Static ContainerView

Question

I have 2 UIViewControllers which contain Tables: A and B.
Tapping a row in the table in A segues to B.

At the bottom of each view of A and B, I have a ContainerView which points to the same UIViewController say Z. I use Z to show banner-ads. The issue I have is each time my view changes (from A to B or B to C), the UIViewController Z gets re-instantiated as it should. But this is what I don't want. I want to use the same instance of the ContainerView everywhere. I did keep my ad-banners static so they are the same everywhere, but still managing orientation-changes and banner-views is getting messy. Also it makes the ad-banner disappear and re-appear when I switch my view, as the container-view instance is switched.

Is there a way that I can keep the same instance of the entire ContainerView in all my UIViewControllers A and B and anyother viewcontrollers I add ?

Answer 1

There are two approaches which will accomplish this task.

First Approach: Realize that it's your A, B, & C view controllers which should be in the container rather than the banner add view controller. Optionally, make a parent view controller with two containers--one for the banner ads, the other for the A, B, & C controllers.

Second Approach: When segueing from A to B to C, simply pass this view controller along. You could extraordinarily simplify this by given them all a single common parent.

class BannerViewController { /* blah */ }

class BannerViewDisplayViewController {
    @IBOutlet var bannerView: UIView!
    var bannerViewController: BannerViewController! {
        didSet {
            bannerView = bannerViewController.view
            bannerViewController.didMoveToParentViewController(self)
        }
    }

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        if bannerViewController == nil {
            // instantiate a bannerViewController
        }
    }   

    override func prepareForSegue(segue: UIStoryboardSegue!, sender: AnyObject!) {
        if let destination = segue.destinationViewController as? BannerViewDisplayViewController {
            destination. bannerViewController = self. bannerViewController
        }
    }
}