UIView is always behind UITableView - swift

Question

I have a UIViewController (not a UITableViewController because I read that a view controller is best for this kind of behaviour) with a UITableView. In this view controller I want to add a floating UIView and place it above my tableview, to do so I wrote:
public override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
// add button
let fbv = liquidActionButtonInstance.addActionButton() // this is a UIView
self.view.addSubview(fbv)
liquidActionButtonInstance.delegate = self
// delegate
tableView.delegate = self
tableView.dataSource = self
}
However my floating view appears behind my UITableView, how can I add it as the first child of self.view? I've used
self.view.addSubview(fbv)
self.view.bringSubviewToFront(fbv)
Among others and none seems to work.
Edit:
I added some screenshots of my view's hierarchy.
Edit 2:
Here I put a little more code:
My ViewController without some unrelated code:
public class ActividadesTableViewController: UIViewController {
#IBOutlet weak var tableView: UITableView!
#IBOutlet weak var descripcionFiltrosLabel: UILabel!
#IBOutlet weak var filtrosLabelBottomConstraint: NSLayoutConstraint!
#IBOutlet weak var filtrosLabelTopConstraint: NSLayoutConstraint!
#IBOutlet weak var tableViewTopConstraint: NSLayoutConstraint!
private var liquidActionButtonInstance: FloatingActionButton = FloatingActionButton()
public var viewModel : ActividadesTableViewModeling?
public override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
// Agregar action button
self.view.insertSubview(liquidActionButtonInstance.addActionButton(),aboveSubview: tableView)
liquidActionButtonInstance.delegate = self
// set row's height
tableView.estimatedRowHeight = 70
tableView.rowHeight = UITableViewAutomaticDimension
// delegate
tableView.delegate = self
tableView.dataSource = self
// load tableview data
if let viewModel = viewModel {
viewModel.loadActividades(withFilters: nil)
}
}
}
// MARK: FloatingButton
extension ActividadesTableViewController: FloatingActionButtonDelegate {
public func performSegueFromFloatingActionButton(segueName name: String) {
performSegueWithIdentifier(name, sender: self)
}
}
// MARK: TableView
extension ActividadesTableViewController: UITableViewDataSource, UITableViewDelegate {
public func tableView(tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
// Omitting this code, just mentioning the methods
}
public func tableView(tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier("ActividadCell", forIndexPath: indexPath) as! ActividadTableViewCell
if let viewModel = viewModel {
cell.viewModel = viewModel.cellModels.value[indexPath.row]
} else {
cell.viewModel = nil
}
return cell
}
public func tableView(tableView: UITableView, didSelectRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) {
}
}
And this is how I add the button (in a different class):
func addActionButton() -> LiquidFloatingActionButton {
let createButton: (CGRect, LiquidFloatingActionButtonAnimateStyle) -> LiquidFloatingActionButton = { (frame, style) in
let floatingActionButton = LiquidFloatingActionButton(frame: frame)
floatingActionButton.animateStyle = style
floatingActionButton.dataSource = self
floatingActionButton.delegate = self
floatingActionButton.color = ColoresKairos.principal2
return floatingActionButton
}
let cellFactory: (String) -> LiquidFloatingCell = { (iconName) in
return LiquidFloatingCell(icon: UIImage(named: iconName)!)
}
cells.append(cellFactory("iphone-action-button-group"))
cells.append(cellFactory("iphone-action-button-notepad"))
cells.append(cellFactory("iphone-action-button-check-box"))
let floatingFrame = CGRect(x: UIScreen.mainScreen().bounds.width - 56 - 16, y: UIScreen.mainScreen().bounds.height - 56 - 16, width: 56, height: 56)
let bottomRightButton = createButton(floatingFrame, .Up)
//view.addSubview(bottomRightButton)
//return view
return bottomRightButton
}

Answer 1

You need to add the view using addSubview(_:) AND bringToFront(_:). You can also try sending the tableView to the back using sendToBack(_:)

Answer 2

In your document outline menu in your storyboard, you can place your floating view below your TableView in view hierarchy. Then, you can always see your floating view placed above your tableview.
It's gonna be like this.
▼ Your ViewController
Top Layout Guide
Bottom Layout Guide
▼View
▶︎ TableView
▶︎ Floating View

Answer 3

Below is the code that is working along with its screenshot, I suspect that your call liquidActionButtonInstance.addActionButton() returns an empty button?
class ViewController: UIViewController {
#IBOutlet weak var tableView: UITableView!
private var liquidButton: LiquidFloatingActionButton?
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
tableView.delegate = self
tableView.dataSource = self
// Setting up the liquid button
liquidButton = createLiquidButton()
view.addSubview(liquidButton!)
}
func createLiquidButton() -> LiquidFloatingActionButton {
let frame = CGRect(x: UIScreen.mainScreen().bounds.width - 56 - 16, y: UIScreen.mainScreen().bounds.height - 56 - 16, width: 56, height: 56)
let button = LiquidFloatingActionButton(frame: frame)
button.animateStyle = .Up
button.color = UIColor.redColor()
return button
}
}
extension ViewController: UITableViewDelegate, UITableViewDataSource {
// UITableView Implementation, not included not relevent for the example.
}

Answer 4

The error here, after debugging the view hierarchy was that my tableView wasn't being added directly to the UIViewController's hierarchy, so it was added above everything else, and adding my FloatingButton as a subview of UIViewController always resulted on it being hidden by my tableView.
My tableView is added via storyboard, and as far as I know this is not the expected behaviour, but in my case just adding the following lines:
self.view.addSubview(tableView)
self.view.addSubview(liquidActionButtonInstance.addActionButton())
Solved my problem.