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

This works great for finding the top viewController 1 from any root view controlle

+ (UIViewController *)topViewControllerFor:(UIViewController *)viewController
{
    if(!viewController.presentedViewController)
        return viewController;
    return [MF5AppDelegate topViewControllerFor:viewController.presentedViewController];
}

/* View Controller for Visible View */

AppDelegate *app = [UIApplication sharedApplication].delegate;
UIViewController *visibleViewController = [AppDelegate topViewControllerFor:app.window.rootViewController]; 

Answer 2

I think you need a combination of the accepted answer and @fishstix's

+ (UIViewController*) topMostController
{
    UIViewController *topController = [UIApplication sharedApplication].keyWindow.rootViewController;

    while (topController.presentedViewController) {
        topController = topController.presentedViewController;
    }

    return topController;
}

Swift 3.0+

func topMostController() -> UIViewController? {
    guard let window = UIApplication.shared.keyWindow, let rootViewController = window.rootViewController else {
        return nil
    }

    var topController = rootViewController

    while let newTopController = topController.presentedViewController {
        topController = newTopController
    }

    return topController
}

Answer 3

Swift:

extension UIWindow {

func visibleViewController() -> UIViewController? {
    if let rootViewController: UIViewController  = self.rootViewController {
        return UIWindow.getVisibleViewControllerFrom(rootViewController)
    }
    return nil
}

class func getVisibleViewControllerFrom(vc:UIViewController) -> UIViewController {
if vc.isKindOfClass(UINavigationController.self) {

    let navigationController = vc as UINavigationController
    return UIWindow.getVisibleViewControllerFrom( navigationController.visibleViewController)

} else if vc.isKindOfClass(UITabBarController.self) {

    let tabBarController = vc as UITabBarController
    return UIWindow.getVisibleViewControllerFrom(tabBarController.selectedViewController!)

} else {

    if let presentedViewController = vc.presentedViewController {

        return UIWindow.getVisibleViewControllerFrom(presentedViewController.presentedViewController!)

    } else {

        return vc;
    }
}
}

Usage:

 if let topController = window.visibleViewController() {
            println(topController)
        }

Answer 4

Getting top most view controller for Swift using extensions

Code:

extension UIViewController {
    @objc func topMostViewController() -> UIViewController {
        // Handling Modal views
        if let presentedViewController = self.presentedViewController {
            return presentedViewController.topMostViewController()
        }
        // Handling UIViewController's added as subviews to some other views.
        else {
            for view in self.view.subviews
            {
                // Key property which most of us are unaware of / rarely use.
                if let subViewController = view.next {
                    if subViewController is UIViewController {
                        let viewController = subViewController as! UIViewController
                        return viewController.topMostViewController()
                    }
                }
            }
            return self
        }
    }
}

extension UITabBarController {
    override func topMostViewController() -> UIViewController {
        return self.selectedViewController!.topMostViewController()
    }
}

extension UINavigationController {
    override func topMostViewController() -> UIViewController {
        return self.visibleViewController!.topMostViewController()
    }
}

Usage:

UIApplication.sharedApplication().keyWindow!.rootViewController!.topMostViewController()

Answer 5

To complete Eric's answer (who left out popovers, navigation controllers, tabbarcontrollers, view controllers added as subviews to some other view controllers while traversing), here is my version of returning the currently visible view controller:

=====================================================================

- (UIViewController*)topViewController {
    return [self topViewControllerWithRootViewController:[UIApplication sharedApplication].keyWindow.rootViewController];
}

- (UIViewController*)topViewControllerWithRootViewController:(UIViewController*)viewController {
    if ([viewController isKindOfClass:[UITabBarController class]]) {
        UITabBarController* tabBarController = (UITabBarController*)viewController;
        return [self topViewControllerWithRootViewController:tabBarController.selectedViewController];
    } else if ([viewController isKindOfClass:[UINavigationController class]]) {
        UINavigationController* navContObj = (UINavigationController*)viewController;
        return [self topViewControllerWithRootViewController:navContObj.visibleViewController];
    } else if (viewController.presentedViewController && !viewController.presentedViewController.isBeingDismissed) {
        UIViewController* presentedViewController = viewController.presentedViewController;
        return [self topViewControllerWithRootViewController:presentedViewController];
    }
    else {
        for (UIView *view in [viewController.view subviews])
        {
            id subViewController = [view nextResponder];
            if ( subViewController && [subViewController isKindOfClass:[UIViewController class]])
            {
                if ([(UIViewController *)subViewController presentedViewController]  && ![subViewController presentedViewController].isBeingDismissed) {
                    return [self topViewControllerWithRootViewController:[(UIViewController *)subViewController presentedViewController]];
                }
            }
        }
        return viewController;
    }
}

=====================================================================

And now all you need to do to get top most view controller is call the above method as follows:

UIViewController *topMostViewControllerObj = [self topViewController];

Answer 6

- (UIViewController*)topViewController {
    return [self topViewControllerWithRootViewController:[UIApplication sharedApplication].keyWindow.rootViewController];
}

- (UIViewController*)topViewControllerWithRootViewController:(UIViewController*)rootViewController {
    if ([rootViewController isKindOfClass:[UITabBarController class]]) {
        UITabBarController* tabBarController = (UITabBarController*)rootViewController;
        return [self topViewControllerWithRootViewController:tabBarController.selectedViewController];
    } else if ([rootViewController isKindOfClass:[UINavigationController class]]) {
        UINavigationController* navigationController = (UINavigationController*)rootViewController;
        return [self topViewControllerWithRootViewController:navigationController.visibleViewController];
    } else if (rootViewController.presentedViewController) {
        UIViewController* presentedViewController = rootViewController.presentedViewController;
        return [self topViewControllerWithRootViewController:presentedViewController];
    } else {
        return rootViewController;
    }
}