Swift multiple subviews and getting back to original TableView

Question

I have created my own TabView the first tab is always the Home tab which contains a TableView . The other 3 Tabs Search, Menu and Inbox are subviews . I can go from

• Home to Search then Back to Home and it works
• Home to Menu then Back to Home and it works too
• Home to Menu then to Search and back to Home brings me back to the Menu subview . I essentially want to eliminate all subviews when clicking the Home Tab . Also each TabView is in it's own controller .

This is my code

From Home Controller to Menu Controller

@IBAction func MenuTabAction(_ sender: UIButton) {
    let Popup = UIStoryboard(name: "Main", bundle: nil).instantiateViewController(withIdentifier: "MenuC") as! MenuC

    self.addChildViewController(Popup)
    Popup.view.frame = self.view.frame
    Popup.view.tag = 100
    self.view.addSubview(Popup.view)
    Popup.didMove(toParentViewController: self)

}

From Menu Controller to Home Controller & Search Controller

   @IBAction func HomeTabAction(_ sender: UIButton) {
        if let viewWithTag = self.view.viewWithTag(100) {
            print("Tag 100")
            viewWithTag.removeFromSuperview()
        }

    }

       @IBAction func SearchTabAction(_ sender: UIButton) {

    let Popup = UIStoryboard(name: "Main", bundle: nil).instantiateViewController(withIdentifier: "LocalSearchC") as! LocalSearchC
    Popup.view.frame = self.view.frame
    Popup.view.tag = 100
    self.view.addSubview(Popup.view)
    Popup.didMove(toParentViewController: self)
}

I am guessing that the remove superview only removes 1 superview at a time so if I go from Subview1 to subview2 then click on the HomeTab it brings me to subview1 instead of the original HomeTab . Is there a way to remove all superview/subviews when clicking the Home Tab ?

Answer 1

Each Tab got it's own view controller. Ideally, you should removeFromSuperview all controllers you're not showing.

At your code, you only removeFromSuperView at HomeTabAction.

Try to change it:

if let viewWithTag = self.view.viewWithTag(100) {
    print("Tag 100")
    viewWithTag.removeFromSuperview()
}

to

for v in self.view.subviews {
    if v.tag == 100 {
        v.removeFromSuperview()
    }
}

But please, keep in mind that each time a user press any tabs without returning to home (i.e: tapping many times between Menu and Search), it's look like you are just instantiating many controllers, without removing them.

You should remove other Views every time a new one is instantiated. Would be wise to give a unique tag to each view controller and remove the hidden others after every change, not only when returning to Home. Or at least, check if the view controller with a given type already is instantiated before create a new one.

Answer 2

Actually, you don't need to manually instantiate the viewcontrollers (LocalSearch, Menu). TabViewcontrollers can link a vc with each tab item via a segue. In fact, when you add your tabvc to the project, it will come with 2 viewcontrollers, each connected to an item in the tabview, and that's it, you just need to replace them or adapt them, no need to "load" them.

The only scenario where you'd need to do this, is if your buttons were "dynamic", as in, the content to be loaded changes depending on some other circumstances. As long as clicking "Search" goes to LocalSearchViewController, just link it with a segue on the storyboard.