Question

I have a UINavigationController/UITableView and I want to present a UIView over top of it when the table is empty to give the user a prompt on how to add items to the table.

I’ve never make a UIView (as opposed to a UIViewController before) so I’ll step through what I did to make it:

1. Make a new UIView Class – MakeSentenceHelperView
2. Make a nib called MakeSentenceHelperView.xib
3. Set File’s owner to MakeSentenceHelperView

Load the nib in the MakeSentenceHelperView:

- (id)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame
{
    self = [super initWithFrame:frame];
    if (self) {
        // Initialization code
        NSLog(@"makesentencehelperview init");
        [[NSBundle mainBundle] loadNibNamed:@"MakeSentenceHelperView" owner:self options:nil];
    }
    return self;
}

and present the MakeSentenceHelperView in the UITableViewController:

        //present the placeholder view for sentences
        MakeSentenceHelperView *makeSentenceHelperView = [[MakeSentenceHelperView alloc] init];

        NSLog(@"present placeholder: self.navigationcontroller.view: %@", self.navigationController.view);

        //Something like this:
        [self.navigationController.view addSubview:makeSentenceHelperView];
        [self.navigationController.view bringSubviewToFront:makeSentenceHelperView];

The class loads and logs ok, but nothing appears in front of the UITableView – where have I gone wrong?

UPDATE: if I add [self.tableView setHidden:YES]; then the tableview disappears and the space is black and empty. I’m assuming this means I’m setting up the View wrong, somewhere.

Answer 1

Thanks to @Aadhira for their link which led me to the problem.

1. I needed to add awakeFromNib
2. I was missing [self addSubview:self.view]; at the end of initWithFrame.