iPhone — How to find topmost view controller

Question

I've run into a couple of cases now where it would be convenient to be able to find the "topmost" view controller (the one responsible for the current view), but haven't found a way to do it.

Basically the challenge is this: Given that one is executing in a class that is not a view controller (or a view) [and does not have the address of an active view] and has not been passed the address of the topmost view controller (or, say, the address of the navigation controller), is it possible to find that view controller? (And, if so, how?)

Or, failing that, is it possible to find the topmost view?

Answer 1

iOS 4 introduced the rootViewController property on UIWindow:

[UIApplication sharedApplication].keyWindow.rootViewController;

You'll need to set it yourself after you create the view controller though.

Answer 2

I think most of the answers have completely ignored UINavigationViewController, so I handled this use case with following implementation.

+ (UIViewController *)topMostController {
    UIViewController * topController = [UIApplication sharedApplication].keyWindow.rootViewController;
    while (topController.presentedViewController || [topController isMemberOfClass:[UINavigationController class]]) {
        if([topController isMemberOfClass:[UINavigationController class]]) {
            topController = [topController childViewControllers].lastObject;
        } else {
            topController = topController.presentedViewController;
        }
    }

    return topController;
}

Answer 3

If the root controller is a navigation controller, correct way to find top visible controller is:

UIViewController *rootVC = [[UIApplication sharedApplication] keyWindow].rootViewController;
if ([rootVC respondsToSelector:@selector(visibleViewController)])
{
    UIViewController *topVC = [(UINavigationController *)rootVC visibleViewController];
    // do your thing with topVC
}

Here's an excerpt from UINavigationController.h:

@property(nonatomic,readonly,retain) UIViewController *topViewController; // The top view controller on the stack.
@property(nonatomic,readonly,retain) UIViewController *visibleViewController; // Return modal view controller if it exists. Otherwise the top view controller.

Answer 4

Simple extension for UIApplication in Swift:

NOTE:

It cares about moreNavigationController within UITabBarController

extension UIApplication {

    class func topViewController(baseViewController: UIViewController? = UIApplication.sharedApplication().keyWindow?.rootViewController) -> UIViewController? {

        if let navigationController = baseViewController as? UINavigationController {
            return topViewController(navigationController.visibleViewController)
        }

        if let tabBarViewController = baseViewController as? UITabBarController {

            let moreNavigationController = tabBarViewController.moreNavigationController

            if let topViewController = moreNavigationController.topViewController where topViewController.view.window != nil {
                return topViewController(topViewController)
            } else if let selectedViewController = tabBarViewController.selectedViewController {
                return topViewController(selectedViewController)
            }
        }

        if let splitViewController = baseViewController as? UISplitViewController where splitViewController.viewControllers.count == 1 {
            return topViewController(splitViewController.viewControllers[0])
        }

        if let presentedViewController = baseViewController?.presentedViewController {
            return topViewController(presentedViewController)
        }

        return baseViewController
    }
}

Simple usage:

if let topViewController = UIApplication.topViewController() {
    //do sth with top view controller
}

Answer 5

This solution is the most complete. It takes in consideration: UINavigationController UIPageViewController UITabBarController And the topmost presented view controller from the top view controller

The example is in Swift 3.

There are 3 overloads

//Get the topmost view controller for the current application.
public func MGGetTopMostViewController() -> UIViewController?  {

    if let currentWindow:UIWindow = UIApplication.shared.keyWindow {
        return MGGetTopMostViewController(fromWindow: currentWindow)
    }

    return nil
}

//Gets the topmost view controller from a specific window.
public func MGGetTopMostViewController(fromWindow window:UIWindow) -> UIViewController? {

    if let rootViewController:UIViewController = window.rootViewController
    {
        return MGGetTopMostViewController(fromViewController:  rootViewController)
    }

    return nil
}


//Gets the topmost view controller starting from a specific UIViewController
//Pass the rootViewController into this to get the apps top most view controller
public func MGGetTopMostViewController(fromViewController viewController:UIViewController) -> UIViewController {

    //UINavigationController
    if let navigationViewController:UINavigationController = viewController as? UINavigationController {
        let viewControllers:[UIViewController] = navigationViewController.viewControllers
        if navigationViewController.viewControllers.count >= 1 {
            return MGGetTopMostViewController(fromViewController: viewControllers[viewControllers.count - 1])
        }
    }

    //UIPageViewController
    if let pageViewController:UIPageViewController = viewController as? UIPageViewController {
        if let viewControllers:[UIViewController] = pageViewController.viewControllers {
            if viewControllers.count >= 1 {
                return MGGetTopMostViewController(fromViewController: viewControllers[0])
            }
        }
    }

    //UITabViewController
    if let tabBarController:UITabBarController = viewController as? UITabBarController {
        if let selectedViewController:UIViewController = tabBarController.selectedViewController {
            return MGGetTopMostViewController(fromViewController: selectedViewController)
        }
    }

    //Lastly, Attempt to get the topmost presented view controller
    var presentedViewController:UIViewController! = viewController.presentedViewController
    var nextPresentedViewController:UIViewController! = presentedViewController?.presentedViewController

    //If there is a presented view controller, get the top most prensentedViewController and return it.
    if presentedViewController != nil {
        while nextPresentedViewController != nil {

            //Set the presented view controller as the next one.
            presentedViewController = nextPresentedViewController

            //Attempt to get the next presented view controller
            nextPresentedViewController = presentedViewController.presentedViewController
        }
        return presentedViewController
    }

    //If there is no topmost presented view controller, return the view controller itself.
    return viewController
}

Answer 6

I recently got this situation in one my project, which required to displayed a notification view whatever the controller displayed was and whatever was the type (UINavigationController, classic controller or custom view controller), when network status changed.

So I juste released my code, which is quite easy and actually based on a protocol so that it is flexible with every type of container controller. It seems to be related with the last answers, but in a much flexible way.

You can grab the code here : PPTopMostController

And got the top most controller using

UIViewController *c = [UIViewController topMostController];