UIPageViewController: return the current visible v

Question

How do you know what is the current page/view displayed inside an UIPageViewController?

I have overridden the viewDidAppear method of my child views, so that they send an id to the parent view in their viewDidAppear method.

However, the problem is this: i cannot reliably use that id as id for the displayed page. because if the user turns the page but halfway through decides to stop the turning and put the page back, viewDidAppear will already have been called. (the view is visible behind the curled page).

Maybe i should only switch to a new id if the current view disappears. But I wonder if there is not a more simple way to return the view that is currently visible?

Answer 1

Unfortunately, all above methods didn't help me. Nevertheless, I have found the solution by using tags. May be it's not the best, but it works and hope it helps someone:

- (void)pageViewController:(UIPageViewController *)pageViewController didFinishAnimating:(BOOL)finished previousViewControllers:(NSArray *)previousViewControllers transitionCompleted:(BOOL)completed 
{
    if (completed) {
        int currentIndex = ((UIViewController *)self.pageViewController.viewControllers.firstObject).view.tag;
        self.pageControl.currentPage = currentIndex;
    }
}

In Swift: (thanks to @Jessy)

func pageViewController(pageViewController: UIPageViewController,
    didFinishAnimating finished: Bool,
    previousViewControllers: [UIViewController],
    transitionCompleted completed: Bool)
{
    guard completed else { return }
    self.pageControl.currentPage = pageViewController.viewControllers!.first!.view.tag
}

Example: gist

Answer 2

As of iOS 6 I've found that the viewControllers property of UIPageViewController constantly updates so that it will always hold the one view controller that represents the current page, and nothing else. Thus, you can access the current page by calling viewControllers[0] (Assuming you only show one view controller at a time).

The viewController array only updates once the page "locks" into place, so if a user decides to partially reveal the next page it doesn't become the "current" page unless they complete the transition.

If you want to keep track of the "page numbers" assign your view controllers an index value as you create them through the UIPageViewController datasource methods.

---

So for example:

-(void)autoAdvance
    {
    UIViewController *currentVC = self.viewControllers[0];
    NSUInteger currentIndex = [myViewControllers indexOfObject:currentVC];

    if ( currentIndex >= (myViewControllers.count-1) ) return;

    [self setViewControllers:@[myViewControllers[ currentIndex+1 ]]
        direction:UIPageViewControllerNavigationDirectionForward
        animated:YES
        completion:nil];
    }
-(NSInteger)presentationIndexForPageViewController:
                         (UIPageViewController *)pageViewController
    {
    // return 0;
    UIViewController *currentVC = self.viewControllers[0];
    NSUInteger currentIndex = [myViewControllers indexOfObject:currentVC];
    return currentIndex;
    }

But note the comments that this is unreliable.

Answer 3

- (void)pageViewController:(UIPageViewController *)pageViewController didFinishAnimating:(BOOL)finished previousViewControllers:(NSArray *)previousViewControllers transitionCompleted:(BOOL)completed {

    NSLog(@"Current Page = %@", pageViewController.viewControllers);

    UIViewController *currentView = [pageViewController.viewControllers objectAtIndex:0];

    if ([currentView isKindOfClass:[FirstPageViewController class]]) {
             NSLog(@"First View");
        }
        else if([currentView isKindOfClass:[SecondPageViewController class]]) {
             NSLog(@"Second View");
        }
        else if([currentView isKindOfClass:[ThirdViewController class]]) {
              NSLog(@"Third View");
        }
}

//pageViewController.viewControllers always return current visible View ViewController

Answer 4

Building on Ole's Answer…

This is how I implemented the 4 methods to track the current page and update the page indicator to the correct index:

- (NSInteger)presentationCountForPageViewController:(UIPageViewController *)pageViewController{

    return (NSInteger)[self.model count];

}

- (NSInteger)presentationIndexForPageViewController:(UIPageViewController *)pageViewController{

    return (NSInteger)self.currentIndex;
}

- (void)pageViewController:(UIPageViewController *)pageViewController willTransitionToViewControllers:(NSArray *)pendingViewControllers{

    SJJeanViewController* controller = [pendingViewControllers firstObject];
    self.nextIndex = [self indexOfViewController:controller];

}

- (void)pageViewController:(UIPageViewController *)pageViewController didFinishAnimating:(BOOL)finished previousViewControllers:(NSArray *)previousViewControllers transitionCompleted:(BOOL)completed{

    if(completed){

        self.currentIndex = self.nextIndex;

    }

    self.nextIndex = 0;

}

Answer 5

This works for me reliably

I have a custom UIPageController. This pageController.currentPage is updated from the displayed UIViewController in the viewWillAppear

   var delegate: PageViewControllerUpdateCurrentPageNumberDelegate?

      init(delegate: PageViewControllerUpdateCurrentPageNumberDelegate ){
        self.delegate = delegate
        super.init(nibName: nil, bundle: nil)
      }

      required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
        fatalError("init(coder:) has not been implemented")
      }

    override func viewWillAppear(animated: Bool) {

        if delegate != nil {
          self.delegate!.upateCurrentPageNumber(0) //(0) is the pageNumber corresponding to the displayed controller
        }
      } 

    //In the pageViewController 

    protocol PageViewControllerUpdateCurrentPageNumberDelegate {

      func upateCurrentPageNumber(currentPageIndex: Int)
    }

     create the view display controllers initializing with the delegate

    orderedViewControllers = {
              return [
                IntroductionFirstPageViewController(delegate: self),
                IntroductionSecondPageViewController(delegate: self),
                IntroductionThirdPageViewController(delegate: self)
              ]

            }()

    the function implementing the protocol

    func upateCurrentPageNumber(currentPageIndex: Int){
        pageControl.currentPage = currentPageIndex
      }

Answer 6

Swift 4

No unnecessary code. 3 ways of doing it. Using UIPageViewControllerDelegate method.

func pageViewController(_ pageViewController: UIPageViewController, didFinishAnimating finished: Bool, previousViewControllers: [UIViewController], transitionCompleted completed: Bool) {
    guard completed else { return }

    // using content viewcontroller's index
    guard let index = (pageViewController.viewControllers?.first as? ContentViewController)?.index else { return }

    // using viewcontroller's view tag
    guard let index = pageViewController.viewControllers?.first?.view.tag else { return }

    // switch on viewcontroller
    guard let vc = pageViewController.viewControllers?.first else { return }
    let index: Int
    switch vc {
    case is FirstViewController:
        index = 0
    case is SecondViewController:
        index = 1
    default:
        index = 2
    }
}