Checking if a UIViewController is about to get Popped from a navigation stack?

Question

I need to know when my view controller is about to get popped from a nav stack so I can perform an action.

I can\'t use -viewWillDisappear, because that gets called

Answer 1

I tried this:

- (void) viewWillDisappear:(BOOL)animated {
    // If we are disappearing because we were removed from navigation stack
    if (self.navigationController == nil) {
        // YOUR CODE HERE
    }

    [super viewWillDisappear:animated];
}

The idea is that at popping, the view controller's navigationController is set to nil. So if the view was to disappear, and it longer has a navigationController, I concluded it was popped. (might not work in other scenarios).

Can't vouch that viewWillDisappear will be called upon popping, as it is not mentioned in the docs. I tried it when the view was top view, and below top view - and it worked in both.

Good luck, Oded.

Answer 2

You can observe the notification:

- (void)viewDidLoad{
    [super viewDidLoad];
    [NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter addObserver:self selector:@selector(navigationControllerWillShowViewController:) name:@"UINavigationControllerWillShowViewControllerNotification" object:nil];
}

- (void)navigationControllerDidShowViewController:(NSNotification *)notification{
    UIViewController *lastVisible = notification.userInfo[@"UINavigationControllerLastVisibleViewController"];
    if(lastVisible == self){
        // we are being popped
    }
}

Answer 3

I don't think there is an explicit message for this, but you could subclass the UINavigationController and override - popViewControllerAnimated (although I haven't tried this before myself).

Alternatively, if there are no other references to the view controller, could you add to its - dealloc?

Answer 4

Maybe you could use UINavigationBarDelegate's navigationBar:shouldPopItem protocol method.

Answer 5

Try overriding willMoveToParentViewController: (instead of viewWillDisappear:) in your custom subclass of UIViewController.

Called just before the view controller is added or removed from a container view controller.

- (void)willMoveToParentViewController:(UIViewController *)parent
{
    [super willMoveToParentViewController:parent];
    if (!parent) {
        // `self` is about to get popped.
    }
}

Answer 6

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

    const BOOL removingFromParent = ![self.navigationController.viewControllers containsObject:self.parentViewController];
    if ( removingFromParent ) {
        // cleanup
    }
}