Return from Child View Controller to Container

Question

I have a container with 4 navigation buttons, each representing 4 individual child vc. I have successfully implement the code to go from the container to the child vc using addchildviewcontroller however now I do not know how to go back.

Container VC: 4 Buttons navigating to 4 separate child view controllers.

When the button is clicked the current view is replaced by the view of the Child VC. Therefore the buttons are no longer visible. For this very reason the child VC has a home button specifically designed to return to the container VC where the 4 buttons are residing.

Example of 1 of 4 Buttons Calling a function to display child VC:

- (IBAction)btn_bus:(id)sender {   
   [self addMyController:businessVC_];
}

Adding Child View Controllers, function called when button is clicked:

-(void)addMyController:(UIViewController *)myController{
    [self addChildViewController:myController];
    [self.view addSubview:myController.view]; 
    [myController didMoveToParentViewController:self];

}

Question 1: How do you trap/perform functions on a child VC. For example how do I get the Home button on my Child VC to now cause the child vc to remove itself and once again show the container/nav screen?

Question 2: Where are these procedures to take place in the custom container VC or child VC?

Question 3: Is there in particular a guide or tutorial that shows how the relationship of IBAction and IBOutlet are managed in a Parent-Child Relationship?

addChildViewController by itself isn't enough to show a child view controller -- you should post the actual code you used. Where are the navigation buttons? Are they in the container controller's view? Are they still visible when you have one of the children's view's on screen? — rdelmar, Jan 16 '13 at 16:45

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 16 '13 at 17:24

3

If you don't want any animation, going back is done like this, with the code being in the parent view controller:

-(void)removeChild:(UIViewController *) child {
    [child didMoveToParentViewController:nil];
    [child.view removeFromSuperview];
    [child removeFromParentViewController];
}

In the child controller, you would call it like this:

-(IBAction) goBackToContainer {
    [(ParentClassNameHere *)self.parentViewController removeChild:self];
}

In general, adding and removing children should be done from the custom container controller. I'm not sure what you mean by your third question. IBActions and outlets belong to whichever controller's view has the UI item in it. Your overall design is different than the way Apple does their container controllers. Containers like navigation and tab bar controllers don't have a view to go back to except for the navigation or tab bar views -- one of the chid views is always on screen. I don't know why you're doing a custom controller in this case, since its design seems pretty much like a tab bar controller.

answered Jan 16 '13 at 17:24

rdelmar

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I do not like the design of both of those...I want to have a custom look on the screen – jacobronniegeorge Jan 17 '13 at 01:37
the code did not work. the code says there is no removeChild function. – jacobronniegeorge Jan 17 '13 at 01:48
@jacobronniegeorge, You have to add the removeChild: method to the parent controller's .h file. It's a method I made up, not a Cocoa one. What do you mean by "I do not like the design of both of those"? Design of what? – rdelmar Jan 17 '13 at 02:24
@rdelmar...i do not like the UI...I want a clean interface without navigation bars, and no tabs – jacobronniegeorge Jan 17 '13 at 16:46
@jacobronniegeorge, Ok, so don't use them then. Did you get the code to work, by adding the removeChild: method declaration to the .h file of the parent controller? – rdelmar Jan 17 '13 at 16:56
@rdelmar...yes appreciate the help – jacobronniegeorge Jan 17 '13 at 17:22

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 19 '13 at 17:48

There is a little mistake in the previous answer and as I haven´t enough reputation to leave a comment. The first line should be:

[child willMoveToParentViewController:nil];

This tells the child that it is being removed.

In the Apple Docs look for Creating Custom Container View Controllers.

And UIViewController.h has a very good documentation.

Return from Child View Controller to Container

2 Answers2

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