Calling functions on Root ViewController from within a child SKScene

Question

I have a UIViewController class called "ViewController" and it accesses several SKScenes.

I have these two functions to present and hide ads:

-(void)showBannerView{
    if (_adBanner && !_adBannerViewIsVisible){
        _adBannerViewIsVisible = true;

        [UIView beginAnimations:nil context:nil];
        [UIView setAnimationDuration:0.5];
        [UIView setAnimationCurve:UIViewAnimationCurveEaseOut];

        CGRect frame = _adBanner.frame;
        frame.origin.x = 0.0f;
        frame.origin.y = 0.0f;

        _adBanner.frame = frame;

        [UIView commitAnimations];
    }
}

-(void)hideBannerView{
    if (_adBanner && _adBannerViewIsVisible){
        _adBannerViewIsVisible = false;

        [UIView beginAnimations:nil context:nil];
        [UIView setAnimationDuration:0.5];
        [UIView setAnimationCurve:UIViewAnimationCurveEaseOut];

        CGRect frame = _adBanner.frame;
        frame.origin.x = 0.0f;
        frame.origin.y = -_adBanner.frame.size.height ;

        _adBanner.frame = frame;

        [UIView commitAnimations];
    }

}

The only remaining thing I need to figure out is how to call these functions on the correct parent ViewController.

How can I go about doing this from within one of my SKScenes?

I've tried (from within the skscene):

[self.view.window.rootViewController hideBannerView];
[self.view.window.rootViewController showBannerView];

and

ViewController *parent = [[ViewController alloc] init];
[parent hideBannerView];

The first one just throws an error, and the parent code just doesn't do anything because it's creating another view controller rather than accessing the given one.

I also tried making a property on the skscene of type 'ViewController *' and it didn't let me access the property from the viewcontroller (I was trying to set the property equal to 'self', effectively referencing the viewcontroller from the skscene)

Answer 1

I'm not entirely familiar with spriteKit, but I think this should work just the same.

In RootViewController.h in viewDidLoad add:

// Note Notification name:  you should probably use a constant
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self
                                         selector:@selector(updateBannerView:)
                                             name:@"kNotificationUpdateBannerView"
                                           object:nil];

Then, still in RootViewController.h add:

- (void) updateBannerView:(NSNotification *)note {
    NSDictionary * info = note.userInfo;
    BOOL shouldHide = [info[@"shouldHide"]boolValue];

    if (shouldHide) {
        NSLog(@"shouldHide");
        [self hideBannerView];
    }
    else {
        NSLog(@"shouldShow");
        [self showBannerView];
    }
}

Now, you're all set up. Whenever you want to call it, use this:

BOOL shouldHide = YES; // whether or not to hide

// Update Here!
NSDictionary * dict = [[NSDictionary alloc]initWithObjectsAndKeys:[NSNumber numberWithBool:shouldHide], @"shouldHide", nil];

[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter]postNotificationName:@"kNotificationUpdateBannerView" // Better as constant!
                                                   object:self 
                                                 userInfo:dict];

Now, wherever you are in your app, you can hide/show your banner ads!