Swift - UISearchController with separate searchResultsController

Question

I'm trying to figure out how to use UISearchController when you want to display the results in a separate searchResultsController - every single guide, video and tutorial I've found have all used the current viewController to present the search results, and instantiate UISearchController like so:

let searchController = UISearchController(searchResultsController: nil)

but I want to dim the view and present a new tableView with the search results, in the same way done on the App Store search. So what I've done is created a new tableViewController, given it a storyboard id, and then instantiated it like so:

let storyboard = UIStoryboard(name: "Main", bundle: nil)
let resultsController = storyboard.instantiateViewController(withIdentifier: "searchResults") as! UITableViewController
let searchController = UISearchController(searchResultsController: resultsController )

which seems to work. However, I'm pretty stuck from here on out. I have no idea how to display the search results in the resultsController, what to put in cellForRowAtIndexPath in the resultsController and so on.

Any help is appreciated!

Answer 1

Managed to figure it out -

1) add this line when instantiating the searchController:

searchController.searchResultsUpdater = resultsController

2) add UISearchResultsUpdating to your resultsController like so:

class resultsController: UITableViewController, UISearchResultsUpdating {

3) add this function, also in your resultsController:

func updateSearchResults(for searchController: UISearchController) {

}

From there, you can get the search text, do stuff with it, and reload the tableView:

func updateSearchResults(for searchController: UISearchController) {

    let searchText = searchController.searchBar.text!

    //Do Stuff with the string

    DispatchQueue.main.async {

        self.tableView.reloadData()

    }

}

Hope it helps someone out!