Having issues setting delegate with Observer Pattern - swift

Question

I'm trying to realize the Observer Pattern and I'm experiencing some difficulty as my delegate doesn't seem to be setting properly.
In my Main.storyboard I have a ViewController with a container view. I also have an input box where I'm capturing numbers from a number keypad.
Here's my storyboard:
I'm trying to implement my own Observer Pattern using a protocol that looks like this:
protocol PropertyObserverDelegate {
func willChangePropertyValue(newPropertyValue:Int)
func didChangePropertyValue(oldPropertyValue:Int)
}
My main ViewController.swift
class ViewController: UIViewController {
#IBOutlet weak var numberField: UITextField!
// observer placeholder to be initialized in implementing controller
var observer : PropertyObserverDelegate?
var enteredNumber: Int = 0 {
willSet(newValue) {
print("//Two: willSet \(observer)") // nil !
observer?.willChangePropertyValue(5) // hard coded value for testing
}
didSet {
print("//Three: didSet")
observer?.didChangePropertyValue(5) // hard coded value for testing
}
}
#IBAction func numbersEntered(sender: UITextField) {
guard let inputString = numberField.text else {
return
}
guard let number : Int = Int(inputString) else {
return
}
print("//One: \(number)")
self.enteredNumber = number // fires my property observer
}
}
My ObservingViewController:
class ObservingViewController: UIViewController, PropertyObserverDelegate {
// never fires!
func willChangePropertyValue(newPropertyValue: Int) {
print("//four")
print(newPropertyValue)
}
// never fires!
func didChangePropertyValue(oldPropertyValue: Int) {
print("//five")
print(oldPropertyValue)
}
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
print("view loads")
// attempting to set my delegate
let mainStoryboard: UIStoryboard = UIStoryboard(name: "Main", bundle: nil)
let pvc = mainStoryboard.instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier("ViewController") as! ViewController
print("//six \(pvc)")
pvc.observer = self
}
}
Here's what my console prints:
What's happening
As you can see when my willSet fires, my observer is nil which indicates that I have failed to set my delegate in my ObservingViewController. I thought I set my delegate using these lines:
let mainStoryboard: UIStoryboard = UIStoryboard(name: "Main", bundle: nil)
let pvc = mainStoryboard.instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier("ViewController") as! ViewController
print("//six \(pvc)")
pvc.observer = self
However, I must be setting my delegate incorrectly if it's coming back nil.
Question
How do I properly set my delegate?

Answer 1

You are calling into the storyboard to instantiate a view controller and setting it as the observer, however that instantiates a new instance of that view controller, it doesn't mean that it is referencing the one single "view controller" that is in the storyboard. ObservingViewController needs another way to reference the ViewController that has already been created.

Answer 2

So #Chris did reenforce my suspicions which helped me to figure out a solution for assigning my delegate to my view controller properly.
In my ObservingViewController I just need to replace the code in my viewDidLoad with the following:
override func viewDidLoad() {
let app = UIApplication.sharedApplication().delegate as! AppDelegate
let vc = app.window?.rootViewController as! ViewController
vc.observer = self
}
Rather than creating a new instance of my view controller, I'm now getting my actual view controller.