Can't Load UIViewController XIB file in Storyboard in Swift

24
votes

I've read Using XCode storyboard to instantiate view controller that uses XIB for its design but I'm having troubles making this work in Swift (Using Xcode 6 Beta 6). I'm wondering if I've done something wrong or if this functionality isn't available anymore?

I created a simple repository, https://github.com/jer-k/StoryboardTesting-Swift, that showcases the above approach.

I managed to solve the issue by adding and override to init

required init(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
    super.init(nibName: "TestViewController", bundle: NSBundle.mainBundle())
}

but I'm wondering if it is still possible to have the storyboard handle this for me. Creating a superclass to have all my UIViewControllers inherit from with the above code isn't the most cumbersome thing in the world, but I'm just curious at this point.

2
iosuiviewcontrollerswiftstoryboardxib
I was wondering when someone would ask about this... :) – matt
stackoverflow.com/questions/27151026/… – Phani Sai

2 Answers

41
votes

What's happened is that Seed 5 broke the mechanism whereby a view controller can find its xib by name, if the view controller is a Swift class. The reason is that the name of the class, in Swift's mind, is not the same as the name you gave it (and the name you gave the xib file); the name has been "mangled", in particular by prepending the module name (i.e. Swift classes have namespacing).

I offer three workarounds:

  • Your workaround is a good one (load the .xib file by name explicitly)

  • Name the .xib file MyModule.TestViewController.xib, where MyModule is the name of your bundle (i.e. the name of the project) (this is what Apple advises, but I hate it)

  • Use @objc(TestViewController) before the view controller's class declaration to overcome the name mangling which is what's breaking the mechanism (this is the approach I favor)

See my discussion here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/25163757/341994 and my further discussion linked to from there: https://stackoverflow.com/a/25152545/341994

EDIT This bug is fixed in iOS 9 beta 4. If the nib file search fails, iOS 9 now strips the module name off the view controller class name and performs the nib file search a second time.

2
votes

Another answer is:

override func loadView() {
    if #available(iOS 9, *) {
        super.loadView()
    } else {
        let classString = String(self.dynamicType)
        NSBundle.mainBundle().loadNibNamed(classString, owner: self, options: nil)
    }
}

link: http://japko.net/2014/09/08/loading-swift-uiviewcontroller-from-xib-in-storyboard/

EDIT:

override var nibName: String? {
    get {
        let classString = String(self.dynamicType)
        return classString
    }
}
override var nibBundle: NSBundle? {
    get {
        return NSBundle.mainBundle()
    }
}

This looks more beautiful. Works on iOS 8/9 (maybe on iOS 7 too, who knows...))