Question

I’ve created a custom view that loads its content from a nib, like this:

/* PricingDataView.h */

#import <UIKit/UIKIt.h>

@interface PricingDataView : UIView {
  UIView *contentView;
}
@property (nonatomic, retain) IBOutlet UIView *contentView;
@end

/* PricingDataView.m */

#import "PricingDataView.h"

@implementation PricingDataView
@synthesize contentView;

- (id)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame {
  if ((self = [super initWithFrame:frame])) {
    [[NSBundle mainBundle] loadNibNamed:@"PricingDataView" owner:self options:nil];
    [contentView setFrame:frame];
    [self addSubview:contentView];
  }
  return self;
}

/* ... */

In the nib file I set PricingDataView as the type of the File’s Owner， and connected the contentView outlet in IB. I placed a regular UIView from the Interface Library onto the full-sized view shown to the user, and then changed it’s class name to PricingDataView. It all builds, but at runtime, nothing is rendered where my custom view is supposed to be.

I put breakpoints in PricingDataView.initWithFrame, but they don’t hit, so I know I’m missing something that would cause the view to be initialized. What I’m curious about is that in the process of loading my other views from nibs, all the initialization happens for me, but not with this one. Why?

Answer 1

Are you sure your other views aren’t using a UIViewController? Here’s a quote from the documentation for initWithFrame: from UIView:

If you use Interface Builder to design
your interface, this method is not
called when your view objects are
subsequently loaded from the nib file.
Objects in a nib file are
reconstituted and then initialized
using their initWithCoder: method,
which modifies the attributes of the
view to match the attributes stored in
the nib file. For detailed information
about how views are loaded from a nib
file, see Resource Programming Guide.