UITableViewController loading inside a UIViewController inside a UIViewController issue - iphone

I don't really know if what I'm doing is the right way to do it. Right now it seems to be working until it hits a certain point with a EXC_BAD_ACCESS message.
I'll describe what I'm doing as best and with the most relevant details I can tell:
I have a CalendarViewController that inherits UIViewController which is loading from a .xib file (CalendarViewController.xib). The class contains a UIView called contentView which I created and which I initialize with another nib file based on a class which is also inherited from UIViewController:
- (void)viewDidLoad {
[super viewDidLoad];
calendarView = [[CalendarView alloc] initWithNibName:#"CalendarView" bundle:nil];
[contentView addSubview:calendarView.view];
}
(calendarView is the class inheriting UIViewController and viewDidLoad is from CalendarViewController.
CalendarView.xib has a UITableViewController with it's respective UITableView. This Table View Controller is linked to a CalendarTableController to which I also generated a .xib file for it.
Everything is being created just right (apparently) but it is crashing somewhere very unexpected. CalendarTableController also implements a DateLoaderDelegate which loads information from an xml on an external url.
- (void)connectionDidFinishLoading:(NSURLConnection *)connection {
// When the data has all finished loading, we set a copy of the
// loaded data for us to access. This will allow us to not worry about
// whether a load is already in progress when accessing the data.
self.lastLoadedMatchXMLData = [self.matchXMLData copy];
// Make sure the _delegate object actually has the xmlDidFinishLoading
// method, and if it does, call it to notify the delegate that the
// data has finished loading.
if ([_delegate respondsToSelector:#selector(xmlDidFinishLoading)])
{
[_delegate xmlDidFinishLoading];
}
}
The application is getting to this point without any problem. _delegate is containing the correct object (a CalendarTableController which implements the DateLoaderDelegate). But when it arrives to the line:
if ([_delegate respondsToSelector:#selector(xmlDidFinishLoading)])
it crashes with the EXC_BAD_ACCESS, I don't really know the reason, if I look at the debugger, the crash is not occurring in any of my classes as any of them are appearing in the execution stack. URLConnectionClient seems to be generating it, but I don't really know why. The loading of the xml had worked earlier before I rearranged the ViewControllers to work as I have described now.
Any ideas?

It's weird. I fixed the problem but I had to dedicate the whole UIViewController to contain the UITableView. What I did was this:
Create an IBOutlet with the custom UITableViewController (CalendarTableViewController) in the custom UIViewController.
In the loaded .xib file I linked the IBOutlet to a created UITableViewController declared as a CalendarTableViewController.
This way I solved the problem of the UITableViewController being deallocated without reason. But now the image views I had placed in the intermediate UIViewController wouldn't appear. I had to set that UIViewController to contain solely the CalendarTableView and place the image views in the initial UIViewController. Weird, isn't it? I don't like much the hierarchy I created... but for now that will do =S

Check that you have defined properties for all of your subviews and that you are retaining everything that you need to be. Bad Access May mean that you're attempting to call respondsToSelector on an object that has been released.

Have you tried calling loadView before adding the nested controller's view to the parent's view?
Maybe viewDidLoad is not executing before you add the view and some variables were never initialized.

Related

Passing Data From Views in Core Data

Hello everyone — I am a beginner in iPhone programming and Core Data. I am currently trying to learn some of the theory behind Core Data, and have been using this tutorial to help me implement it in my app.
The tutorial teaches by making the main view a UITableViewController that lists the saved objects and another UITableViewController that saves objects (where you enter in the attributes).
The app that I am creating has 3 views. The main view is a plain UIViewController (it handles calculations), you are able to save your calculations by tapping a UIBarButtonItem that brings you to the second view where you enter in more specific attributes. Once you tap save, you are taken BACK to the main view, where you are able to tap a Show Saved button to access the UITableViewController containing saved objects.
I have included #imported the UITableViewController files into my main view's interface file, but when I run the program, I get an error on this line in my prepareForSegue method:
addShoeSizeTVC.managedObjectContext = self.managedObjectContext;
The error is "Property managedObjectContext not found on object of type 'SSFViewController*'" I understand the meaning of this error — I don't have any object called managedObjectContext in my SSFViewController class, but I figured that if I included my file that DOES contain managedObjectContext that it would still be recognized. I should add, that in the tutorial, the prepareForSegue method was contained in the list view for the segue to the add new object UITableViewController. I moved this method to my mainViewController.
I also get an error in my App Delegate in my ApplicationDidFinishLaunchingWithOptions method:
controller.managedObjectContext = self.managedObjectContext;
I understand that this stems from the same problem with the other error (it gives the same error message).
I do not understand how to pass data going from my viewA (mainView), to viewB (add object), back to viewA, then to viewC (view saved objects). I have heard about delegation and am using it in my prepareForSegue method in my SSFViewController main view:
- (void)prepareForSegue:(UIStoryboardSegue *)segue sender:(id)sender {
if ([segue.identifier isEqualToString:#"Add Object Segue"]) {
NSLog(#"Setting ObjectsTVC as a delegate of AddObjectTVC");
AddObjectTVC *addObjectTVC = segue.destinationViewController;
addObjectTVC.delegate = addObjectTVC.self;
addObjectTVC.managedObjectContext = addObjectTVC.self.managedObjectContext;
}
}
Also on the addObjectTVC.delegate = addObjectTVC.self; line I get a warning that says "Passing 'AddObjectTVC*' to parameter of incompatible type 'id'"
Do I have to set up an NSManagedContext or another delegation method in my main view? Or is it something that I must add to any of my Table views???
Thank you very much. I feel like this is a simple problem to solve, if provided with the right information. I am happy to post any other methods that I used if needed to solve the problem. I am a beginner, so it would be great if you could explain in a beginner-friendly way.
Thanks!
First of all, if you want data from ViewA to ViewB, insert a property in the ViewB and you can pass data from ViewA to this #property
Example
ViewB:
#property (nonatomic, strong) NSString *yourName;
(don't forget to call #synthesize yourName )
ViewA: (in prepareForSegue method)
"ViewB-Controller" *controller = segue.destinationViewController;
controller.yourName = self.name
--> name will be passed to ViewB
Second:
I prefer a delegate which send from ViewB to ViewA "Hey please save your data". It keeps your controller easy and smart, and you don't have to manage the save method from all view controllers. Delegate is an important chapter in iOS and it can be very frustrated for a beginner. (I was in the same situation 9 months before ;))
Search for a delegate example and try to understand how it works (learning by doing), if you have further question about delegate, I will friendly respond to your question.
It isn't the view controller that has the managedObjectContext property, but your UIManagedDocument.
The context is typically described as the 'scratch pad' in which your app will work with the data store.

How to add the UI for one of the tab controller's using loadView when the rest were via Interface Builder?

I have a main window which has the UITabViewController as its root controller. I am using a nib file for this. In Interface Builder, two of the tabs have been wired to Controller_A, Nib_A and Controller_B, Nib_B but the 3rd tab only knows about Controller_C.
I assumed that this would mean that the loadView method of Controller_C would be automatically called since I haven't bothered to specify the NIB file. I want to lay this piece out programmatically. And it DOES indeed get called as I've confirmed by placing a breakpoint inside this method.
BUT when I switched over to Controller_C in the simulator, it comes up empty!
Here's what the loadView of Controller_C looks like:
- (void)loadView
{
[super loadView];
...
[self setTableView:formTableView];
[view addSubview:formTableView];
[self setView:view];
}
Any tips? What am I ignoring?
Looks like you are searching for:
-(void)viewDidLoad {
Here are the main things to check.
Click on your Controller_C in interface builder. In the Identity Inspector, make sure that the Class field is set to Controller_C.
In the Attributes Inspector, make sure the NIB Name field is blank.
If you have an existing Controller_C.xib laying around in your project, remove and delete it. The default implementation of loadView loads this file even if
Remove [super loadView]. Since you're building your view hierarchy in code, you shouldn't invoke the default implementation. You should explicitly allocate the controller's view as a local variable in loadView and set it using setView:.
Also, your comment on the other answer suggests that you may be confused about when/why loadView and initWithNibName:bundle: get called, so let me clarify:
loadView gets called to lazy load your controller's view the first time its view property gets accessed. This is true whether your view controller was constructed as an object in a NIB, or whether you constructed it yourself in code using initWithNibName:bundle:. The default implementation of loadView loads the NIB that was specified in initWithNibName:bundle: or in the NIB Name property in IB. If a NIB name wasn't specified, the default implementation looks for any NIB in the bundle that has the same name as your class and loads that NIB if one is found. If no appropriate NIB is found, then the default implementation of loadView just creates an empty view and sets that as your controller's view. When we build our own view hierarchy explicitly in loadView, we don't want any of these default behaviors, so we don't call [super loadView].
It seems loadView works as expected, the reason that my view was blank is because the datasource for my tableview was actually NIL. Earlier, I did not consider this scenario as I thought that it would at least present an empty table in such a case but apparently that was an incorrect assumption on my part. All this mistakenly led me to believe that the view wasn't being initialized properly.
#cduhn: Thanks, I had been following steps 1-3 already and it was really good to hear someone else give the same advice. The rest of what you said was educational for me as well.
Thanks Everyone.

How to load a UIViewController programmatically?

I'm trying to load a UIViewController from code. I basically created a UIViewController generating a .xib file. I load it with the following code:
testViewController = [[TestViewController alloc] initWithNibName:#"TestViewController" bundle:nil];
this works but apparently (from what I have read) only the view is kept and the controller is deallocated (something which I have tested putting a breakpoint in the UIViewController's dealloc method). I need to keep the UIViewController or otherwise, create a UIViewController with a UIView loaded from a nib file. How can this be achieved?
Not sure what you mean. What you're doing there is correct. Since you've allocated it, you also -need to send a release statement to the view controller at some point, till then it shouldn't be dealloc'ed.
A view might get released and set to nil under a special case where the application receives a memory warning, but I'm not sure if this was what you've read.

UIView (subview) does not send IBActions to AppDelegate

I'm having this problem because I originially made everything in the main NIB, but then after reading learned that it is better to use subviews.
I've got my IBActions in the AppDelegate, and I've successfully connected and loaded my subviews. However, when I try to connect my buttons in the subviews to the IBActions in the AppDelegate, the IBActions appear under the "First Responder". They seem to connect fine, but when running the application they do not trigger the IBActions (I've confirmed this with some NSLogs, it's not an error in the code within the IBActions). What am I doing wrong?
Thanks!
The AppDelegate should only be used for very specific items such as implementing the UIApplicationDelegate protocol (i.e. methods like applicationDidFinishLaunching) or in some cases storing global variables.
You should keep IBActions and other outlets in their respective view controller files (i.e. if you created MyViewController.h and MyViewController.m which are linked with MyViewController.xib where you have some buttons, images, etc.). They can then be hooked up via dragging the inspector control you want (i.e. TouchUpInside) to the File's Owner.
Something you should read to better understand view controllers: http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/featuredarticles/ViewControllerPGforiPhoneOS/Introduction/Introduction.html
Typically it is best to create a unique view controller for each view you will present to the user. For instance, if I had a main screen and then an "about" or a settings screen, I would make each of those their own view controller. It helps organize things better than using one view with a whole bunch of subviews that you hide/show and will also improve loading times and general performance.
Update for your 2nd question in the comments about accessing the app delegate:
First, you need to import the .h file (i.e. #import "AppDelegate.h") for the app delegate into whichever view controller .m file you wanna use to access whatever variables, arrays, etc you have stored in the app delegate files. Make sure you synthesize whichever objects you create in the app delegate's .h file in the app delegate's .m file so the getters and setters are created (so you can access them).
Then in the view controller .m file, in whichever method you are using:
-(void)someMethod {
// here we just create a shortcut to the app delegate called "theAppDelegate"
YourAppDelegateFileNameHere *theAppDelegate = (YourAppDelegateFileNameHere *)[[UIApplication sharedApplication] delegate];
// now you can use the dot notation if you wanna access a variable
int SomeNewInteger = theAppDelegate.someIntegerYouHaveStored;
// or some array you have stored
return [theAppDelegate.someArrayYouCreated count];
}
Hope that helps!

How to use generic (NSObject) controller with subviews of a UIViewController?

I have a UIViewController that is loading several subviews at different times based on user interaction. I originally built all of these subviews in code, with no nib files. Now I am moving to nib files with custom UIView subclasses.
Some of these subviews display static data, and I am using loadNibNamed:owner:options: to load them into the view controller. Others contain controls that I need to access.
I (sort of) understand the reasons Apple says to use one view controller per screen of content, using generic controller objects (NSObjects) to manage subsections of a screen.
So I need a view controller, a generic controller, a view class and a nib. How do I put this all together?
My working assumptions and subsequent questions:
I will associate the view class with
the nib in the 'class identity' drop
down in IB.
The view controller will coordinate
overall screen interactions. When
necessary, it will create an instance
of the generic controller.
Does the generic controller load the
nib? How?
Do I define the outlets and actions
in that view class, or should they be
in the generic controller?
How do I pass messages between the
view controller and the generic
controller?
If anyone can point me to some sample code using a controller in this way, it will go a long way to helping me understand. None of the books or stackoverflow posts I've read have quite hit the spot yet.
Okay, I think I figured it out:
Extend NSObject to make your CustomController
Define your outlets & actons in CustomController.h, including a reference to the UIView in your nib
Set the File's Owner of your nib to CustomController
Hook up all your outlets & actions as usual, including the UIView outlet
In your CustomController.m init, load the nib
- (id)init {
self = [super init];
if (self != nil)
[self loadNib];
return self;
}
- (BOOL)loadNib {
NSArray *topLevelObjs = nil;
topLevelObjs = [[NSBundle mainBundle] loadNibNamed:#"CustomView" owner:self options:nil];
if (topLevelObjs == nil) {
NSLog(#"Error! Could not load nib file.\n");
return NO;
}
return YES;
}
The new NSObject based controller will work very much like a view controller.
It sounds like what you want is what I've coined "reusable UIView widgets" -- reusable widgets that do something / present a display that you can incorporate in your app screens wherever and how many times as you want -- you can create them purely in code or instantiate them by placing their frame in another xib file (but you don't get to change the widgets' internal parameters in the xib file, that would require an IB plugin).
This is an organization that I've never seen discussed anywhere. Part of my frustration early on with iOS programming is wanting something like this but not seeing any way to express it in any example.
See my answer in this question to see how it can be structured:
UIView and initWithFrame and a NIB file. How can i get the NIB file loaded?
I recommend placing all widget-internal handling of direct/low-level events in the uiview widget subclass, and implememnt a delegate protocol for a highler level interaction with the widget client (i.e., "loginRequested:userName:passWord" instead of manually accessing button and textfields internal to the widget).
The (optional but recommended) xib file for the widget has an owner of the widget, and the init code in the widget owns the duty of loading the xib file. The customer of the widget simply instantiates the widget and implements whicever widget delegate functions makes sense for it.