IOS: How to put some view on top of presented modal view controller?

Question

I have an activity view that I have added in AppDelegate class to tap bar:

[self.mainTabBar.view addSubview: spinner];

When there are connection problems it is visible in each view controller and is spinning. There is some button at certain view controller, makes to present some modal view controller. That modal view controller overlaps the spinner. How to make that spinner always be on top of all views or at least on top of that modal view controller? I tried to make such a thing in view controller that presents modal view controller:

[self presentModalViewController:selectionViewController animated:YES];
[self.view bringSubviewToFront:[self.tabBarController.view viewWithTag:15]];

Not works.

score 65 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 25 '12 at 10:46

65

Add the view to the main window.

UIWindow* mainWindow = [[UIApplication sharedApplication] keyWindow];
[mainWindow addSubview: spinner];

answered Mar 25 '12 at 10:46

Felix

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Although this won't respond to orientation changes correctly. For that you need to use something like UIView* view = mainWindow.subviews[0]; [view addSubview:spinner]; – Ray Fix Aug 09 '13 at 16:33
You just solved my (a bit unrelated) problem, thanks! – bpiec Mar 22 '15 at 17:04
Ok, but how to remove it from another procedure, @phix23? – new2ios May 28 '15 at 09:19
@new2ios you could tag the view with a unique id to find it again in the view hierarchy of the window – Felix May 29 '15 at 12:27
Best answer on stackoverflow – Johnny Nguyen Mar 14 '16 at 08:12

Maciej Swic · Answer 2 · 2014-11-19T08:25:22.963

12

While phix23's answer is correct, here is a more complete example:

//The view you want to present
UIViewController *viewControllerYouWantToPresentOnTop = [[UIViewController alloc] initWithNibName:nil bundle:nil];

//Create transparent host view for presenting the above view
UIWindow* mainWindow = [[UIApplication sharedApplication] keyWindow];
UIViewController *viewControllerForPresentation = [[UIViewController alloc] init];
[[viewControllerForPresentation view] setBackgroundColor:[UIColor clearColor]];
[[viewControllerForPresentation view] setOpaque:FALSE];
[mainWindow addSubview:[viewControllerForPresentation view]];

//Make your transparent view controller present your actual view controller
[viewControllerForPresentation presentViewController:viewControllerYouWantToPresentOnTop animated:TRUE];

Remember to clean up after yourself when you don't need these any longer.

This code can be used from anywhere in your app, even a library :)

edited Nov 19 '14 at 08:25

answered Nov 20 '12 at 09:11

Maciej Swic

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Best I've found so far, but this causes `unbalanced calls to begin/end appearance transitions for`. – meaning-matters May 23 '13 at 06:37
@meaning-matters Do you have any other animations going on at the same time? You may want to wait for them to finish. – Maciej Swic May 23 '13 at 07:46
No other animations I'm afraid. Thanks for responding quickly @Maciej. – meaning-matters May 23 '13 at 14:32
Try this UIViewController *viewControllerYouWantToPresentOnTop = [[UIViewController alloc] initWithNibName:nil bundle:nil]; instead of the first line – Maciej Swic May 23 '13 at 14:39
@MaciejSwic: Where do you use `viewControllerYouWantToPresentOnTop`? Is that the `navigationController` reference at the bottom, or is that something else? – Lawrence Kesteloot Nov 19 '14 at 00:23
@LawrenceKesteloot i forgot to rename navigationController to viewControllerYouWantToPresentOnTop in my snippet, fixed it now. – Maciej Swic Nov 19 '14 at 08:25
This was the one for which I was looking for more than 6 hours. Really solved my issue. Thanks. – Abhinav Mar 17 '16 at 03:21

score 4 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 11 '17 at 22:44

An app normally displays its content within a single window throughout its life. But there are situations where an extra window may be used to add content on top of everything else. Apple ensures UIAlertView always stays on top by adding it in a separate window.

UIView *contentView = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:contentFrame];
contentView.backgroundColor = [UIColor greenColor];
UIWindow *window = [[UIWindow alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(x,y,contentFrame.size.width, contentFrame.size.height)];
window.windowLevel = UIWindowLevelAlert;
[window addSubview:contentView];
[window makeKeyAndVisible];

Show and hide your window by setting window.hidden = Yes or No as needed. This will always show your contentView on top of everything else in the app.

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 25 '12 at 10:45

0

The modal controller is in a completely different layer, you cannot make any subview of the presenting controller to overlap it.

Use a UIAlertView with a spinner inside. The alerts are displayed in a layer which overlaps even modal controllers.

answered Mar 25 '12 at 10:45

Sulthan

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This is not true. While alert views are in a separate layer on top of everything else, modals are not and can be overridden using the code i posted below. – Maciej Swic Nov 20 '12 at 09:12
@MaciejSwic I know how to add subviews to window, note that my answer was stating `any subview of the presenting controller`. Using `UIAlertView` is technically a better solution. – Sulthan Nov 20 '12 at 10:25

IOS: How to put some view on top of presented modal view controller?

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