Question

I have two init functions in my UIViewController subclass:

- (id)init
{
    self = [super init];
    if (self)
    { 
           // Custom stuff
        return self;
    }
    return nil;
}

and

- (id)initWithNibName:(NSString *)nibNameOrNil bundle:(NSBundle *)nibBundleOrNil
{
    self = [super initWithNibName: nibNameOrNil 
                           bundle: nibBundleOrNil];
    if (self) 
    {
        // Custom stuff
    }
    return self;
}

I put the init function in to avoid the call to the initWithNibName:bundle: method. I am trying to experiment with taking the xib file out. Unfortunately, calling this init [[Myclass alloc] init] calls initWithNibName:bundle: through the call to [super init].

First, where in the documentation should I be reading so that I would have expected the call to the parent init method to call my own initWithNibName:bundle: method?

Second, how is this a good design choice on Apple’s part. I am not seeing why this is desirable behavior? (It may be that I am just not getting the big picture here so please feel free to clue me in.)

Third, how do I get around it best. Do I just take the initWithNibName:bundle: out of my code? Is there never a case where I would like the option of using either a xib or a manual instantiation of the class.

Answer 1

You can customize your view and add subviews in the viewDidLoad method. In this method you can check whether the class was created using init or using initWithNibName:bundle: by examining property nibName. When using init, nibName will be nil.

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad];
    if (!self.nibName) {
        // View was not loaded from nib - setup view
    }
}