Is there any way I can test if a method exists in Objective-C?
I'm trying to add a guard to see if my object has the method before calling it.
if ([obj respondsToSelector:#selector(methodName:withEtc:)]) {
[obj methodName:123 withEtc:456];
}
There is also the static message instancesRespondToSelector:(SEL)selector
You would call it like this:
[MyClass instancesRespondToSelector:#selector(someMethod:withParams:)]
or like this:
[[myObject class] instancesRespondToSelector:#selector(someMethod:withParams:)]
This may be useful if you would like to call one constructor or another one depending on this (I mean, before having the instance itself).
Use respondsToSelector:. From the documentation:
respondsToSelector:
Returns a Boolean value that indicates whether the receiver implements or inherits a method that can respond to a specified message.
- (BOOL)respondsToSelector:(SEL)aSelector
Parameters
aSelector - A selector that identifies a message.
Return Value
YES if the receiver implements or inherits a method that can respond to aSelector, otherwise NO.
You're looking for respondsToSelector:-
if ([foo respondsToSelector: #selector(bar)] {
[foo bar];
}
As Donal says the above tells you that foo can definitely handle receiving the bar selector. However, if foo's a proxy that forwards bar to some underlying object that will receive the bar message, then respondsToSelector: will tell you NO, even though the message will be forwarded to an object that responds to bar.
Checking selectors with respondsToSelector is normally only for delegate methods. You shouldn't be using forwardInvocation or proxies for delegate methods. If you need to use respondsToSelector in other situations you might want to make sure that there isn't a more appropriate way to design your program.
Related
I have a class that uses NSURLConnection to fire a POST request.
I have other classes use a delegate on this class that it uses to fire an event when a response has been received.
When I've parsed the response, I call the delegate like so:
- (void)connectionDidFinishLoading:(NSURLConnection*)conn { ...
if (delegate)
{
[delegate serverDataLayerResponse:entity];
} ... }
I'm getting "EXC_BAD_ACCESS(code=1, address-..." on the line inside the if block.
I've even tried #try and #catch around that part but it stills kills my app.
I'm suspecting that the delegate is still pointing to as object in memory that has been released? How can I guard from this?
Thanks for any help.
You've got a bad pointer. delegate is nonzero, so the test passes, but doesn't point to a valid object. You could put a breakpoint in the delegate's -dealloc to detect whether the object was deallocated. Also, try breaking where you assign the delegate and make sue you've got a valid object at that point.
I have a class, which has a delegate based system for sending different type of requests. it uses delegate to tell the object when the request is complete and also if it was a success o an error.
Now, I also have to check what type of request was it in response to take appropriate action.
I have wrapper class that should give me a block based interface for the same.
I pass a completion-block and an error-block to a request method which should internally use this delegate based class.
And when the response comes, should automatically call the appropriate handler for that request type and depending on success and error as well.
I saw a similar question on SO, but it was a little unclear to me, So please give a general idea of how to go about it instead of marking it as duplicate straight away.
Here is one way to do it. Use this RAExpendable class to dynamically build a delegate with a block based implementation.
Let's say your delegate is:
#protocol XDelegate
-(void) foo:(id)response;
#end
Add RAExpendable.h, RAExpendable.m from https://github.com/evadne/RAExpendable to your project. Dynamically add the delegate method:
RAExpendable *expendable = [RAExpendable new];
[expendable addMethodForSelector:#selector(foo:) types:"v#:#" block:^(id x, SEL sel, id response){
NSLog(#"response is %#", response);
}];
And set the expendable class as your delegate:
someObject.delegate = expendable;
Now, if you do this:
[expendable performSelector:#selector(foo:) withObject:#"OK"];
You get the string response is OK. Replace NSLog with whatever success/failure implementation you see fit. From now on, when you call foo:, the block executes instead.
If you want to modify this for your use case, note that the parameters for this example were v#:#, which according to the Type Encoding guide of the runtime means: void return, self, SEL, object. self and SEL are the two hidden parameters present on every Objective-C methods, the third parameter is the first non hidden parameter of the method. The signature of the block has to match the signature of the method.
With REKit, you can make a delegate dynamically like below:
id dynamicDelegate;
dynamicDelegate = [[NSObject alloc] init];
[dynamicDelegate respondsToSelector:#selector(foo:) withKey:nil usingBlock:^(id receiver, id response) {
NSLog(#"response is %#", response);
}];
someObject.delegate = dynamicDelegate;
I want to get the name of the arguments of the current function I am in so that I can prepare loading that object from the filesystem if it's not present on the current instance. (for instance if [foo dictTest] is not available I want to load it's prior saved plist version into exactly that ivar)
I want to find the file by providing the ivar name that I provided as an argument to the current function.
This is the function code:
-(NSDictionary*)getCachedDictionary:(NSDictionary*)dict{
NSInvocation *invocation = [NSInvocation invocationWithMethodSignature:[self methodSignatureForSelector:_cmd]];
NSString * firstArgument = nil;
[invocation getArgument:&firstArgument atIndex:2];
NSLog(#"Trying to get the objects ivar %#",firstArgument);
// right now during testing return nil
return nil;
}
As soon as the code reaches the NSLog I am getting a null value from firstArgument.
Why is that? Could it be possible that I would have to wait for the complete invocation of that current method I am in or is it actually better to create a proxy function that implicitly calls my class method via an invocation that eats the ivar name provided by setArgument so that I can use that argument string like I want?
Thanks a lot in advance!
P.S.: In this particular example I do not want to use KVC to identify the ivar and return it.
You've misunderstood the NSInvocation API. +[NSInvocation invocationWithMethodSignature:] creates a new NSInvocation that is keyed to accept arguments of the types defined by the method signature. It does not return an NSInvocation that corresponds to the current method invocation. This is pretty easy to see why:
- (void)doBar:(id)bip {
NSLog(#"hi there!")
}
- (void)doFoo {
NSMethodSignature *sig = [self methodSignatureForSelector:#selector(doBar:)];
NSInvocation *i = [NSInvocation invocationWithMethodSignature:sig];
}
When you create the invocation in doFoo for the doBar: method, it's obvious to see that the arguments must be empty, because doBar: hasn't been executed, and thus there is no argument. Changing #selector(doBar:) to _cmd wouldn't magically change anything.
So the next question: is there a way to get an NSInvocation for the current method invocation? Not that I know of. NSInvocation is an extremely complicated class, and constructing one from the current method would be a nightmare.
I strongly suggest finding a different approach to do whatever it is you want to do.
Even though the question is old and answered, here is a link that provides an easy and very elegant way to create an invocation instance for any selector/method that is known at compile time:
http://www.cocoawithlove.com/2008/03/construct-nsinvocation-for-any-message.html
I want to build a selector from a class method.
I'm doing it this way:
NavigationTreeActionHandler* handler=[NavigationTreeActionHandler self];
NavigationTreeNode* bombsNode=new NavigationTreeNode("Bombs","bigbomb.tif"
,handler,#selector(BigBombButtonPressed:));
I need to pass to NavigationTreeNode the target and the selector to the target method.
I try to get the target using the self property of the class object (Don't know if htis is the correct way to do it). Then I get the selector for the class method I want to call on the class.
Everything compiles ok but it fails when I use:
[[handler class] instanceMethodSignatureForSelector:selector];
I get a nil and don't really know why... could anybody help please?
A few suggestions:
[NavigationTreeActionHandler self] will work fine to get the class object, but I would declare handler as type id instead of NavigationTreeActionHandler*, because it's not a reference to an instance that type
[handler class] is redundant; handler is already the class object.
instanceMethodSignatureForSelector: is only going to return nil if handler does not implement the selector. Verify your spelling etc., and try throwing in an NSLog to verify what you're receiving:
NSLog("handler = %# sel = %#", handler, NSStringFromSelector(selector));
But I'm unclear on what you're trying to do with instanceMethodSignatureForSelector: in the first place. If you're just trying to call the class method, wouldn't [handler performSelector:selector]; do what you want?
It's likely you're using code that assumes that calling the method class will get an object's class, and thus uses [[handler class] instanceMethodSignatureForSelector:selector] to get the method signature for the selector on the object handler. While that works for normal objects, that does not work for class objects, because of the different meaning of the class method on class objects, since the class method +class overrides the instance method -class, and +class simply returns the object it's called on, instead of the class it's an instance of (a meta-class).
The solution is that you don't even need to get the class at all, as there is a method you can call on an instance to get its method signature:
[handler methodSignatureForSelector:selector]
This is a much shorter and simpler way of doing what was intended, and also works for class objects too.
Is it possible to override ONLY CERTAIN functions from an exisiting delegate, without ourself being a delegate totally?
I tried replacing the target IMP with mine, didn't work :'(
More detail:
+[SomeClass sharedDelegate]
-[sharedDelegate targetMethodToBeOverridden:Arg:] //OUR method needs to be called, not this
Method *targetMethod; // targetMethodToBeOverridden identified by class_copymethodlist magic
targetMethod->method_imp = [self methodForSelector:#selector(overriddenDelegateMethod:Arg:)];
NOT WORKING! My Method is not being called :(
You probably shouldn't be manipulating the Method struct directly. Use the runtime function instead. You'll need to #import the runtime header, but there's a nice method in there called method_setImplementation. It'll work something like this:
id targetObject = [SomeClass sharedDelegate];
Method methodToModify = class_getInstanceMethod([targetObject class], #selector(replaceMe:argument:));
IMP newImplementation = [self methodForSelector:#selector(overriddenDelegateMethod:Arg:)];
method_setImplementation(methodToModify, newImplementation);
This may not work for your specific case, since class_getInstanceMethod might not return the Method for a method defined by an adopted protocol, but this is the "proper" way to swizzle Method IMPs.