I have several buttons on my main UIViewController (main menu) that creates and adds a subview UIViewController on top of the main menu. When I remove the subview the memory from that controller is not released. How can I release that subviews memory instantly?
Does anyone have an example? This would solve all my problems! Thanks in advance.
Here is how I add a subview
if((UIButton *) sender == gameClassicBtn) {
GameClassic *gameClassicController = [[GameClassic alloc]
initWithNibName:#"GameClassic" bundle:nil];
self.gameClassic = gameClassicController;
[gameClassicController release];
[self.view insertSubview:gameClassicController.view atIndex:1];
}
Based on the code you provided there could be at least two places the UIViewController is being retained - one by the view heirarchy (self.view) and the other by a member variable (self.gameClassic). It sounds like you're only releasing the view heirarchy reference but not the member variable. If you release the latter does it deallocate the UIViewController?
Related
Within my mainViewController I'm adding a view from another ViewController. I'm removing it's view when finished. What is the proper way to manage this and where do I release the view controller?
mainVc.m
-(void)showView {
helpPage *elementController = [[helpPage alloc] init];
[self.view addSubview:elementController.view];
}
helpPage.m
-(void)removeView {
[self.view removeFromSuperview];
}
Since you called alloc init on the controller in that instance of mainVc, that instance of mainVc owns releasing the controller.
When it calls addSubView, it will retain the view (and add to view hierarchy) and when it's removed from the superview, it will be released. At that point, when it's release, the controller that created the view is still retaining it as well. When both have released the view, it will go away.
Here's a related SO post:
Does UIView's addSubview really retain the view?
I think you are looking for something like this
mainVc.m
-(void)showView {
helpPage *elementController = [[helpPage alloc] init];
[self.view addSubview:elementController.view];
[elementController release];
}
helpPage.m
-(void)removeView {
[self.view removeFromSuperview];
}
Granted, I haven't seen the rest of your code, so that might not be what you are looking for. However, in terms of memory allocation, any time you alloc something, you must release it later. In the case of views and view controllers, once you add that view or view controller, you can release the copy you "alloc'ed."
I have a UIViewController that is creating another view controller, and adding its view as a subview:
In the parent UIViewController:
SlateMoreView* subView = [[SlateMoreView alloc] initWithNibName:#"SlateMoreView" bundle:nil];
[self.view addSubview:subView.view];
I then need to call a method from the subview, in the parent view.
I have seen how to do this when I am adding the sub UIViewController using [self.navigationController pushViewController: subView animated: YES], because I can find the parent using this kind of code:
In the sub view UIViewController:
NSArray* viewControllerArray = [self.navigationController viewControllers]
int parentViewControllerIndex = [viewControllerArray count] - 2;
SlateView* slateView = [viewControllerArray objectAtIndex:parentViewControllerIndex];
...and then I can send messages to it. But since I added the sub view manually by using addSubView, I can't do this.
Can anyone think of how I can talk to my parent UIViewController?
Thanks!
UIViews have a superview property which seems to be what you are looking for.
In addition you probably don't want to nest UIViewController's view like that unless you are very deliberately building a custom contain view controller. See http://blog.carbonfive.com/2011/03/09/abusing-uiviewcontrollers/
You might want to consider if your problem can be solved by using NSNotifications. You could post a notification from your subview when an event happens that interested listeners (your superview) need to know about . When the superview receives the notification, it can run whatever code you wish. All the while the subview never needs to know about the superview.
This is one way to make your classes less dependant on each other.
You could also use delegation as another option.
When you add your view as a subview to a view hierarchy, you put it in the responder chain. You can go up the responder chain to reach the view controller as a UIView controlled by a UIViewController has the UIViewController as its nextResponder.
id object = theSubview;
do {
object = [object nextResponder];
} while ( ![object isMemberOfClass:[YourViewController class]] );
// object has the view controller you need.
recently I joined two Xcode projects together. To get this thing to work, I had to alloc and initialize my view controller.
self.myViewController = [[MyViewController alloc] init];
But why? In the other project I have the same code. The sole difference is hierarchy of the different views. I added a new view to the top (beginning). So the calling View Controller is not the first view on the stack anymore.
I'm pushing my view in this way on the stack:
[[self navigationController] pushViewController:myViewController animated:YES];
In my NIBs I have added a View Controller object with IB and connected the Outlets.
And I have a memory management question too: If I have a property like myViewController, do I have to release it? The "normal" release is done in the dealloc method. But do I have to use an additional release because of the alloc? I don't think so, but I ask you anyway.
I would need to see more code to answer why you had to alloc your view controller, but I'd say that you always alloc them manually (at least in my experience).
As for the memory management question, if your property is declared as a retain property (#property(retain) UIViewController *myViewController), you are indeed leaking memory, since the retain count after alloc will be 1, and after the retain done by your accessor will be 2. Hence, if you release it only once, you'll end up with a leak.
I usually do this instead:
self.myViewController = [[[MyViewController alloc] init] autorelease];
I found it out: In IB I had to set the nib name on my view controller object. So the alloc and initialization is done by IB?
There is one more option:
(IBAction)loginButton:(UIButton *)sender {
NSLog(#"pressed login");
ICMasterViewController *controller = [[self storyboard] instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier:#"mainnav"];
[self presentViewController:controller animated:YES completion:nil];
}
On your storyboard you must have UIViewController with name mainnav
I have a question about UIViewController's subview, I created a UIView subclass MainView, which has the exact size of the screen, I wonder which is a better way of adding MainView, consider the following factors:
1 As MainView has same size as the whole screen, the MainView itself may have subviews, but there is no views at the save level as MainView(ie I don't need to add other subviews to self.view).
2 If I use self.view = mainView, do I put the code in loadView(as the viewDidLoad method means the view(self.view) is already loaded)? I see the loadView method is commented out by default, if I add the code to this method, what other code do I need to put together(e.g. initialize other aspects of the application)?
3 If I add mainView via [self addSubview:mainView], are there actually two off screen buffer? One for self.view, one for mainView, both has same size as the screen and one is layered on top of the other(so it wastes memory)?
Thanks a lot!
I'm not sure I completely understand what you're asking, but I'll try to answer a few of the questions you have.
First of all, if you have multiple UIViews on the screen they are all loaded into memory. You have to do -removeFromSuperview and release them to get the memory back.
You can assign your UIView as the UIViewController's view. For example:
MainView *mainView = [[MainView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(320.0, 480.0)];
self.view = mainView;
[mainView release]; //since the .view property is a retained property
in that case, you have have the view's initialization code in the -init method. Just redefine it like:
- (id)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame
{
if (self = [super initWithFrame:frame]) {
//initializations
}
return self;
}
You must implement loadView if you did initialize your view controller with a NIB.
UIViewController takes care of sizing its "main" view appropriately. This is all you need to do:
- (void)loadView
{
UIView* mainView = [[[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectZero] autorelease];
self.view = mainView;
}
I'd solve all of this by doing it in a xib! If you create a UIView in your xib, you can then change it's class (when you select the UIView there should be a text field in the Class Identity section of the Identity inspector* - type 'MainView' here!)
Then, create your view controller by calling
myViewController = [[MainViewController alloc] initWithNibName:#"MyNibName" bundle:nil];
That should solve your problems; it's the main subview of your view controller (directly accessable from self.view) and you don't need to worry about memory usage, there's only one view :)
Sam
NB * Click tools -> Identity Inspector. I didn't know it was called this until I had to write this answer!
Yes, the first code-snippet shown above is the "standard" approach, AFAIK, when not using (evil!) NIB files -- i.e. when alloc'ing your view in-code, via loadView.
Note it seems one can also get away with the following, instead of hard-coding the screen-rect size:
UIView *myView = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:[UIScreen mainScreen].applicationFrame];
self.view = myView;
[myView release];
Note you definitely want to do the [myView release] call since, indeed, as pointed out above, self.view (for UIView) is a retained property.
Cheers, -dk
Perhaps the most important thing to do is make sure you have the following:
self.view.userInteractionEnabled = YES;
While it might not be required all of the time, it fixes the issue where self.view is unresponsive. This issue pops up occasionally.
How can I make it so when a tab is selected, the current one is unloaded, and the next one is loaded so only one loaded at a time? Or should I not even do this? I know how to do it with a normal UIViewController as the root VC, but not sure with a UITabBarController. Also, is there a way to animate the transition from one tab to the next? Any help? Thanks!!
EDIT: ... If I unload the view controllers, then their icons on the tab bar are gone... maybe I'll just unload their views..
I can answer both questions in one...
You just need a class that acts as the UITabBarController delegate, then implement a method like so:
// Animate tab selections so they fade in and fade out
-(void)tabBarController:(UITabBarController*)tbc didSelectViewController:(UIViewController*)newSelection
{
[UIView beginAnimations:#"TabFadeIn" context:nil];
[UIView setAnimationDuration:0.6];
for( UIViewController* vc in tbc.viewControllers )
vc.view.alpha = (vc==newSelection) ? 1 : 0;
[UIView commitAnimations];
}
Now my code simply makes the tab bars fade in and out, but you could also do work here to unload non-used tabs. Sometimes that is a good idea if some of the tabs will be using a ton of memory.
You cant really manage the UITabBarController unfortunaly so you cant do lazy loading. You can by managining your own TabBar but you said u knew that already,
to manage your own tab bar though all you gotta do is setup a UITabBar with its TabBarItems in a ViewController, then implement the TabBar Delegate protocol, mainly the – tabBar:didSelectItem: method which is called whenever the tabbarItem selection is changed, then based on the item id you can load your new ViewController and release any others
so: Edit: this code goes in your UIViewController
-(void)addTabBar{
NSMutableArray* items=[[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
UITabBarItem *eventsItem= [[UITabBarItem alloc] initWithTitle:#"Events" image:nil tag:0];
UITabBarItem *albumItems=[[UITabBarItem alloc] initWithTitle:#"Album" image:nil tag:1]; //the tag is how you tell what was clicked
[items addObject:homeItem];
[items addObject:albumItems];
//MyTabBar is of type UITabBar
myTabBar=[[UITabBar alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0,411,320,49)];
[myTabBar setItems:items];
myTabBar.delegate=self; //you gotta implement the UITabBar delegate protocol
[myTabBar setSelectedItem:eventItem]; //set the selected item
[homeItem release];
[eventsItem release];
[albumItems release];
[items release];
[self.view addSubview:myTabBar]
}
then the protocol method would look something like below
- (void)tabBar:(UITabBar *)tabBar didSelectItem:(UITabBarItem *)item
{
if(item.tag == 0 )
{
//load the ViewController that pertains to this item and release others
}
...etc
}
Lazy loading is not an UITabBarController task. Instead, it is responsability of your viewControllers associated with your Tab.
To release the UIView, associated with each UIViewControllers, every time you change the TabBarItem, you must implement the following method in each UIViewController subclass, associated with your UITabBarController.viewControllers property:
-(void)viewDidDisappear {
[self.view removeFromSuperview];
self.view = nil;
}
Obviously, this will remove the self.view associated with your UIViewController. However, if your code is smart enough, this will remove all the related objects.
For example, suppose that your loadView method is as follow:
-(void)loadView {
UIView *contentVew = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:[[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds]];
self.view = contentView;
…
...
UILabel *aLabel = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0,0,320,50)];
…
…
[contentView addSubview:aLabel];
[aLabel release];
…
[contentView release];
}
This means that every object inside the contentView and their memory responsabilities are demanded to the contentView, that is released and attached to the self.view property.
In this scenario, removing the self.view (that's the reference to the contentView) resulting in a domino-style releasing of every object, that's your goal.
Best regards
Not sure why you'd want to do this, the current tab will get unloaded anyway if there's a memory issue involved. That's what -viewWillAppear, -viewDidUnload, etc. are for.
UITabBarController does lazy load all of its view controllers. When a tab is switched out, then it's view is subject to being deallocated in a memory tight situation. It is then recreated when it is chosen the second time. Furthermore, most of your memory hits are in your views and not the view controllers. Hence, don't worry about the memory hit from the view controller. The view is the proze.
If you are running on v3 of the OS, then you can use the -viewDidUnload method to ensure the maximal amount of memory reduction.
Andrew
I'm currently using this to unload inactive view controllers in the tab bar (based on Kendall's answer)
- (void)tabBarController:(UITabBarController *)tabBarController didSelectViewController: (UIViewController *)viewController {
// reload all inactive view controllers in the tab bar
for (UIViewController *vc in tabBarController.viewControllers) {
if(vc != viewController)
[vc didReceiveMemoryWarning];
}
}