How do I reference the detailViewController on an iPad that is using a splitViewController

Question

I setup a project on XCode 4.3 and IOS 5 without using storyboards for both iPhone and iPad using the default Master/Detail setup from the create new project dialog.

The iPhone side works just fine. I select an option in the tableView and the detailViewController screen updates with the new information based on the selection.

My implementation of didSelectRowAtIndexPath is:

- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView didSelectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {  
        Shapes *currentShape = [self.shapesArray objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];  
        if ([[UIDevice currentDevice] userInterfaceIdiom] == UIUserInterfaceIdiomPhone) {  
            if (!self.detailViewController) {  
                self.detailViewController = [[[GeoDetailViewController alloc] initWithNibName:@"GeoDetailViewController_iPhone" bundle:nil] autorelease];  
            }  
            [self.navigationController pushViewController:self.detailViewController animated:YES];  
            [self.detailViewController populateDisplay:currentShape];  
        } else {  
            [self.detailViewController populateDisplay:currentShape];  
        }  
}  

However, when I run on the iPad, self.detailViewController does not exist. so the display doesn't update. I can still see it on the iPad screen, I just can't change anything on it. How do I reference it in the code so I can make changes to what is displayed?

Answer 1

I was puzzled by the templates implementation of the Master/Detail view. I asked a similar question:

How to update DetailView using MasterDetail Application Template

You can use the detailItem (id - so you can pass in a reference) property that is set up by default for the DetailViewController class.