possible to instantiate WKInterfaceController in SwiftUI Watch project? - swiftui

I have a project in which I have run into a limitation of SwiftUI on the Apple Watch. My proposed solution was to instantiate a WKInterfaceController to perform the needed functionality, and then return to using SwiftUI views. Is this possible? I tried to wrap my controller in a WKInterfaceObjectRepresentable object, but there doesn't seem to way to instantiate the interface controller from a Storyboard, as is possible on iOS according to this similar case:
How to add Storyboard ViewController into SwiftUI Project?
But Xcode tells me, "Cannot find UIStoryboard in scope"
Is there a way to create an InterfaceController from SwiftUI? Or perhaps I need to use a WKHostingController for my whole Watch project, so as to have access to the option of using InterfaceController objects?
Thanks.

You can navigate to an existing interface controller defined in a watchOS storyboard from SwiftUI by using NavigationLink with the destinationName:label: arguments, see here.
destinationName is the identifier used in the storyboard for that interface controller, eg:
NavigationLink(destinationName: "MyInterfaceControllerIdentifier") {
Text("Go")
}

Related

How to query UITextField wrapped in UIViewRepresentable from a Xcode UI test?

I'm developing my app with SwiftUI, but some elements are still from the UIKit world, e.g. one UITextField with special behavior, that's why I use a UIViewRepresentable where the makeUIView methods returns a UITextField.
When I try to enter text via UI test, I don't succeed in querying the textfield; even app.textFields doesn't return anything.
Is this because of using UIViewRepresentable, am I missing something?
I had the same situation you described. Make sure to set accessibilityIdentifier in makeUIView. Also bear in mind that if you're setting isSecureTextEntry to true, you should access it using app.secureTextFields

SwiftUI Map() delegate access

I'm attempting to refactor a SwiftUI application.
From: IUViewRepresentable of MapView
To: SwiftUI's native Map() view.
However my application has to be able to react to the user's panning and zooming. In my UIViewRepresentable version, I added MKMapViewDelagate protocol to the Coordinator class, and create mapView(_ mapView:regionDidChangeAnimated)
How can assign a delegate class to the SwiftUI native version to accomplish this?
I've seen some posts use an init() method to adjust the appearance of the map with MKMapView.appearance(). Turns out this has a delegate property, but assigning a delegate here does not result in the mapView:regionDidChangeAnimated method being called...
Since Map() accepts a Region binding, you can use .onChange to react to the region changing.

Is it possible to add an AppDelegate to an independent watchOS SwiftUI app?

I am trying to add an AppDelegate to a standalone watchOS SwiftUI app (no companion iOS app) as indicated in here, but I can't seem to resolve the issue Cannot find type 'UIApplicationDelegate' in scope
Explicitly adding an import UIKit does not help.
Any clues?
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/uikit/uiapplicationdelegate
UIApplicationDelegate seems to only work with Catalyst, iOS and TvOS. Per WatchKit documentation it using the WKExtensionDelegate that has all the same methods.
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/watchkit/working_with_the_watchos_app_life_cycle
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/watchkit/wkextensiondelegate

Watchkit popToRootController not working

I am using a vertical page direction on my watch app, and I have a button that opens a new interface, which opens the third interface also from a button, this is done by using the modal view, and in the third interface i am calling popToRootController, because i want to go back to the first interface, but this is not working, have anyone same issue?
You need to use dismiss if you present view controllers modally using presentControllerWithName.
You can use popToRootController or popController if you present the view controllers hierarchically using pushControllerWithName.
You can read more on the Apple Interface Navigation guide.
In your example if you want to dismiss twice, you will have to pass a delegate or closure with the context to your second controller. Then you can call the delegate method or closure after dismiss() on the third controller. The implementation of the delegate method or closure will be another dismiss().

Customize UIAlertController in iOS 8 to include standard elements like UITableView

I am used to customize UIAlertViews through the [alert setValue:someView forKey:#"accessoryView"] method. This creates customizable content for UIAlertViews with custom heights. However it only works on iOS7 and down. In iOS8 the UIAlertController have taken over, and I cannot customize it anymore, it will cut the height of the UIAlertView.
Is it impossible because of misuse of the UIAlertController, or how am I supposed to do it?
I am trying to incorporate a UITableView inside a UIAlertController with UIAlertControllerStyleAlert.
Thx.
I ran into the same issue right now. I looked at the private header for UIAlertController (https://github.com/nst/iOS-Runtime-Headers/blob/master/Frameworks/UIKit.framework/UIAlertController.h) and found a promising property: contentViewController
And it turned out to be exactly the same as accessoryView used to be for UIAlertView, the difference being that you need to assign a UIViewController to this property rather than a UIView.
UIViewController *v = [[UIViewController alloc] init];
v.view.backgroundColor = [UIColor redColor];
[alertController setValue:v forKey:#"contentViewController"];
That piece of code will show a red view on the alert view! Happy UIAlertController customizing ;)
PS. It is a private property but using KVC there shouldn't be a problem App Store wise, I think.
Edit:
Some people complained that this isn't very safe. It's not a public API, so yes, Apple could change it in any release, causing this method to fail.
To make sure your entire app doesn't crash if that happens you could wrap the KVC call in a try block. If the property changes your controller won't show the content view, but it also won't crash:
#try {
[alertController setValue:v forKey:#"contentViewController"];
}
#catch(NSException *exception) {
NSLog(#"Failed setting content view controller: %#", exception);
}
Using this method in production can be risky, and I don't recommend it for important alerts.
I suggest not your wasting time trying to cram additional UI into a place where isn't supposed to be. Based on the last few years of improvements, Apple will probably add a custom view in the next iOS. Until then, have a look at a framework designed to handle this exact situation without subverting any best practices: SDCAlertView
It supports alerts that imitate the native alerts on iOS 7,8,9, including handling all of the nasty edge cases around sizing, button types, rotation, etc. It does support arbitrary custom views within the alert.
I use this library in Yahoo YMPromptKit for custom push notification prompts that look exactly like iOS native. Here's another example:
I think you can easily customize the UIView adding the controls needed and present it modally, unless you have any other specific reason to use only UIAlertController.
https://www.cocoacontrols.com/search?q=UIAlertview
You can do it with just a one of line of code using my UIAlertController category and replace existing alerts in application, check it here.