Question

Since debugging is extremely slow with Xcode 4.3 on iOS 5.1 when starting/installing the app on the device I use the simulator which starts much faster. (see my question regarding this issue here https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11541288/xcode-4-3-with-ios5-1-pauses-about-10secs-when-debug-starts-simulator-starts-i)

So all I need to do is something like this:

MFMessageComposeViewController *picker = [[MFMessageComposeViewController alloc] init];
picker.messageComposeDelegate = delegate;
NSString *s = @"1234567";
picker.recipients =[NSArray arrayWithObject: s];   
picker.body =smsTxt;
if (simulationMode) {
    MessageComposeResult result = MessageComposeResultSent;            <-----------
    [delegate messageComposeViewController:picker didFinishWithResult: result];
} else
    [delegate presentModalViewController:picker animated:YES];

Here the problem is now that when executing on iOS-Simulator the MFMessageComposeViewController can’t be instantiated and always yields nil.

Is there a way to create another object MyOwnMFMessageComposeViewController on iOS simulator which is compatible to MFMessageComposeViewController and can be passed in the same method like MFMessageComposeViewController?

Something like this:

    MFMessageComposeViewController *picker = [[MFMessageComposeViewController alloc] init];
    picker.messageComposeDelegate = delegate;
    NSString *s = @"1234567";
    picker.recipients =[NSArray arrayWithObject: s];   
    picker.body =smsTxt;
    if (simulationMode) {
        MyOwnMFMessageComposeViewController *mypicker = [[MFMessageComposeViewController alloc] init];
        mypicker.messageComposeDelegate = delegate;
        NSString *s = @"1234567";
        mypicker.recipients =[NSArray arrayWithObject: s];   
        mypicker.body =smsTxt;
        MessageComposeResult result = MessageComposeResultSent;   
        picker = (MFMessageComposeViewController) mypicker;          
        [delegate messageComposeViewController:picker didFinishWithResult: result];
    } else
        [delegate presentModalViewController:picker animated:YES];

Answer 1

What you are looking for is called a ‘mock object’ and is often used in test driven development. Basically what you do is create a subclass of MFMessageComposeViewController. This subclass works exactly the same as mfmessagecomposeviewcontroller except you also create instance variables to show that something has happened.

So for example when your delegate calls messageComposeViewController:didFinishWithResult. The mock object would likely store the result and a flag that that method had been fired. Note that this won’t actually send anything, but simply tells you that the delegate fired and on a real object will work.