Call function in UIViewController from an extension - iphone

Question

I have a UIViewController which loads up some json data from the server. If the server is down or the user has data turned off I throw up an alert telling the user such. This is done using a UIAlertController. This works great. So I put this into an extension since it is used by all UIViewControllers which need data. Now the UIAlertController has an action set as well
Alert code
extension UIViewController {
func connectionLost(){
var message = "Your device has lost connection to the server. Check that you have a valid internet connection and then retry."
let alertController = UIAlertController( title: "Connection Lost",
message: message,
preferredStyle: .alert)
let retryAction = UIAlertAction(title:"Retry", style: .default, handler: {
action in
//call function in the viewcontroller that raised this alert to reload the data
})
alertController.addAction(retryAction)
self.present(alertController, animated: true, completion: nil)
}
}
When the user taps the retry button I want to call a function in the uiviewcontroller that raised the alert.
I tried creating a delegate in the extension but struggled with getting it wired up like you do in a class. What sort of approaches are there to call a function from an extension in the viewcontroller that raised the alert?

Answer 1

You should create a BaseViewController and use Inheritance. It could be useful for other implementations too.
class BaseViewController: UIViewController {
func onRetryClick() {
// override to customize or write here the common behaviour
}
}
class FirstViewController: BaseViewController {
override func onRetryClick() {
// do something specific for FirstViewController
}
}
class SecondViewController: BaseViewController {
override func onRetryClick() {
// do something specific for SecondViewController
}
}
class ThirdViewController: BaseViewController {
// if you don't override this method, super class (BaseViewController) implementation will be executed
}
extension BaseViewController {
func connectionLost(){
var message = "Your device has lost connection to the server. Check that you have a valid internet connection and then retry."
let alertController = UIAlertController( title: "Connection Lost",
message: message,
preferredStyle: .alert)
let retryAction = UIAlertAction(title:"Retry", style: .default, handler: { action in
self.onRetryClick()
})
alertController.addAction(retryAction)
self.present(alertController, animated: true, completion: nil)
}
}

Answer 2

Hope this makes sense.
class MyVC: UIViewController {
func retry() {
}
func checkConnection() {
connectionLost { (retry) -> (Void) in
if retry {
self.retry()
}
}
}
}
extension UIViewController {
func connectionLost(completion: #escaping (_ retry: Bool) -> (Void)) {
let message = "Your device has lost connection to the server. Check that you have a valid internet connection and then retry."
let alertController = UIAlertController( title: "Connection Lost",
message: message,
preferredStyle: .alert)
let retryAction = UIAlertAction(title:"Retry", style: .default, handler: {
action in
completion(true)//may be 'false', you decide
})
alertController.addAction(retryAction)
self.present(alertController, animated: true, completion: nil)
}
}