Nil Value in remoteControlReceivedWithEvent

Question

I have a master-detail app. Tapping on each cell of the tableView in the MasterViewController navigates to a DetailViewController where you can download and play an audio file. I had problems keeping the AVAudioPlayer instance, single, so that different files from multiple cells wouldn't play at the same time. Before fixing that, my remoteControlReceivedWithEvent was working fine and I could manage events on all view controllers.

Fixing that issue now, my player plays only one file at the same time, so if I happen to navigate back to the MasterViewController and then select another row and enter a different cell and start playing that, it will stop the first file and start the second. BUT the problem at the moment is that trying to use the control center while the user is on else where out of the DetailViewController, remoteControlReceivedWithEvent is called, but the value is nil, so nothing happens. This is while I can detect which row is now playing in my cellForRowAtIndexPath: and highlight it on the MasterViewController as follows:

if (entry.audioManager && [entry.audioManager soundPlayer].isPlaying)
{
    equalizer.hidden = NO;
    [self animateTheEqualizer];
}

However I can't spot that in remoteControlReceivedWithEvent since I don't have any access to the indices.

I have already included canBecomeFirstResponder and so on, and I'm sure that it's only the confusion of the table view understanding which file is currently being played. Everything works fine if I try this in the DetailViewController but not outside it in another VC or even in the background.

- (void)remoteControlReceivedWithEvent:(UIEvent *)event {
    //if it is a remote control event handle it correctly
    if (event.type == UIEventTypeRemoteControl)
    {
        if (event.subtype == UIEventSubtypeRemoteControlPlay)
        {
            [entry.audioManager playAudio];
//            [[NIKDetailViewController sharedController].feedEntry.audioManager playAudio];

        }
        else if (event.subtype == UIEventSubtypeRemoteControlPause)
        {
            [entry.audioManager pauseAudio];
        }
        else if (event.subtype == UIEventSubtypeRemoteControlTogglePlayPause)
        {
            [entry.audioManager togglePlayPause];
        }
        else if (event.subtype == UIEventSubtypeRemoteControlBeginSeekingBackward)
        {
            [entry.audioManager rewindTheAudio];
        }
        else if (event.subtype == UIEventSubtypeRemoteControlBeginSeekingForward)
        {
            [entry.audioManager fastForwardTheAudio];
        }
    }
}

and in my AudioManager class:

- (void)playAudio
{
    //Play the audio and set the button to represent the audio is playing
    if ([soundPlayer isPlaying])
    {
        [soundPlayer pause];
        [self deleteTimer];
    }
    else
    {
        [self createTimer];
        [soundPlayer play];
    }

    [self refreshButton];
//  [[NIKMasterViewController sharedController] markEntryAsPlaying:detailViewController.feedEntry];
}

- (void)pauseAudio
{
    //Pause the audio and set the button to represent the audio is paused
    [soundPlayer pause];
    [self deleteTimer];
    [self refreshButton];
}

Should I markAsNowPlaying manually or is there a delegate method I could use for this to spot the right index and avoid getting nil?

Answer 1

Ok... Problem finally solved! It was something totally different that I needed to do. I'm just using the wrong object entry.audioManager. I was supposed to use currentAudioManager which is an extern declared in AudioManager class. That would keep the currently-played-file and won't be nil.