Completion handler for UINavigationController “pushViewController:animated”?

Question

I\'m about creating an app using a UINavigationController to present the next view controllers. With iOS5 there´s a new method to presenting UIViewControl

Answer 1

iOS 7+ Swift

Swift 4:

// 2018.10.30 par:
//   I've updated this answer with an asynchronous dispatch to the main queue
//   when we're called without animation. This really should have been in the
//   previous solutions I gave but I forgot to add it.
extension UINavigationController {
    public func pushViewController(
        _ viewController: UIViewController,
        animated: Bool,
        completion: @escaping () -> Void)
    {
        pushViewController(viewController, animated: animated)

        guard animated, let coordinator = transitionCoordinator else {
            DispatchQueue.main.async { completion() }
            return
        }

        coordinator.animate(alongsideTransition: nil) { _ in completion() }
    }

    func popViewController(
        animated: Bool,
        completion: @escaping () -> Void)
    {
        popViewController(animated: animated)

        guard animated, let coordinator = transitionCoordinator else {
            DispatchQueue.main.async { completion() }
            return
        }

        coordinator.animate(alongsideTransition: nil) { _ in completion() }
    }
}

---

EDIT: I've added a Swift 3 version of my original answer. In this version I've removed the example co-animation shown in the Swift 2 version as it seems to have confused a lot of people.

Swift 3:

import UIKit

// Swift 3 version, no co-animation (alongsideTransition parameter is nil)
extension UINavigationController {
    public func pushViewController(
        _ viewController: UIViewController,
        animated: Bool,
        completion: @escaping (Void) -> Void)
    {
        pushViewController(viewController, animated: animated)

        guard animated, let coordinator = transitionCoordinator else {
            completion()
            return
        }

        coordinator.animate(alongsideTransition: nil) { _ in completion() }
    }
}

Swift 2:

import UIKit

// Swift 2 Version, shows example co-animation (status bar update)
extension UINavigationController {
    public func pushViewController(
        viewController: UIViewController,
        animated: Bool,
        completion: Void -> Void)
    {
        pushViewController(viewController, animated: animated)

        guard animated, let coordinator = transitionCoordinator() else {
            completion()
            return
        }

        coordinator.animateAlongsideTransition(
            // pass nil here or do something animated if you'd like, e.g.:
            { context in
                viewController.setNeedsStatusBarAppearanceUpdate()
            },
            completion: { context in
                completion()
            }
        )
    }
}

Answer 2

It takes a little more pipework to add this behavior and retain the ability to set an external delegate.

Here's a documented implementation that maintains delegate functionality:

LBXCompletingNavigationController

Answer 3

Currently the UINavigationController does not support this. But there's the UINavigationControllerDelegate that you can use.

An easy way to accomplish this is by subclassing UINavigationController and adding a completion block property:

@interface PbNavigationController : UINavigationController <UINavigationControllerDelegate>

@property (nonatomic,copy) dispatch_block_t completionBlock;

@end


@implementation PbNavigationController

- (id)initWithNibName:(NSString *)nibNameOrNil bundle:(NSBundle *)nibBundleOrNil {
    self = [super initWithNibName:nibNameOrNil bundle:nibBundleOrNil];
    if (self) {
        self.delegate = self;
    }
    return self;
}

- (void)navigationController:(UINavigationController *)navigationController didShowViewController:(UIViewController *)viewController animated:(BOOL)animated {
    NSLog(@"didShowViewController:%@", viewController);

    if (self.completionBlock) {
        self.completionBlock();
        self.completionBlock = nil;
    }
}

@end

Before pushing the new view controller you would have to set the completion block:

UIViewController *vc = ...;
((PbNavigationController *)self.navigationController).completionBlock = ^ {
    NSLog(@"COMPLETED");
};
[self.navigationController pushViewController:vc animated:YES];

This new subclass can either be assigned in Interface Builder or be used programmatically like this:

PbNavigationController *nc = [[PbNavigationController alloc]initWithRootViewController:yourRootViewController];