Get the current displaying UIViewController on the screen in AppDelegate.m

Question

The current UIViewController on the screen need to response to push-notifications from APNs, by setting some badge views. But how could I get the UIViewController in methodapplication:didReceiveRemoteNotification: of AppDelegate.m?

I tried use self.window.rootViewController to get the current displaying UIViewController, it may be a UINavigationViewController or some other kind of view controller. And I find out that the visibleViewController property of UINavigationViewController can be used to get the UIViewController on the screen. But what could I do if it is not a UINavigationViewController?

Any help is appreciated! The related code is as following.

AppDelegate.m

...
- (void)application:(UIApplication *)application didReceiveRemoteNotification:(NSDictionary *)userInfo {

    //I would like to find out which view controller is on the screen here.

    UIViewController *vc = [(UINavigationViewController *)self.window.rootViewController visibleViewController];
    [vc performSelector:@selector(handleThePushNotification:) withObject:userInfo];
}
...

ViewControllerA.m

- (void)handleThePushNotification:(NSDictionary *)userInfo{

    //set some badge view here

}

Answer 1

I always love solutions that involve categories as they are bolt on and can be easily reused.

So I created a category on UIWindow. You can now call visibleViewController on UIWindow and this will get you the visible view controller by searching down the controller hierarchy. This works if you are using navigation and/or tab bar controller. If you have another type of controller to suggest please let me know and I can add it.

UIWindow+PazLabs.h (header file)

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@interface UIWindow (PazLabs)

- (UIViewController *) visibleViewController;

@end

UIWindow+PazLabs.m (implementation file)

#import "UIWindow+PazLabs.h"

@implementation UIWindow (PazLabs)

- (UIViewController *)visibleViewController {
    UIViewController *rootViewController = self.rootViewController;
    return [UIWindow getVisibleViewControllerFrom:rootViewController];
}

+ (UIViewController *) getVisibleViewControllerFrom:(UIViewController *) vc {
    if ([vc isKindOfClass:[UINavigationController class]]) {
        return [UIWindow getVisibleViewControllerFrom:[((UINavigationController *) vc) visibleViewController]];
    } else if ([vc isKindOfClass:[UITabBarController class]]) {
        return [UIWindow getVisibleViewControllerFrom:[((UITabBarController *) vc) selectedViewController]];
    } else {
        if (vc.presentedViewController) {
            return [UIWindow getVisibleViewControllerFrom:vc.presentedViewController];
        } else {
            return vc;
        }
    }
}

@end

Swift Version

public extension UIWindow {
    public var visibleViewController: UIViewController? {
        return UIWindow.getVisibleViewControllerFrom(self.rootViewController)
    }

    public static func getVisibleViewControllerFrom(_ vc: UIViewController?) -> UIViewController? {
        if let nc = vc as? UINavigationController {
            return UIWindow.getVisibleViewControllerFrom(nc.visibleViewController)
        } else if let tc = vc as? UITabBarController {
            return UIWindow.getVisibleViewControllerFrom(tc.selectedViewController)
        } else {
            if let pvc = vc?.presentedViewController {
                return UIWindow.getVisibleViewControllerFrom(pvc)
            } else {
                return vc
            }
        }
    }
}