How do I find the most parent SuperView?

Question

I'm trying to add a new subView to a page, such that everything but itself is greyed out. However, I'm calling it from within a subview of the screen. To get it out, I have to do the following :

[self.view.superview.superview.superview.superview addSubview:self.cardDialog.view];

As you can surmise, this is extremely bad code. How can I find the proper parent level and set it correctly?

How do you define the proper parent? The `window`? – Wain Apr 09 '14 at 18:45 — Wain, Apr 09 '14 at 18:45

mspensieri · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-09T18:58:44.087

6

If the view is part of the view hierarchy, use the window property.

UIView* topView = self.view.window;

Or if your view is not on screen yet, you can get the window indirectly through your app delegate

UIView* topView = [UIApplication sharedApplication].delegate.window;

Else, if your target is not the window, you can walk up the view hierarchy until you find the view you want:

UIView* topView = self.view;

while(topView.superview != nil){
    topview = topView.superview;

    if( /*topview is the one you were looking for*/ ){
        break;
    }
}

edited Apr 09 '14 at 18:58

answered Apr 09 '14 at 18:45

mspensieri

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2

Unless the view isn't on screen yet, `self.view.window` does the same thing. – Wain Apr 09 '14 at 18:46
And it's unlikely the OP is really looking for the window. The question is a big unclear. – rmaddy Apr 09 '14 at 18:47
@rmaddy Yeah, I assumed the window was the end goal – mspensieri Apr 09 '14 at 18:52
@Wain good point. I added the case if the view is not yet part of the hierarchy – mspensieri Apr 09 '14 at 18:52
1

@michaels Wain's point is that your `while` loop can all be replaced with that one line - `self.view.window`. – rmaddy Apr 09 '14 at 18:54
I'm getting nil with view.window – Fischer Mar 28 '18 at 10:33

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 09 '14 at 18:47

I've found myself on this situation once and I gave up. I decided to use a modalView instead with a cross disolve transition. Not only you avoid the problem you are having but it helps keeping things organized. Lately I improved this aproach by grabing a snapshot of the parentVC and sending it to the modalView, then I apply a tint. The overall effect is exactly what you are looking for, I guess.

How do I find the most parent SuperView?

2 Answers2