Load view from XIB as a subview of a scrollview

Question

I'm still a SO and Swift newbie, so please, be patient and feel free to skip this question :-)

In the body of a XIB's awakeFromNib, I want to load some views as subviews of a UIScrollView (basically, the XIB contains a scrollview, a label and a button).

The scrollview perfectly works if in a loop I load views I create on the fly, eg.

 let customView = UIView(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 300, height: 150))
 customView.frame = CGRect(x: i*300 , y: 0, width: 300, height: 150)
 customView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
 scrollView.addSubview(customView)

But I have a different goal.

In another XIB I have an image view and a stackview with some labels. This XIB is connected in the storyboard to a class SingleEvent that extends UIView.

I want to do the following:

1. use the XIB as a sort of "blueprint" and load the same view multiple times in my scrollview;
2. pass to any instance some data;

Is this possible?

I tried to load the content of the XIB this way:

 let customView = Bundle.main.loadNibNamed("SingleEvent", owner: self, options: nil)?.first as? SingleEvent

and this way:

let customView = SingleEvent()

The first one makes the app crash, while the second causes no issue, but I can't see any effect (it doesn't load anything).

The content of my latest SingleEvent is the following:

 import UIKit

    class SingleEvent: UIView {

        @IBOutlet weak var label:UILabel!
        @IBOutlet weak var imageView:UIImageView!

        override init(frame: CGRect) {
            super.init(frame: frame)

            loadViewFromNib()
        }

        required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
            super.init(coder: aDecoder)

            loadViewFromNib()
        }

        func loadViewFromNib() -> UIView {
            let myView = Bundle.main.loadNibNamed("SingleEvent", owner: self, options: nil)?.first as! UIView
            return myView
        }
    }

Thanks in advance, any help is appreciated :-)

Answer 1

There are a number of approaches to loading custom views (classes) from xibs. You may find this method a bit easier.

First, create your xib like this:

Note that the Class of File's Owner is the default (NSObject).

Instead, assign your custom class to the "root" view in your xib:

Now, our entire custom view class looks like this:

class SingleEvent: UIView {

    @IBOutlet var topLabel: UILabel!
    @IBOutlet var middleLabel: UILabel!
    @IBOutlet var bottomLabel: UILabel!

    @IBOutlet var imageView: UIImageView!

}

And, instead of putting loadNibNamed(...) inside our custom class, we create a UIView extension:

extension UIView {
    class func fromNib<T: UIView>() -> T {
        return Bundle.main.loadNibNamed(String(describing: T.self), owner: nil, options: nil)![0] as! T
    }
}

To load and use our custom class, we can do this:

class FromXIBViewController: UIViewController {

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        // create an instance of SingleEvent from its xib/nib
        let v = UIView.fromNib() as SingleEvent

        // we're going to use auto-layout & constraints
        v.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false

        // set the text of the labels
        v.topLabel?.text    = "Top Label"
        v.middleLabel?.text = "Middle Label"
        v.bottomLabel?.text = "Bottom Label"

        // set the image
        v.imageView.image = UIImage(named: "myImage")

        // add the SingleEvent view
        view.addSubview(v)

        // constrain it 200 x 200, centered X & Y
        NSLayoutConstraint.activate([
            v.widthAnchor.constraint(equalToConstant: 200.0),
            v.heightAnchor.constraint(equalToConstant: 200.0),
            v.centerXAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.centerXAnchor),
            v.centerYAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.centerYAnchor),
            ])

    }

}

With a result of:

And... here is an example of loading 10 instances of SingleEvent view and adding them to a vertical scroll view:

class FromXIBViewController: UIViewController {

    var theScrollView: UIScrollView = {
        let v = UIScrollView()
        v.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
        v.backgroundColor = .cyan
        return v
    }()

    var theStackView: UIStackView = {
        let v = UIStackView()
        v.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
        v.axis = .vertical
        v.alignment = .fill
        v.distribution = .fill
        v.spacing = 20.0
        return v
    }()

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        // add the scroll view to the view
        view.addSubview(theScrollView)

        // constrain it 40-pts on each side
        NSLayoutConstraint.activate([
            theScrollView.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.safeAreaLayoutGuide.topAnchor, constant: 40.0),
            theScrollView.bottomAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.safeAreaLayoutGuide.bottomAnchor, constant: -40.0),
            theScrollView.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.safeAreaLayoutGuide.leadingAnchor, constant: 40.0),
            theScrollView.trailingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.safeAreaLayoutGuide.trailingAnchor, constant: -40.0),
            ])

        // add a stack view to the scroll view
        theScrollView.addSubview(theStackView)

        // constrain it 20-pts on each side
        NSLayoutConstraint.activate([
            theStackView.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: theScrollView.topAnchor, constant: 20.0),
            theStackView.bottomAnchor.constraint(equalTo: theScrollView.bottomAnchor, constant: -20.0),
            theStackView.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: theScrollView.leadingAnchor, constant: 20.0),
            theStackView.trailingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: theScrollView.trailingAnchor, constant: -20.0),

            // stackView width = scrollView width -40 (20-pts padding on left & right
            theStackView.widthAnchor.constraint(equalTo: theScrollView.widthAnchor, constant: -40.0),
            ])


        for i in 0..<10 {

            // create an instance of SingleEvent from its xib/nib
            let v = UIView.fromNib() as SingleEvent

            // we're going to use auto-layout & constraints
            v.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false

            // set the text of the labels
            v.topLabel?.text    = "Top Label: \(i)"
            v.middleLabel?.text = "Middle Label: \(i)"
            v.bottomLabel?.text = "Bottom Label: \(i)"

            // set the image (assuming we have images named myImage0 thru myImage9
            v.imageView.image = UIImage(named: "myImage\(i)")

            theStackView.addArrangedSubview(v)

        }

    }

}

Result: