:#"xyz"]) {
//Attempt 1
UINavigationController *searchNavigationController = [self navigationControllerForViewControllerClass:[SearchTableViewController class]];
[self.tabBarController.selectedViewController.navigationController pushViewController:searchNavigationController animated:YES];
//Attempt 2
NSManagedObjectContext *inMemoryContext = [DealsClient newContextUsingInMemoryStore:YES];
SearchTableViewController *controller = [[SearchTableViewController alloc] initWithManagedObjectContext:inMemoryContext];
[self.tabBarController.selectedViewController.navigationController pushViewController:controller animated:YES];
}
}
- (UINavigationController *)navigationControllerForViewControllerClass:(Class)viewControllerClass {
BaseViewController *viewController = [[viewControllerClass alloc] init];
viewController.context = [self managedObjectContext];
UINib *nib = [UINib nibWithNibName:#"BaseNavigationController" bundle:nil];
UINavigationController *navigationController = [[nib instantiateWithOwner:nil options:nil] lastObject];
navigationController.viewControllers = [NSArray arrayWithObject:viewController];
return navigationController;
}
- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {
[super application:application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:launchOptions];
self.window.rootViewController = self.tabBarController;
[DClient setBaseManagedObjectContext:[self managedObjectContext]];
UINavigationController *featuredNavigationController = [self navigationControllerForViewControllerClass:[FeaturedTableViewController class]];
featuredNavigationController.tabBarItem = [[UITabBarItem alloc] initWithTitle:NSLocalizedString(#"Home", nil) image:[UIImage imageNamed:#"tabbar_home"] tag:TabBarTabHome];
UINavigationController *browseNavigationController = [self navigationControllerForViewControllerClass:[CategoryTableViewController class]];
browseNavigationController.tabBarItem = [[UITabBarItem alloc] initWithTitle:NSLocalizedString(#"Browse", nil) image:[UIImage imageNamed:#"tabbar_browse"] tag:TabBarTabBrowse];
UINavigationController *searchNavigationController = [self navigationControllerForViewControllerClass:[SearchTableViewController class]];
searchNavigationController.tabBarItem = [[UITabBarItem alloc] initWithTitle:NSLocalizedString(#"Search", nil) image:[UIImage imageNamed:#"tabbar_search"] tag:TabBarTabSearch];
UINavigationController *messagesNavigationController = [self navigationControllerForViewControllerClass:[MessagesTableViewController class]];
messagesNavigationController.tabBarItem = [[UITabBarItem alloc] initWithTitle:NSLocalizedString(#"Messages", nil) image:[UIImage imageNamed:#"tabbar_messages"] tag:TabBarTabMessages];
UINavigationController *cartNavigationController = [self navigationControllerForViewControllerClass:[CartTableViewController class]];
cartNavigationController.tabBarItem = [[UITabBarItem alloc] initWithTitle:NSLocalizedString(#"Cart", nil) image:[UIImage imageNamed:#"tabbar_cart"] tag:TabBarTabCart];
NSArray *viewControllers = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:featuredNavigationController, browseNavigationController, searchNavigationController, messagesNavigationController, cartNavigationController, nil];
[self.tabBarController setViewControllers:viewControllers animated:NO];
[xyzEngine setTabBarController:self.tabBarController];
[self.tabBarController setCartBadgeValue:[xyz numItemsInCart]];
NSLog(#"Loaded the page....");
return YES;
}

Answer 1

Ok I'm still not entirely sure of what you're trying to achieve exactly so I'm gonna assume the following:
You have a tab bar controller with 5 items. Each item is a navigation controller that has a specific class. Based on the url parameter passed to application:openURL:sourceApplication:annotation: you want to select the proper item (which was already been loaded previously in application: didFinishLaunchingWithOptions) of your tab bar controller .
Here's my attempt:
- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application
openURL:(NSURL *)url
sourceApplication:(NSString *)sourceApplication
annotation:(id)annotation {
if ([scheme hasPrefix:#"xyz"]) {
Class navigationControllerClass = [SearchTableViewController class];
NSUInteger navigationControllerIndex = [self.tabBarController.viewControllers indexOfObjectPassingTest:^BOOL(id obj, NSUInteger idx, BOOL *stop) {
BOOL found = [obj isKindOfClass:navigationControllerClass];
if (found) {
*stop = YES;
}
return found;
}];
if (NSNotFound != navigationControllerIndex) {
self.tabBarController.selectedIndex = navigationControllerIndex;
}
}
}
Take 2
In your 2 attempts you're creating a new navigation controller and then try to push it on something that's nil (self.tabBarController.selectedViewController.navigationController is nil since self.tabBarController.selectedViewController is a navigation controller).
Whatever you're pushing in your navigation controller cannot be another navigation controller. So you need to create a simple view controller of type UIViewController and push it to the currently selected navigation controller of your tab bar.
if ([scheme hasPrefix:#"xyz"]) {
MYViewController *controller = [[MYViewController alloc] initWithManagedObjectContext:inMemoryContext];
[(UINavigationController *)self.tabBarController.selectedViewController pushViewController:controller animated:YES];
}