William Jockusch's answer solve this problem with easy trick.
-(void) viewWillDisappear:(BOOL)animated {
if ([self.navigationController.viewControllers indexOfObject:self]==NSNotFound) {
// back button was pressed. We know this is true because self is no longer
// in the navigation stack.
}
[super viewWillDisappear:animated];
}
#import "CCNavigationController.h"
#import "MyViewController.h"
@implementation CCNavigationController {
}
- (UIViewController *)popViewControllerAnimated:(BOOL)animated {
@"This is the moment for you to do whatever you want"
[self.viewController doCustomMethod];
return [super popViewControllerAnimated:animated];
}
@end
In the other hand, you need to link this viewController to your custom NavigationController, so, in your viewDidLoad method for your regular viewController do this:
There's a more appropriate way than asking the viewControllers. You can make your controller a delegate of the navigationBar that has the back button. Here's an example. In the implementation of the controller where you want to handle the press of the back button, tell it that it will implement the UINavigationBarDelegate protocol:
Finally, implement the shouldPopItem method. This method gets called right when the back button is pressed. If you have multiple controllers or navigation Items in the stack, you'll probably want to check which of those navigation items is getting popped (the item parameter), so that you only do your custom stuff when you expect to. Here's an example:
-(BOOL)navigationBar:(UINavigationBar *)navigationBar shouldPopItem:(UINavigationItem *)item
{
NSLog(@"Back button got pressed!");
//if you return NO, the back button press is cancelled
return YES;
}
Here's another way I implemented (didn't test it with an unwind segue but it probably wouldn't differentiate, as others have stated in regards to other solutions on this page) to have the parent view controller perform actions before the child VC it pushed gets popped off the view stack (I used this a couple levels down from the original UINavigationController). This could also be used to perform actions before the childVC gets pushed, too. This has the added advantage of working with the iOS system back button, instead of having to create a custom UIBarButtonItem or UIButton.
Have your parent VC adopt the UINavigationControllerDelegate protocol and register for delegate messages:
Implement this UINavigationControllerDelegate instance method in MyParentViewController:
- (id<UIViewControllerAnimatedTransitioning>)navigationController:(UINavigationController *)navigationController animationControllerForOperation:(UINavigationControllerOperation)operation fromViewController:(UIViewController *)fromVC toViewController:(UIViewController *)toVC {
// Test if operation is a pop; can also test for a push (i.e., do something before the ChildVC is pushed
if (operation == UINavigationControllerOperationPop) {
// Make sure it's the child class you're looking for
if ([fromVC isKindOfClass:[ChildViewController class]]) {
// Can handle logic here or send to another method; can also access all properties of child VC at this time
return [self didPressBackButtonOnChildViewControllerVC:fromVC];
}
}
// If you don't want to specify a nav controller transition
return nil;
}
If you specify a specific callback function in the above UINavigationControllerDelegate instance method
-(id <UIViewControllerAnimatedTransitioning>)didPressBackButtonOnAddSearchRegionsVC:(UIViewController *)fromVC {
ChildViewController *childVC = ChildViewController.new;
childVC = (ChildViewController *)fromVC;
// childVC.propertiesIWantToAccess go here
// If you don't want to specify a nav controller transition
return nil;
I end up with this solutions. As we tap back button viewDidDisappear method called. we can check by calling isMovingFromParentViewController selector which return true. we can pass data back (Using Delegate).hope this help someone.
-(void)viewDidDisappear:(BOOL)animated{
if (self.isMovingToParentViewController) {
}
if (self.isMovingFromParentViewController) {
//moving back
//pass to viewCollection delegate and update UI
[self.delegateObject passBackSavedData:self.dataModel];
}
}
override func viewWillDisappear(_ animated: Bool) {
if self.navigationController?.viewControllers.index(of: self) == nil {
// back button pressed or back gesture performed
}
super.viewWillDisappear(animated)
}
Maybe it's a little too late, but I also wanted the same behavior before. And the solution I went with works quite well in one of the apps currently on the App Store. Since I haven't seen anyone goes with similar method, I would like to share it here. The downside of this solution is that it requires subclassing UINavigationController. Though using Method Swizzling might help avoiding that, I didn't go that far.
So, the default back button is actually managed by UINavigationBar. When a user taps on the back button, UINavigationBar ask its delegate if it should pop the top UINavigationItem by calling navigationBar(_:shouldPop:). UINavigationController actually implement this, but it doesn't publicly declare that it adopts UINavigationBarDelegate (why!?). To intercept this event, create a subclass of UINavigationController, declare its conformance to UINavigationBarDelegate and implement navigationBar(_:shouldPop:). Return true if the top item should be popped. Return UINavigationBar0 if it should stay.
There are two problems. The first is that you must call the UINavigationController version of navigationBar(_:shouldPop:) at some point. But UINavigationBarController doesn't publicly declare it conformance to UINavigationBarDelegate, trying to call it will result in a compile time error. The solution I went with is to use Objective-C runtime to get the implementation directly and call it. Please let me know if anyone has a better solution.
The other problem is that navigationBar(_:shouldPop:) is called first follows by popViewController(animated:) if the user taps on the back button. The order reverses if the view controller is popped by calling popViewController(animated:). In this case, I use a boolean to detect if popViewController(animated:) is called before navigationBar(_:shouldPop:) which mean that the user has tapped on the back button.
Also, I make an extension of UIViewController to let the navigation controller ask the view controller if it should be popped if the user taps on the back button. View controllers can return false and do any necessary actions and call popViewController(animated:) later.
class InterceptableNavigationController: UINavigationController, UINavigationBarDelegate {
// If a view controller is popped by tapping on the back button, `navigationBar(_:, shouldPop:)` is called first follows by `popViewController(animated:)`.
// If it is popped by calling to `popViewController(animated:)`, the order reverses and we need this flag to check that.
private var didCallPopViewController = false
override func popViewController(animated: Bool) -> UIViewController? {
didCallPopViewController = true
return super.popViewController(animated: animated)
}
func navigationBar(_ navigationBar: UINavigationBar, shouldPop item: UINavigationItem) -> Bool {
// If this is a subsequence call after `popViewController(animated:)`, we should just pop the view controller right away.
if didCallPopViewController {
return originalImplementationOfNavigationBar(navigationBar, shouldPop: item)
}
// The following code is called only when the user taps on the back button.
guard let vc = topViewController, item == vc.navigationItem else {
return false
}
if vc.shouldBePopped(self) {
return originalImplementationOfNavigationBar(navigationBar, shouldPop: item)
} else {
return false
}
}
func navigationBar(_ navigationBar: UINavigationBar, didPop item: UINavigationItem) {
didCallPopViewController = false
}
/// Since `UINavigationController` doesn't publicly declare its conformance to `UINavigationBarDelegate`,
/// trying to called `navigationBar(_:shouldPop:)` will result in a compile error.
/// So, we'll have to use Objective-C runtime to directly get super's implementation of `navigationBar(_:shouldPop:)` and call it.
private func originalImplementationOfNavigationBar(_ navigationBar: UINavigationBar, shouldPop item: UINavigationItem) -> Bool {
let sel = #selector(UINavigationBarDelegate.navigationBar(_:shouldPop:))
let imp = class_getMethodImplementation(class_getSuperclass(InterceptableNavigationController.self), sel)
typealias ShouldPopFunction = @convention(c) (AnyObject, Selector, UINavigationBar, UINavigationItem) -> Bool
let shouldPop = unsafeBitCast(imp, to: ShouldPopFunction.self)
return shouldPop(self, sel, navigationBar, item)
}
}
extension UIViewController {
@objc func shouldBePopped(_ navigationController: UINavigationController) -> Bool {
return true
}
}
And in you view controllers, implement shouldBePopped(_:). If you don't implement this method, the default behavior will be to pop the view controller as soon as the user taps on the back button just like normal.
class MyViewController: UIViewController {
override func shouldBePopped(_ navigationController: UINavigationController) -> Bool {
let alert = UIAlertController(title: "Do you want to go back?",
message: "Do you really want to go back? Tap on \"Yes\" to go back. Tap on \"No\" to stay on this screen.",
preferredStyle: .alert)
alert.addAction(UIAlertAction(title: "No", style: .cancel, handler: nil))
alert.addAction(UIAlertAction(title: "Yes", style: .default, handler: { _ in
navigationController.popViewController(animated: true)
}))
present(alert, animated: true, completion: nil)
return false
}
}