BetterBaseClasses

BetterBaseClasses are abstract, base classes meant to be subclassed.

Most view controllers will only have ONE nib or storyboard scene associated with them. BetterBaseClasses lets you specify the identifier, bundle, and storyboardName as part of the class- where it makes more sense for it to be in most cases.

This also makes creating and consuming a CocoaPod much easier.

In example, instead of having to call initWithNibName: bundle:, which requires that the consuming app have knowledge of the nib name and the bundle, you can simply call the class method instanceFromNib.

BetterBaseClasses also provides convenience methods for working with views, too.

Installation with CocoaPods

The easiest way to add BetterBaseClasses to your project is using CocoaPods.

Simply add the following line to your Podfile:

pod 'BetterBaseClasses', '~> 1.0'

Then run pod install as you normally would.

Manual Installation

Follow these steps for manual installation:

1. Clone this repo locally onto your computer, or press Download ZIP to download the latest master commit.

2. Drag the BetterBaseClasses folder into your project.

3. Delete the BetterBaseClasses.h file (it's a public header for when this included as a library/CocoaPod).

How to Use

1. Instead of subclassing UIViewController or UITableViewController, you should subclass BaseViewController or BaseTableViewController, respectively.

2. (Optional) override commonInit, which is called by all designated initializers, to run common setup code.

3. (Optional) override the class methods bundle, identifier, or storyboardName. This allows you to specify the nib name or storyboard identifier right in the view controller.

In most cases, however, you won't need to override these as reasonable default values are already provided (e.g. nib name is expected to match the view controller's name, etc).

4. Call the class method instanceFromNib to instantiate a view controller from its nib or instanceFromStoryboard to instantiate a view controller from its storyboard scene.

For example,

------ TestViewController.h ------

#import "BaseViewController.h"

@interface TestViewController : BaseViewController
@property (assign, nonatomic) NSUInteger exampleValue;
@end

------ TestViewController.m ------

#import "TestViewController.h"

@implementation TestViewController

- (void)commonInit {

  [super commonInit];
  _exampleValue = 42;
}

@end

You could then instantiate a new TestViewController from a nib named TestViewController.xib like this:

TestViewController *viewController = [TestViewController instanceFromNib];

Win. :]

There are also convenience methods for working with views, too. See BaseView and BaseTableView for in-line documentation for more details.

License

BetterBaseClasses is available under the MIT license (see the LICENSE file for more details).