Using XCode storyboard to instantiate view controller that uses XIB for its design

xcode storyboard xib nib
user1175914 picture user1175914 · Feb 6, 2012 · Viewed 14.6k times · Source

I have a UIViewController subclass that I created previously that had its controls laid out in a XIB file.

I'd like to use this view controller in a storyboard now, but it seems although I can indicate a view controller's classname in the storyboard, I can't tell it to load the XIB.

I'd rather not move everything from the XIB to the storyboard but keep it in its separate XIB.

How can I get this UIViewController in the storyboard to load my XIB?

Answer

matt picture matt · Feb 6, 2012

  1. Delete the View contained by the view controller in the storyboard.

  2. Then provide the view by configuring a nib file with the same name as the view controller class. For example if the view controller class is called MyViewController, name your xib file MyViewController.xib.

EDIT Note that Swift seed 5 started breaking this technique, because it mangles the name of the .xib file it's looking for. See my answer here for workarounds: https://stackoverflow.com/a/25539016/341994 Basically this name matching was broken in iOS 8, but then Apple repented and fixed it so that it works again in iOS 9.

Related questions

How can I load storyboard programmatically from class?

My problem is that I was looking for way to use both storyboard and xib. But I can't find proper way to load and show storyboard programmatically. Project was started developing with xib, and now it's very hard to nest …

Read More
How do I change "initwithNibName" in storyboard?

I want to change below code with storyboard with Xcode 4.2. UIViewController * example = [[ExampleViewController alloc] initWithNibName:@"ExampleViewController" bundle:nil]; Now ExampleViewController.xib file exist. but I want to make it with storyboard. please help me. (I'm not good at English. Sorry)

Read More
What are the benefits of using Storyboards instead of xib files in iOS programming?

What are the main differences between using Storyboards and xib files. Specifically, what are the advantages or disadvantages of using a Storyboard? Unfortunately, despite doing quite a bit of research, all I've been able to find on Storyboards are simple …

Read More