iOS 5: willRotateToInterfaceOrientation:duration not called when first loading controller

Question

I've implemented this method in my code to know when an interface orientation change will occur:

- (void)willRotateToInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)toInterfaceOrientation duration:(NSTimeInterval)duration

I rely on this to be called to setup my views. In either iOS 4 or 5 it gets called properly when the orientation changes.

In iOS 4 it also gets called when the controller first loads (regardless of if the orientation changes or not, it gets called once at the beginning with the correct orientation).

The problem is I noticed in iOS 5 this does not happen anymore. The method gets called when the orientation changes but not when the controller initially loads. This is a problem for me because I rely on this to setup the initial view placement based on the orientation.

Any ideas why this behaviour changed? What's the best way to handle this? Should I check what the orientation is in viewDidLoad if on iOS 5 and then manually call the willRotate and didRotate methods? This feels a bit like a hack.

Thanks for any input you can provide.

Answer 1

Since I'm pressed for time I've had to work around this odd behaviour and manually call the orientation methods in viewDidLoad. This is a bit of a hack but it's working fine so far.

In viewDidLoad I added this:

if ( SYSTEM_VERSION_GREATER_THAN_OR_EQUAL_TO(@"5.0") ) {
    UIInterfaceOrientation interfaceOrientation = [[UIApplication sharedApplication] statusBarOrientation];
    [self willRotateToInterfaceOrientation:interfaceOrientation duration:0.2f];
}

I've then added this in a common header file:

// iOS Version Checking
#define SYSTEM_VERSION_EQUAL_TO(v)                  ([[[UIDevice currentDevice] systemVersion] compare:v options:NSNumericSearch] == NSOrderedSame)
#define SYSTEM_VERSION_GREATER_THAN(v)              ([[[UIDevice currentDevice] systemVersion] compare:v options:NSNumericSearch] == NSOrderedDescending)
#define SYSTEM_VERSION_GREATER_THAN_OR_EQUAL_TO(v)  ([[[UIDevice currentDevice] systemVersion] compare:v options:NSNumericSearch] != NSOrderedAscending)
#define SYSTEM_VERSION_LESS_THAN(v)                 ([[[UIDevice currentDevice] systemVersion] compare:v options:NSNumericSearch] == NSOrderedAscending)
#define SYSTEM_VERSION_LESS_THAN_OR_EQUAL_TO(v)     ([[[UIDevice currentDevice] systemVersion] compare:v options:NSNumericSearch] != NSOrderedDescending)

I got the iOS version checking defines from an answer to this question on SO.