Question

Is the initWithNibName always called whenever programmatically or IB?

Example:

I have two viewController, one named PhotoViewController, the other named ViewController.
The PhotoViewController creates view programmatically, but with initWithNibName uncommented.

Here is my PhotoViewController.m:

- (void)loadView
{
    NSLog(@"loadView in PhotoView");
    UIView *view = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:[UIScreen 
                                                  mainScreen].applicationFrame]; 
    [view setBackgroundColor:[UIColor redColor]]; 
    self.view = view; 
    [view release]; 
}

// Loading views from a nib file.
- (id)initWithNibName:(NSString *)nibNameOrNil bundle:(NSBundle *)nibBundleOrNil
{
    NSLog(@"PhotoViewController initWithNibName=%@",nibNameOrNil);
    self = [super initWithNibName:nibNameOrNil bundle:nibBundleOrNil];
    if (self) {
        // Custom initialization
    }
    return self;
}

Here is my call in ViewController.m

- (void) doSearchFlickr
{
    PhotoViewController *pController  = [[PhotoViewController alloc]init];
    [self.view addSubview:pController.view];
    [pController release];
}

Then I see something confusing me in the log:

2011-10-23 10:52:52.151 TableViewPG[1192:b303] PhotoViewController initWithNibName=(null)
2011-10-23 10:52:52.153 TableViewPG[1192:b303] loadView in PhotoView

According to the ViewControllerPGforiPhoneOS on page 30, if I override loadView programmatically, initWithNibName should not be called.

Is there any flaw(s) in my logic?

Answer 1

-[UIViewController init] just executes [self initWithNibName:nil bundle:nil]. You can easily check this by putting a breakpoint in your -[PhotoViewController initWithNibName:bundle:] and looking at the call stack.

Your -[PhotoViewController loadView] is fine.

The View Controller Programming Guide for iOS doesn’t say anything about initWithNibName:bundle: on page 30.