I'm stuck with the following. In a program, I'm trying to communicate between different classes (View Controllers with NIB files attached in a TabBar application etc). I want to call a method 'OMFG' in a class called 'ProductViewDetailController'. This class is a UIViewController (SplitViewDelegate). It's loaded programmatically.
Anyways, I've been trying to get the right call to this controller, and I came up with 2 solutions. One is declaring the productviewdetailcontroller in the caller's .h file and .m file, making an IBOutlet, linking it in the Interface builder and calling it directly by the line
[productDetailController OMFG];
When I call this method, it calls the right method in the ProductViewDetailController, but the instance of this viewcontroller differs from the one I programmatically can reach with this code:
for (UIViewController *controller in self.tabBarController.viewControllers) {
NSLog(#"%#", [controller class]);
if ([controller isKindOfClass:[UISplitViewController class]]) {
UISplitViewController *cell = (UISplitViewController *)controller;
for (UIViewController *controller2 in cell.viewControllers) {
NSLog(#"%#", [controller2 class]);
if ([controller2 isKindOfClass:[ProductViewDetailController class]]) {
[controller2 OMFG];
}
}
}
Which one should I use, and why?
edit: When I try to add a SubView to both viewcontrollers, the one where the call is [controller2 OMFG]; actually shows the newly added view, where the [productDetailController OMFG]; doesn't show the newly added view... Why is that? Is there a shorter (and more chique) way to get access to the right ViewController?
You should use a IBOutlet. This makes sure your app can still call the correct target if you later decide to change the hierarchy of view controllers, for example if creating an iPhone compatible setup without a UISplitViewController.
Calling isKindOfClass: in Objective-C is a sure sign that what you are doing is probably wrong. Firstly in Cocoa Touch what you do is always more important than who you are. Secondly what you try to do is probably peeking inside something that should be left private.
Related
I am developing an app that is a single NSWindow and clicking a button inside the window will present a NSViewController, and a button exists in that controller that will present a different NSViewController. I know how to swap out views in the window, but I ran into an issue trying to do this with the multiple view controllers. I have resolved the issue, but I don't believe I am accomplishing this behavior in an appropriate way.
I originally defined a method in the AppDelegate:
- (void)displayViewcontroller:(NSViewController *)viewController {
BOOL ended = [self.window makeFirstResponder:self.window];
if (!ended) {
NSBeep();
return;
}
[self.box setContentView:viewController.view];
}
I set up a target/action for an NSButton to the AppDelegate, and here's where I call that method to show a new view controller:
- (IBAction)didTapContinue:(NSButton *)sender {
NewViewController *newVC = [[NewViewController alloc] init];
[self displayViewcontroller:newVC];
}
This does work - it presents the new view controller's view. However if I then click any button in that view that has a target/action set up that resides within its view controller class, the app instantly crashes.
To resolve this issue, I have to change didTapContinue: to the following:
- (IBAction)didTapContinue:(NSButton *)sender {
NewViewController *newVC = [[NewViewController alloc] init];
[self.viewControllers addObject:newVC];
[self displayViewcontroller:[self.viewControllers lastObject]];
}
First of all, can you explain why that resolves the issue? Seems to be related to the way the controller is "held onto" in memory but I'm not positive.
My question is, how do I set this up so that I can swap out views from within any view controller? I was planning on getting a reference to the AppDelegate and calling displayViewcontroller: with a new controller I just instantiated in that class, but this causes the crash. I need to first store it in the array then send that reference into the method. Is that a valid approach - make the viewControllers array public then call that method with the lastObject, or how should this be set up?
What is interesting in your code is that you alloc/init a new view controller every time that you call the IBAction. It can be that your view its totally new every time you call the IBAction method, but I would think that you only have a limited number of views you want to show. As far as my knowledge goes this makes your view only to live as long as your IBAction method is long. That the view still exists, is because you haven't refreshed it. However, calling a method inside a view controller that is not in the heap anymore (since you left the IBAction method and all local objects, such as your view controller are taken of the heap thans to ARC) makes the app crash, because you reference a memory space that is not in use or used by something else.
Why does the app work when you ad the view to the viewcontrollers array? I assume this array is an array that has been initiated in the AppDelegate and now you add the view controller with a strong reference count to the viewcontrollers array. When you leave the IBAction method, the view controller still has a strong reference and ARC will not deallocate the view controller.
Is this the proper way? Well, it works. I would not think it is considered very good programming, since you don't alloc/init an object in a method that needs to stay alive after leaving the method. It would be better practice to allocate and initialize your view controller(s) somewhere in an init, awakeFromNIB or a windowDidLoad method of your AppDelegate. The problem with your current solution is that you are creating an endless array of view controllers of which you only use the last. Somewhere your program will feel the burden of this enormously long array of pretty heavy objects (view controllers) and will run out of memory.
Hope this helps.
By the way, this is independent of whether you use Mavericks or Yosemite. I was thinking in a storyboard solution, but that wouldn't answer your question.
Kind regards,
MacUserT
I'm trying to follow along the Stanford CS193p iOS programing lectures. One of the demo programs, called "Happiness" creates two UIViewControllers, a "PsychViewController" and a "HappinessViewController." It segues from the PsychViewController to the HappinessViewController using a target action method.
The following code keeps throwing this exception: "-[UIViewController setHappiness:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance"
Here's the offending code:
-(void)prepareForSegue:(UIStoryboardSegue *)segue sender:(id)sender
{
if ([segue.identifier isEqualToString:#"ShowDiagnosis"]) {
[segue.destinationViewController setHappiness:7];
}
}
I have searched this site and others, and the usually when this error comes up, it is because the generic UIViewController has not been correctly set to the specific view controller object used in the program, in this case the "HappinessViewController." But I have set the generic UIViewController to be a HappinessViewController using the identity inspector in IB, and I am still getting the exception. I am tearing my hair out, if anyone could help it would be much appreciated.
Let's look at the exception:
-[UIViewController setHappiness:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance
This tells you two things about the message that was unrecognized. It tells you the selector, setHappiness:. It also tells you the actual, runtime class of the receiver, UIViewController.
Of course, UIViewController has no method named setHappiness:. That's why you got the exception.
You wrote a subclass of UIViewController called HappinessViewController which does have a setHappiness: method (or a read/write property named happiness, which generates the method). And you intended for the receiver (the destination view controller) to be an instance of that subclass (HappinessViewController).
But the exception is telling you that the destination view controller is just a plain UIViewController. So even though you think you did, you probably did not set the view controller's custom class in the storyboard. Maybe you set the custom class of some other view controller, but you didn't set the class of this segue's destination.
You need to set the destination view controller's custom class in the Identity Inspector, like this:
I figured out the problem. Although I had correctly specified that the relevant UIViewController was a HappinessViewController, the linker, was for some reason, not linking to the correct files. The fix was to go to double click on the .xcodeproj file inside Xcode, then go to Build Phases and manually add the files under "Compile Sources."
For me changing the class of the view controller in the story board worked.
Try like this:
HappinessViewController *controller = segue.destinationViewController;
[controller setHappiness:7];
I had the same problem today and it was because my custom class was in a library. The library itself was being linked in build phases, but that in itself was not enough to pull in the class. So finally I solved it by add the following line to my AppDelegate.
- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions
{
[ CustomClass class ];
}
This forces the linker to pull in the class. Otherwise simply linking in the library may not be enough to pull in the class unless it is referenced somewhere in the application.
I tried adding a Cast and it worked for me, I had the same problem:
FirstViewController *detailViewController =
(FirstViewController *)[segue destinationViewController];
Check which prepareForSegue is triggering. My problem was that 2 segues were triggering, in the current viewController and in the incoming viewController. The solution, and always a good practice is to check segues identifiers.
- (void)prepareForSegue:(UIStoryboardSegue*)segue sender:(id)sender
{
if ([segue.identifier isEqualToString:#"segueIdentifier"]) {
}
}
Cast before assigning
HappinessViewController *controller = (HappinessViewController *)segue.destinationViewController;
[controller setHappiness:7];
Make sure in your storyboard, HappinessViewController is set as the class of you VC
iOS 5 adds a nice feature allowing you to nest UIViewControllers. Using this pattern it was easy for me to create a custom alert view -- I created a semi-transparent view to darken the screen and a custom view with some widgets in it that I could interact with. I added the VC as a child of the VC in which I wanted it to display, then added its views as subviews and did a little animation to bring it on the screen.
Unfortunately, I need to support iOS 4.3. Can something like this be done, or do I have to manage my "alert" directly from the VC in which I want to display it?
MORE INFO
So if I create a custom view in a nib whose file owner is "TapView" and who has a child view that is a UIButton. I tie the UIButton action to a IBAction in TapView.
Now in my MainControllerView I simple add the TapView:
TapView *tapView = [[TapView alloc] init];
[[self view] addSubview:tapView];
I see my TapView, but I can't interact with the UIButton on it and can interact with a UIButton on the MainControllerView hidden behind it. For some reason I am not figuring out what I'm missing...
Not sure if this helps, but, in situations where I've needed more control over potential several controllers, I've implemented a pattern where I have a "master" controller object (doesn't need to be descendent from UIViewController), which implements a delegate protocol (declared separately in it's own file), and then have whatever other controllers I need to hook into declare an object of that type as a delegate, and the master can do whatever it needs to do in response to messages from the controllers with the delegate, at whatever point you need; in your case, that being displaying the alert and acting as it's delegate to handle the button selection. I find this approach to be very effective, simpler and usually cleaner. YMMV ;-)
Regd. your second query, where you are trying to create a custom view using nib. Don't change the FileOwner type, instead set "TapView" for the class property of the top level view object.
Once you have done this, you might experience difficulty when making connections. For that just manually choose the TapView file for making connections.
Also, to load the view you need to load its nib file. For which you can create a class level helper method in TapView class like below
+(TapView *) getInstance
{
NSArray *bundle = [[NSBundle mainBundle] loadNibNamed:#"TapView" owner:self options:nil];
TapView *view;
for (id object in bundle) {
if ([object isKindOfClass:[TapView class]]) {
view = (TapView *) object;
break;
}
}
return view;
}
Now, you get a refrence to you view object like this
TapView *tapView = [TapView getInstance];
I would like to update the UI in my application from the AppDelegate, but whenever I call it as so:
Controller *object = [[Controller alloc] init];
[object methodHere];
It doesn't seem to update the UI. What am I doing wrong here? I have put in a NSLog to see if it was being called, and it is. Here is a sample project that shows the error.
Edit: Can someone just show me what to change to the project I provided. I just don't know what to type into my project so that I can change the value of a simple NSTextField from another class.
When you write [[Controller alloc] init], you are not accessing the Controller object that is in your nib. You are creating a new Controller object that is unconnected to anything else in your application.
Remember, every Controller object is not the same any more than every NSArray is the same. Just because you made one Controller in your nib that's connected to an NSTextField does not mean some random Controller that you just created shares that controller's connections.
What you need to do is give the delegate a reference to the Controller that's in the nib.
This is really simple, and Chuck's comments basically explain what you need to do, but I will lay out the code explicitly for you. In testAppDelegate.h:
#interface testAppDelegate : NSObject <NSApplicationDelegate> {
NSWindow *window;
// You can make an IBOutlet to any kind of object you
// want; it's just a way for you to get a reference
// in code to an object that has been alloc'd and
// init'd already by the xib mechanism.
IBOutlet Controller *controller;
}
Then go into your xib in InterfaceBuilder and hook up that outlet from your Test App Delegate object to your Controller object (these objects are already present in the xib).
In testAppDelegate.m:
- (void)applicationDidFinishLaunching:(NSNotification *)aNotification {
// This is the key:
// _Don't_ alloc/init a new controller object. The
// objects in your xib are allocated and initialized
// by virtue of being in that file. You just need to
// give your AppDelegate a pointer to it, as above.
[controller setTextValue:#"hello"];
}
It's being called all right, but it's not connected to the interface. There should be a view controller of some sort defined in your appDelegate.h file, call the method on that object instead.
Update for more detail:
One way you could pull this off would be to simply save the Controller when you originally create it (and not release it until later.)
Simply put your own controller object into your .h file
Controller* myController;
And when you create the new view controller you want to flip to, simply set myController to reference that object, and later when you want to update the UI, simply call
[myController methodHere];
A bit clumsy, but it works. Just don't forget to release myController when you're done with that view.
The other idea I'd suggest looking into would be to alter the method you're passing to your delegate. That is, instead of having the method as
-(returnType)callDelegateToDoSomething;
put it in as
-(returnType)callDelegateToDoSomething:(id) sender;
You call the new method the same way, but your controller should automatically pass itself as an argument. Then, inside the method, simply use
[sender methodHere];
and it should hopefully work. (You may need to play around with it a little. I'm not an expert on delegates or the sender argument, but it's worth a shot.)
I might be confused here and asking the wrong question.
If I use a class like the UISplitViewController inside the appdelete.m, will the only message i will receive is the message the UISplitViewController calls and not any VIEW message? for example:
in my myappdelegate.m
....
UISplitViewController *mySplitViewController = [[UISplitViewController alloc] init];
mySplitViewController.viewControllers = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:leftside,rightside,nil];
...
mySplitViewController.delegate = self;
....
[windows addSubView:mySplitViewController.view];
....
-(void) viewWillAppear:(BOOL) animated {
}
in myappdelegate.h I included UISplitViewControllerDelegate
I expected viewWillAppear to fire but it is not. I assume if I had subclass UISplitViewControler it would have fire. right?
BTW: I am doing this without using IB. Do I need to set the target for the mySplitViewController?
What I want to do is setup the orientation of the splitviewcontroller when it rotates.
the viewWillAppear method and other view related methods will be called on the view or view controller themselves, not on the delegate.
That means that if you make a subclass of UISplitViewController called SplitViewControllerSubClass, the view... methods will be called on the instance of SplitViewControllerSubClass, not on the delegate object.
But considering you are creating the views and displaying them programmatically, you already know exactly when the view will appear (i.e., right before you add it to the window), so I believe you could do whatever setup you want at that point.