Accessing a view created in storyboard's tableview from AppDelegate?

Question

I have a project using JASidePanels with a left menu containing a UITableView to change the center panel's contents.

As I want the ability to be able to deep link to my controllers via a custom URL scheme, I have moved the view switching functionality into the AppDelegate.m file as part of the handleOpenURL: function. With this, I updated the didSelectRowAtIndexPath: function of the Menu Controller to call the custom URL like so:

- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)aTableView 
  didSelectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {

    NSInteger index = indexPath.row;

    NSDictionary *item = self.menu[index];

    NSURL *myURL = [NSURL URLWithString:item[@"url"]];

    [[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:myURL];
}

The handleOpenURL: function of the AppDelegate when using .xibs instead of storyboard looks like:

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application handleOpenURL:(NSURL *)url {

    if ([[url host] isEqualToString:@"goto"]) {

        for (int i = 0; i < [self.leftMenuViewController.tableView
          numberOfRowsInSection:0]; i++) {

            [self.leftMenuViewController.tableView 
              deselectRowAtIndexPath:[NSIndexPath indexPathForRow:i
              inSection:0] animated:NO];

            UITableViewCell *deselectedCell = [self.leftMenuViewController.tableView
              cellForRowAtIndexPath:[NSIndexPath indexPathForRow:i
              inSection:0]];

            deselectedCell.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
        }

    ...

    }
}

This works as desired, deselecting and formatting all rows in the UITableView on the Menu Controller when not using storyboards and creating the interfaces in xib files.

My problem comes when using Storyboards. How am I able to access the (UITableView *)tableView from the MenuViewController from within the AppDelegate when it was instantiated from within a storyboard by another controller (SidePanelController)?

I am setting up the storyboard with the following code within my didFinishLaunchingWithOptions: function:

self.storyboard = [UIStoryboard storyboardWithName:@"Main_iPhone" bundle:[NSBundle mainBundle]];
self.viewController = [storyboard instantiateInitialViewController];

self.window.rootViewController = self.viewController;

so I need to access the already instantiated instance of MenuViewController rather than create a new instance of the controller. I have tried to access the tableView via:

SidePanelController *panelController = (SidePanelController *)self.window.rootViewController;
UIViewController *menuViewController = (MenuViewController *)panelController.leftPanel;
UITableView *menuTableView = (UITableView *)menuViewController;

but not having much luck. Is it possible to programmatically retrieve a UITableView out of a view instantiated in a storyboard?

Thanks in advance

Ash

Answer 1

For anyone experiencing similar issues when trying to access a Storyboard view's UITableView from your AppDelegate while using JASidePanels for side bar navigation, I realised a solution for my own problem explained above.

In your JASidePanelController.h file, update the following line:

// set the panels
@property (nonatomic, strong) UIViewController *leftPanel;   // optional

to your created left menu view controller, in my case:

// set the panels
@property (nonatomic, strong) MenuViewController *leftPanel;   // optional

And in JASidePanelController.m file, update the following method declaration:

- (void)setLeftPanel:(UIViewController *)leftPanel {

to

- (void)setLeftPanel:(MenuViewController *)leftPanel {

By doing the above, it will allow you to interact with your left side menu's tableView using the following syntax from your AppDelegate:

SidePanelController *panelController = (SidePanelController *)self.window.rootViewController;

[panelController.leftPanel.tableView reloadData];