Execute action when back bar button of UINavigatio

Question

I need to execute an action (emptying an array), when the back button of a UINavigationController is pressed, while the button still causes the previous ViewController on the stack to appear. How could I accomplish this using swift?

Answer 1

I accomplished this by calling/overriding viewWillDisappear and then accessing the stack of the navigationController like this:

override func viewWillDisappear(animated: Bool) {
    super.viewWillDisappear(animated)

    let stack = self.navigationController?.viewControllers.count

    if stack >= 2 {
        // for whatever reason, the last item on the stack is the TaskBuilderViewController (not self), so we only use -1 to access it
        if let lastitem = self.navigationController?.viewControllers[stack! - 1] as? theViewControllerYoureTryingToAccess {
            // hand over the data via public property or call a public method of theViewControllerYoureTryingToAccess, like
            lastitem.emptyArray()
            lastitem.value = 5
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

One option would be implementing your own custom back button. You would need to add the following code to your viewDidLoad method:

- (void) viewDidLoad {
    [super viewDidLoad];
    self.navigationItem.hidesBackButton = YES;
    UIBarButtonItem *newBackButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:@"Back" style:UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered target:self action:@selector(back:)];
    self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = newBackButton;
}

- (void) back:(UIBarButtonItem *)sender {
    // Perform your custom actions
    // ...
    // Go back to the previous ViewController
    [self.navigationController popViewControllerAnimated:YES];
}

UPDATE:

Here is the version for Swift:

    override func viewDidLoad {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        self.navigationItem.hidesBackButton = true
        let newBackButton = UIBarButtonItem(title: "Back", style: UIBarButtonItemStyle.Bordered, target: self, action: "back:")
        self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = newBackButton
    }

    func back(sender: UIBarButtonItem) {
        // Perform your custom actions
        // ...
        // Go back to the previous ViewController
        self.navigationController?.popViewControllerAnimated(true)
    }

UPDATE 2:

Here is the version for Swift 3:

    override func viewDidLoad {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        self.navigationItem.hidesBackButton = true
        let newBackButton = UIBarButtonItem(title: "Back", style: UIBarButtonItemStyle.plain, target: self, action: #selector(YourViewController.back(sender:)))
        self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = newBackButton
    }

    func back(sender: UIBarButtonItem) {
        // Perform your custom actions
        // ...
        // Go back to the previous ViewController
        _ = navigationController?.popViewController(animated: true)
    }

Answer 3

I was able to achieve this with the following :

Swift 3

override func didMoveToParentViewController(parent: UIViewController?) {
   super.didMoveToParentViewController(parent)

   if parent == nil {
      println("Back Button pressed.")
      delegate?.goingBack()
   }           
}

Swift 4

override func didMove(toParent parent: UIViewController?) {
    super.didMove(toParent: parent)

    if parent == nil {
        debugPrint("Back Button pressed.")
    }
}

No need of custom back button.

Answer 4

NO

override func willMove(toParentViewController parent: UIViewController?) { }

This will get called even if you are segueing to the view controller in which you are overriding this method. In which check if the "parent" is nil of not is not a precise way to be sure of moving back to the correct UIViewController. To determine exactly if the UINavigationController is properly navigating back to the UIViewController that presented this current one, you will need to conform to the UINavigationControllerDelegate protocol.

YES

note: MyViewController is just the name of whatever UIViewController you want to detect going back from.

1) At the top of your file add UINavigationControllerDelegate.

class MyViewController: UIViewController, UINavigationControllerDelegate {

2) Add a property to your class that will keep track of the UIViewController that you are segueing from.

class MyViewController: UIViewController, UINavigationControllerDelegate {

var previousViewController:UIViewController

3) in MyViewController's viewDidLoad method assign self as the delegate for your UINavigationController.

override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()
    self.navigationController?.delegate = self
}

3) Before you segue, assign the previous UIViewController as this property.

// In previous UIViewController
override func prepare(for segue: UIStoryboardSegue, sender: Any?) {
    if segue.identifier == "YourSegueID" {
        if let nextViewController = segue.destination as? MyViewController {
            nextViewController.previousViewController = self
        }
    }
}

4) And conform to one method in MyViewController of the UINavigationControllerDelegate

func navigationController(_ navigationController: UINavigationController, willShow viewController: UIViewController, animated: Bool) {
    if viewController == self.previousViewController {
        // You are going back
    }
}

Answer 5

just do control + drag the bar item to below func. work like charm

@IBAction func done(sender: AnyObject) {
    if((self.presentingViewController) != nil){
        self.dismiss(animated: false, completion: nil)
        print("done")
    }
}

Answer 6

Swift 3:

override func didMove(toParentViewController parent: UIViewController?) {
    super.didMove(toParentViewController: parent)

    if parent == nil{
        print("Back button was clicked")
    }
}