iOS how to detect programmatically when top view controller is popped?

Question

Suppose I have a nav controller stack with 2 view controllers: VC2 is on top and VC1 is underneath. Is there code I can include in VC1 that will detect that VC2 has just be

Answer 1

One way you could approach this would be to declare a delegate protocol for VC2 something like this:

in VC1.h

@interface VC1 : UIViewController <VC2Delegate> {
...
}

in VC1.m

-(void)showVC2 {
    VC2 *vc2 = [[VC2 alloc] init];
    vc2.delegate = self;
    [self.navigationController pushViewController:vc2 animated:YES];
}

-(void)VC2DidPop {
    // Do whatever in response to VC2 being popped off the nav controller
}

in VC2.h

@protocol VC2Delegate <NSObject>
-(void)VC2DidPop;
@end

@interface VC2 : UIViewController {

    id<VC2Delegate> delegate;
}

@property (nonatomic, assign) id delegate;

...

@end

VC2.m

-(void)viewDidUnload {
    [super viewDidUnload];
    [self.delegate VC2DidPop];
}

There's a good article on the basics of protocols and delegates here.

Answer 2

You can also detect in the view controller that is being popped

- (void)viewWillDisappear:(BOOL)animated {
    [super viewWillDisappear:animated];

    if ([self isMovingFromParentViewController]) {
        ....
    }
}

Answer 3

You can add an observer for NSNotification specifically JUST for your VC2.

// pasing the "VC2" here will tell the notification to only listen for notification from
// VC2 rather than every single other objects
[[NSNotitificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self selector:@selector(doSomething:) object:VC2];

Now in in your VC2's view will disappear, you can post a notification:

-(void)viewWillDisappear
{
    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] postNotificationNamed:@"notif_dismissingVC2" object:nil];
}

Answer 4

This is worked for me

UIViewController *fromViewController = [[[self navigationController] transitionCoordinator] viewControllerForKey:UITransitionContextFromViewControllerKey];
if (![[self.navigationController viewControllers] containsObject:fromViewController] && !self.presentedViewController)
{
  //Something is being popped and we are being revealed 
}