Load view from an external xib file in storyboard

Question

I want to use a view throughout multiple viewcontrollers in a storyboard. Thus, I thought about designing the view in an external xib so changes are reflected in every viewcontroller. But how can one load a view from a external xib in a storyboard and is it even possible? If thats not the case, what other alternatives are availble to suit the situation abouve?

Answer 1

Solution for Objective-C according to steps described in Ben Patch's response.

Use extension for UIView:

@implementation UIView (NibLoadable)

- (UIView*)loadFromNib
{
    UIView *xibView = [[[NSBundle mainBundle] loadNibNamed:NSStringFromClass([self class]) owner:self options:nil] firstObject];
    xibView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = NO;
    [self addSubview:xibView];
    [xibView.topAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor:self.topAnchor].active = YES;
    [xibView.bottomAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor:self.bottomAnchor].active = YES;
    [xibView.leftAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor:self.leftAnchor].active = YES;
    [xibView.rightAnchor constraintEqualToAnchor:self.rightAnchor].active = YES;
    return xibView;
}

@end

Create files MyView.h, MyView.m and MyView.xib.

First prepare your MyView.xib as Ben Patch's response says so set class MyView for File's owner instead of main view inside this XIB.

MyView.h:

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

IB_DESIGNABLE @interface MyView : UIView

@property (nonatomic, weak) IBOutlet UIView* someSubview;

@end

MyView.m:

#import "MyView.h"
#import "UIView+NibLoadable.h"

@implementation MyView

#pragma mark - Initializers

- (id)init
{
    self = [super init];
    if (self) {
        [self loadFromNib];
        [self internalInit];
    }
    return self;
}

- (id)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame
{
    self = [super initWithFrame:frame];
    if (self) {
        [self loadFromNib];
        [self internalInit];
    }
    return self;
}

- (id)initWithCoder:(NSCoder *)aDecoder
{
    self = [super initWithCoder:aDecoder];
    if (self) {
        [self loadFromNib];
    }
    return self;
}

- (void)awakeFromNib
{
    [super awakeFromNib];
    [self internalInit];
}

- (void)internalInit
{
    // Custom initialization.
}

@end

And later just create your view programatically:

MyView* view = [[MyView alloc] init];

Warning! Preview of this view will not be shown in Storyboard if you use WatchKit Extension because of this bug in Xcode >= 9.2: https://forums.developer.apple.com/thread/95616

Answer 2

I've always found the "add it as a subview" solution unsatisfactory, seeing as it screws with (1) autolayout, (2) @IBInspectable, and (3) outlets. Instead, let me introduce you to the magic of awakeAfter:, an NSObject method.

awakeAfter lets you swap out the object actually woken up from a NIB/Storyboard with a different object entirely. That object is then put through the hydration process, has awakeFromNib called on it, is added as a view, etc.

We can use this in a "cardboard cut-out" subclass of our view, the only purpose of which will be to load the view from the NIB and return it for use in the Storyboard. The embeddable subclass is then specified in the Storyboard view's identity inspector, rather than the original class. It doesn't actually have to be a subclass in order for this to work, but making it a subclass is what allows IB to see any IBInspectable/IBOutlet properties.

Note: the class set on the view in the NIB file remains the same. The embeddable subclass is only used in the storyboard. The subclass can't be used to instantiate the view in code, so it shouldn't have any additional logic, itself. It should only contain the awakeAfter hook.

class MyCustomEmbeddableView: MyCustomView {
  override func awakeAfter(using aDecoder: NSCoder) -> Any? {
    return (UIView.instantiateViewFromNib("MyCustomView") as MyCustomView?)! as Any
  }
}

⚠️ The one significant drawback here is that if you define width, height, or aspect ratio constraints in the storyboard that don't relate to another view then they have to be copied over manually. Constraints that relate two views are installed on the nearest common ancestor, and views are woken from the storyboard from the inside-out, so by the time those constraints are hydrated on the superview the swap has already occurred. Constraints that only involve the view in question are installed directly on that view, and thus get tossed when the swap occurs unless they are copied.

Note that what is happening here is constraints installed on the view in the storyboard are copied to the newly instantiated view, which may already have constraints of its own, defined in its nib file. Those are unaffected.

class MyCustomEmbeddableView: MyCustomView {
  override func awakeAfter(using aDecoder: NSCoder) -> Any? {
    let newView = (UIView.instantiateViewFromNib("MyCustomView") as MyCustomView?)!

    for constraint in constraints {
      if constraint.secondItem != nil {
        newView.addConstraint(NSLayoutConstraint(item: newView, attribute: constraint.firstAttribute, relatedBy: constraint.relation, toItem: newView, attribute: constraint.secondAttribute, multiplier: constraint.multiplier, constant: constraint.constant))
      } else {
        newView.addConstraint(NSLayoutConstraint(item: newView, attribute: constraint.firstAttribute, relatedBy: constraint.relation, toItem: nil, attribute: .notAnAttribute, multiplier: 1, constant: constraint.constant))
      }
    }

    return newView as Any
  }
}  

instantiateViewFromNib is a type-safe extension to UIView. All it does is loop through the NIB's objects until it finds one that matches the type. Note that the generic type is the return value, so the type has to be specified at the call site.

extension UIView {
  public class func instantiateViewFromNib<T>(_ nibName: String, inBundle bundle: Bundle = Bundle.main) -> T? {
    if let objects = bundle.loadNibNamed(nibName, owner: nil) {
      for object in objects {
        if let object = object as? T {
          return object
        }
      }
    }

    return nil
  }
}