How to set topLayoutGuide position for child view controller

Question

I'm implementing a custom container which is pretty similar to UINavigationController except for it does not hold the whole controller stack. It has a UINavigationBar which is constrained to the container controller's topLayoutGuide, which happens to be 20px off the top, which is OK.

When I add a child view controller and put its view into the hierarchy I want its topLayoutGuide seen in IB and used for laying out the child view controller's view's subviews to appear at the bottom of my navigation bar. There is a note of what is to be done in the relevant documentation:

The value of this property is, specifically, the value of the length property of the object returned when you query this property. This value is constrained by either the view controller or by its enclosing container view controller (such as a navigation or tab bar controller), as follows:

• A view controller not within a container view controller constrains this property to indicate the bottom of the status bar, if visible,
  or else to indicate the top edge of the view controller's view.
• A view controller within a container view controller does not set this property's value. Instead, the container view controller constrains the value to indicate:
  • The bottom of the navigation bar, if a navigation bar is visible
  • The bottom of the status bar, if only a status bar is visible
  • The top edge of the view controller’s view, if neither a status bar nor navigation bar is visible

But I don't quite understand how to "constrain it's value" since both the topLayoutGuide and it's length properties are readonly.

I've tried this code for adding a child view controller:

[self addChildViewController:gamePhaseController];
UIView *gamePhaseControllerView = gamePhaseController.view;
gamePhaseControllerView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = NO;
[self.contentContainer addSubview:gamePhaseControllerView];

NSArray *horizontalConstraints = [NSLayoutConstraint constraintsWithVisualFormat:@"|-0-[gamePhaseControllerView]-0-|"
                                                                         options:0
                                                                         metrics:nil
                                                                           views:NSDictionaryOfVariableBindings(gamePhaseControllerView)];

NSLayoutConstraint *topLayoutGuideConstraint = [NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem:gamePhaseController.topLayoutGuide
                                                                            attribute:NSLayoutAttributeTop
                                                                            relatedBy:NSLayoutRelationEqual
                                                                               toItem:self.navigationBar
                                                                            attribute:NSLayoutAttributeBottom
                                                                           multiplier:1 constant:0];
NSLayoutConstraint *bottomLayoutGuideConstraint = [NSLayoutConstraint constraintWithItem:gamePhaseController.bottomLayoutGuide
                                                                               attribute:NSLayoutAttributeBottom
                                                                               relatedBy:NSLayoutRelationEqual
                                                                                  toItem:self.bottomLayoutGuide
                                                                               attribute:NSLayoutAttributeTop
                                                                              multiplier:1 constant:0];
[self.view addConstraint:topLayoutGuideConstraint];
[self.view addConstraint:bottomLayoutGuideConstraint];
[self.contentContainer addConstraints:horizontalConstraints];
[gamePhaseController didMoveToParentViewController:self];

_contentController = gamePhaseController;

In the IB I specify "Under Top Bars" and "Under Bottom Bars" for the gamePhaseController. One of the views is specifically constrained to the top layout guide, anyway on the device it appears to be 20px off the the bottom of the container's navigation bar...

What is the right way of implementing a custom container controller with this behavior?

Answer 1

As far as I have been able to tell after hours of debugging, the layout guides are readonly, and derived from the private classes used for constraints based layout. Overriding the accessors does nothing (even though they are called), and it's all just craptastically annoying.