Add a ContainerView inside a UIViewController created from .xib

Question

I have a .xib file and i want to add it a container view (to place inside a ViewController). Unfortunately a container view is only disposable by storyboard. But when i create a .xib file and i search for the container view controller, i don´t found it. Can someone give me a tips how to achieve my task?

Answer 1

If you're using a xib instead of a storyboard, you can just add a plain UIView to the xib to act as a container. Then in code, add your childViewController's view as a subview of the container. Here, I've followed the appropriate child view controller methods and added layout constraints to ensure its frame updates with the container's frame:

- (void)viewDidLoad {
    [super viewDidLoad];

    UIViewController *childViewController = ...; // create your child view controller

    [self addChildViewController:childViewController];
    [self.containerView addSubview:childViewController.view];
    [childViewController didMoveToParentViewController:self];

    NSArray *horzConstraints = [NSLayoutConstraint constraintsWithVisualFormat:@"H:|[childView]|"
                                                                   options:0
                                                                   metrics:nil
                                                                     views:@{@"childView" : childViewController.view}];

    NSArray *vertConstraints = [NSLayoutConstraint constraintsWithVisualFormat:@"V:|[childView]|"
                                                                   options:0
                                                                   metrics:nil
                                                                     views:@{@"childView" : childViewController.view}];

    [self.view addConstraints:horzConstraints];
    [self.view addConstraints:vertConstraints];

    childViewController.view.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = NO;
}