tvOS: Focus first button as preferred focus view when buttons are in horizontal order - objective-c

Question

I have been trying to focus the first button but focus engine takes the third button right below the tab bar as the first item to be focussed. I tried with preferred focus view but found that when i place the buttons in vertical order then preferred takes the preferred view to be focussed but when i placed all the buttons in horizontal plane it always takes the third button.The other approach i can think of if Focus Guide but i wonder how that will work in this scenario?
override weak var preferredFocusedView: UIView? {
get {
return thrirdButton
}
}
It happens because focus engine takes the nearest possible focus element as 1st element as you can see from the picture attached.I have attached the context screenshot for the view controller. Any help or clue to solve this will be appreciated.

Answer 1

Solution :
We need to add focus guide just above button 3 and redirect it to button one when the focus guide is focussed.
private var focusGuide = UIFocusGuide()
self.view.addLayoutGuide(focusGuide)
self.focusGuide.bottomAnchor.constraintEqualToAnchor(self.button3.topAnchor).active = true
self.focusGuide.leftAnchor.constraintEqualToAnchor(self.button3.leftAnchor).active = true
// Width and height
self.focusGuide.widthAnchor.constraintEqualToAnchor(self.button3.widthAnchor).active = true
self.focusGuide.heightAnchor.constraintEqualToAnchor(self.button3.heightAnchor).active = true
focusGuide.centerXAnchor.constraintEqualToAnchor(self.button3.centerXAnchor).active = true
override func didUpdateFocusInContext(context: UIFocusUpdateContext, withAnimationCoordinator coordinator: UIFocusAnimationCoordinator) {
self.focusGuide.preferredFocusedView = button1
}

Answer 2

Try adding a UIFocusGuide just above the button rows. In that case, before reaching the button, it will hit your focus guide in which you can redirect the preferredFocusedView to that particular button. The code to redirect is to be done by overriding didUpdateFocusInContext method.
Assuming you have setup the focus guide in viewDidload, the following is a sample,
override func didUpdateFocusInContext(context: UIFocusUpdateContext, withAnimationCoordinator coordinator: UIFocusAnimationCoordinator) {
super.didUpdateFocusInContext(context, withAnimationCoordinator: coordinator)
self.focusGuide.preferredFocusedView = self.mypreferredbutton
}
TO initialise a focus guide ( Do the addition of guide to view in viewDidLoad)
var focusGuide = UIFocusGuide()
self.view.addLayoutGuide(self.sidefocusGuide)
self.focusGuide.leftAnchor.constraintEqualToAnchor(self.placerLabel.leftAnchor).active = true
self.focusGuide.rightAnchor.constraintEqualToAnchor(self.placerLabel.rightAnchor).active = true
self.focusGuide.topAnchor.constraintEqualToAnchor(self.audioTable.topAnchor).active = true
I too faced a similar issue but somehow able to do it through this. The preferredFocusedView approach will also work, but you have to do lot of circus by updating some reference variable and then calling setneedsfocusupdate for that view. Try the focus guide way. Hope it helps.
EDITED:
I have added code how to setup the guide. In this case I have put the guide on the right side of my view. So, whenever your focus hits the guide, it redirects to the preferredfocusguide view that you want the focus to go to in the didUpdateFocusInContext. "There is only one view in focus at anytime.", remember thes ? So, the moment it hits the guide, the overriden method gets hit which in turn moves your focus to the guide's preferred view. For examples, you can refer to Apple's UIKitCatlog app for tvOS and here is one link explaining the same.

Answer 3

The best way to give the initial focus to your preferred view is by using preferredFocusEnivronments.
override var preferredFocusEnvironments: [UIFocusEnvironment] {
return [firstButton]
}
preferredFocusEnvironments will be called before didUpdateFocus, that way you can inform the system, where you want the focus to be redirected.