Using presentViewController from UIView

Question

I am creating a title bar for my iOS application and I am making this inside a UIView. The only issue I am having is with the "home button". When the home button is pressed, it needs to go to the home page, which is ViewController.

However, it doesn't look as if [self presentViewController:vc animated:NO completion:NULL]; works for UIView.

How do I work around this problem ?

- (void) createTitlebar {

    CGRect titleBarFrame = CGRectMake(0, 0, 320, 55);

    //Create the home button on the top right of the page. When clicked, it will navigate to the home page of the application
    homeButton = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeCustom];
    homeButton.frame = CGRectMake(275, 10, 40, 40);
    [homeButton setTag:1];
    [homeButton setImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"homeIcon.png"] forState:UIControlStateNormal];
    [homeButton addTarget:self action:@selector(homeButtonPressed:) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];
    [self addSubview:homeButton];
}

- (IBAction)homeButtonPressed:(id)sender{

    //Transition to the submit button page
    UIStoryboard *storyboard = [UIStoryboard storyboardWithName:@"MainStoryboard" bundle:nil];
    ViewController *vc = [storyboard instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier:@"ViewController"];
    [vc setModalPresentationStyle:UIModalPresentationFullScreen];
    [self presentViewController:vc animated:NO completion:NULL];
}

Did you add the selector to your button? I.e. does the button know which method to perform? Secondly, try using popToRootViewControllerAnimated to avoid cycles. — Marc, Mar 25 '13 at 19:11
The error message I'm having is - no visible @interface for 'TitleBar' declares the selector presentViewController:animated:completion — Ashish Agarwal, Mar 25 '13 at 19:17
Where is this homeButtonPressed: method defined ? is it in any view controller or some view ? — nkongara, Mar 25 '13 at 19:32
Make sure your ViewController is a `UIViewController` subclass. — memmons, Mar 25 '13 at 19:40

Shamsudheen TK · Answer 1 · 2016-06-13T11:22:36.870

39

You can do this without using the delegate pattern. Here you go

ObjectiveC

UIViewController *currentTopVC = [self currentTopViewController];
currentTopVC.presentViewController......... 

- (UIViewController *)currentTopViewController {
    UIViewController *topVC = [[[[UIApplication sharedApplication] delegate] window] rootViewController];
    while (topVC.presentedViewController) {
        topVC = topVC.presentedViewController;
    }
    return topVC;
}

Swift

var topVC = UIApplication.sharedApplication().keyWindow?.rootViewController
while((topVC!.presentedViewController) != nil) {
     topVC = topVC!.presentedViewController
}
topVC?.presentViewController........

edited Jun 13 '16 at 11:22

answered Jul 08 '15 at 10:02

Shamsudheen TK

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After at least 20 delegation patterns to present view controllers from my views in my app, I'm really tired of doing this. Therefore this answer is like an oasis in the desert to me. Thank you so much – Clément Cardonnel Jan 03 '17 at 09:04
Glad to hear :) – Shamsudheen TK Jan 04 '17 at 04:57
This works, Thanks. I do however have a situation. is there a way I can substitute the keyWindow with a viewController as the topVC? – N. Der Jan 30 '19 at 07:17

score 17 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 17 '16 at 07:21

17

Only UIViewController can present another view controller, so if you need to show a viewcontroller from view there are several way, one of them is like this:

make a viewcontroller on which your parent view is situated a delegate of it

ParentView *view = [ParentView new];
...
view.delegate = self;

then, inside ParentView call method of that delegate

- (IBAction)homeButtonPressed:(id)sender {
    [self.delegate buttonPressed];
}

and then, inside your VC implement

 -(void)buttonPressed {
    UIStoryboard *storyboard = [UIStoryboard storyboardWithName:@"MainStoryboard" bundle:nil];
    ViewController *vc = [storyboard instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier:@"ViewController"];
    [vc setModalPresentationStyle:UIModalPresentationFullScreen];
    [self presentViewController:vc animated:NO completion:NULL];
}

If you need to keep this code inside UIView and avoid delegation you can do a trick like this (personally i don't like it but it should work)

-(void)buttonPressed{
    UIStoryboard *storyboard = [UIStoryboard storyboardWithName:@"MainStoryboard" bundle:nil];
    ViewController *vc = [storyboard      instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier:@"ViewController"];
    [vc setModalPresentationStyle:UIModalPresentationFullScreen];
    [(UIViewController*)self.nextResonder presentViewController:vc animated:NO completion:NULL];
}

edited Apr 17 '16 at 07:21

pkamb

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answered Mar 25 '13 at 20:04

alex

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I get the message Property delegate not found on object of type .. for both the UIView and the UIViewController – Ashish Agarwal Mar 25 '13 at 20:15
Oh,sorry, I forgot to mention this - U have to make this property in ParentView.h like this: @property(nonatomic,weak) id delegate – alex Mar 25 '13 at 20:18
is (IBAction)homeButtonPressed or -(void)buttonPressed called? Also did u set the target-action for UIButton? – alex Mar 25 '13 at 20:45
Am I writing the code to do delegation inside the UIView or the UIViewController ? – Ashish Agarwal Mar 25 '13 at 20:53
inside UIViewController you set it as a delegate of a UIView. Also a couldnt find smth like this in your code [homeButton addTarget:self action:@selector(homeButtonPressed:)];? Are u sure that a button knows what method to call? – alex Mar 25 '13 at 20:54
Hmm, but the above code is a part of the UIView class. The idea is that I create a title bar in a UIView class and re-use it in other ViewController classes. If I have to make the ViewController a delegate of UIView, that defeats the purpose of MVC – Ashish Agarwal Mar 25 '13 at 21:04
In other viewcontrollers you just will set up them as delegates of this view and in each of them you will implement method -(void)buttonPressed; – alex Mar 25 '13 at 21:07
Only - (IBAction)homeButtonPressed:(id)sender{ [self.delegate buttonPressed];} is implemented inside UIView – alex Mar 25 '13 at 21:08
In the ParentView, when I type `[self.delegate buttonPressed]`, it once again gives me the error message saying No known instance method for selector 'buttonPressed' – Ashish Agarwal Mar 25 '13 at 21:23
declare buttonPressed method in VC.h file or replace the code for:[self.delegate performSelector:@selector(buttonPressed:) withObject:nil]; – alex Mar 26 '13 at 03:26
just figured it out. I was missing `view.delegate = self;` – Ashish Agarwal Mar 26 '13 at 04:24

score 6 · Answer 3 · answered May 07 '17 at 18:32

Here's a more idiomatic Swift 3 version of Shamsudheen's answer:

extension UIApplication {

    static func topViewController() -> UIViewController? {
        guard var top = shared.keyWindow?.rootViewController else {
            return nil
        }
        while let next = top.presentedViewController {
            top = next
        }
        return top
    } 
}

Then you can just call:

UIApplication.topViewController()?.present(...)

N. Der · Answer 4 · 2019-02-04T20:57:23.650

With Swift 4 - 4.2 Adding onto Shamsudheen TK's answer.

var topVC = UIApplication.shared.keyWindow?.rootViewController
    while((topVC!.presentedViewController) != nil) {
        topVC = topVC!.presentedViewController
    }
    let customViewController = CustomViewController()
    topVC?.present(customViewController, animated: true, completion: nil)

With UINavigationController: Here is also an additional feature -> You can pass along a UINavigationController with your customViewController.

 var topVC = UIApplication.shared.keyWindow?.rootViewController
    while((topVC!.presentedViewController) != nil) {
        topVC = topVC!.presentedViewController
    }
    let customViewController = CustomViewController()
    let navController = UINavigationController(rootViewController: CustomViewController)
    topVC?.present(navController, animated: true, completion: nil)

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Apr 29 '16 at 05:06

You can try below code

 UIStoryboard *storyboard = [UIStoryboard storyboardWithName:@"MainStoryboard" bundle:nil];
 ViewController *vc = [storyboard instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier:@"ViewController"];
 UIViewController *vc1 = [UIApplication sharedApplication].keyWindow.rootViewController;
 [vc1 presentViewController:vc animated:YES completion:nil];

Using presentViewController from UIView

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