Share a storyboard viewcontroller between multiple subclasses

Question

I have the same problem as Pedro here but not satisfied with the answer and since there is allready a bounty out and rewarded I created this question and I'll add a bounty as soon as possible.

I want to create or manipulate a segue (highlighted in yellow) in code such that the Master view is any one of a number of subclasses of MFMasterViewController (highlighted in red).

When doing this using Nibs I could create a Nib, SharedNib.xib & set the class as MFMasterViewController, then create my subclasses, say MFMasterViewControllerSubclassA, MFMasterViewControllerSubclassB etc. & then instantiate whichever subclass I wanted using...

MFMasterViewControllerSubclassA *controller = [[MFMasterViewControllerSubclassA alloc] initWithNibName:@"SharedNib" bundle:nil];

or...

MFMasterViewControllerSubclassB *controller = [[MFMasterViewControllerSubclassB alloc] initWithNibName:@"SharedNib" bundle:nil];

etc.

Any clues as to how I can get this right using storyboards?

I cannot use the provided answer on Pedro's question, my subclassing extends beyond the datasource & delegate.

Answer 1

You can just add unconnected view controllers to your storyboard and give them identifiers. Then in code you can do something like this in your navigation controller subclass:

MFMasterViewControllerSubclassA *controller = [self.storyboard instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier:@"SubclassA"];
self.viewControllers = @[controller];

This will change the navigation controller's root view controller to controller. If you want to animate the change, then you could use setViewControllers:animated: instead of that second line.

Answer 2

I know this is an old post, but I thought I'd respond since it hasn't been answered yet. This is not difficult to do. Wherever you wish to refer to your superclass simply refer to it by the appropriate subclass. The subclass contains everything the superclass does. There are a number of ways to do this depending how you wish to do your segues. If you're using prepareForSegue then do it like this:

1. Create a segue from a button or whatever.
2. Assign it an id
3. Import your subclass into the .m file

4. In prepareForSegue do the following.

   - (void)prepareForSegue:(UIStoryboardSegue *)segue sender:(id)sender
      {
         if ([segue.identifier isEqualToString:@"YourID"]) {
               SubclassA *subA = segue.destinationViewController; // the file's owner in the storyboard is set to the super class
               subA.someString = @"subclass A is setting this";
           }
      }
   

This is pretty limited since you are sharing a storyboard scene and there is no subclass of the scene. You would have to hide elements, for instance, and then unhide them if it were instantiated using a particular subclass. Another way to do this is to set a boolean on the one class depending on where you're segueing from and then write conditional code. This latter way might be regarded as a bit of a code smell, but it's better than duplicating storyboards which is probably a really bad idea.