How do I ensure that my Detail View Controller is always embedded in a UINavigationController?

Question

I have a UISplitViewController that has a preferredDisplayMode = .AllVisible . Here is how I have set up my storyboard, notice how the Detail View Controller is already embedded in a UINavigationController.

I execute the following method when a specific button is tapped in the toolBar of the Master View Controller:

@IBAction func entertainmentBarButtonItemTapped(sender: AnyObject) {    
        self.showDetailViewController(self.storyboard!.instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier("SearchViewController") as! SearchViewController, sender: sender)
}

Now this works fine on an iPhone in portrait mode, but in landscape mode on an iPhone 6+, I see no navigationBar for the Detail View Controller (the one just presented). This is not the behavior I desire. Note that the default Detail View Controller is embedded in a UINavigationController, so as you can imagine, it looks inconsistent when the navigationBar is suddenly missing.

So then I try the following instead:

@IBAction func entertainmentBarButtonItemTapped(sender: AnyObject) {    
        self.showDetailViewController(self.storyboard!.instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier("NavigationSearchViewController") as! NavigationSearchViewController, sender: sender)
}

Now I am replacing my Detail View Controller with the same VC as before, but it is instead embedded in a UINavigationController. The behavior works as expected on a 6+ in landscape mode, since it shows the navigationBar.

But in portrait mode, I see glitched behaviour, because now as the new VC is pushed to the stack, I see the toolBar disappear on the original Detail View Controller, causing a weird transition where clearly something didn't go right.

How can I properly use showDetailViewController(..) so that I always have my Detail View Controller embedded in a UINavigationController but without any odd transitions? I think this requires me to modify the UISplitViewController delegates, but I keep getting a 'Cannot push UINavigationController to stack.' error.

Edit: The only delegate I modified:

func splitViewController(splitViewController: UISplitViewController, collapseSecondaryViewController secondaryViewController: UIViewController, ontoPrimaryViewController primaryViewController: UIViewController) -> Bool {
        //Since splitViewController!.showViewController changes secondaryViewController to no longer be a UINavigationController, this must first be checked for there to even be a BlankVC.
        if let secondaryNavController = secondaryViewController as? UINavigationController {
            if ((secondaryNavController.topViewController) != nil) {
                   return true
            }
            return false
    }

I currently see the same behavior.

Answer 1

The problem is probably your UISplitViewController delegate method

splitViewController:separateSecondaryViewControllerFromPrimaryViewController:

which you didn't show.

I suspect that it is returning the detailView controller rather than the navigation controller that contains it.