UIViewController with Nib File and Inheritance

Question

I'm trying to do something really tricky and I'm still stuck at a point. I'm attempting to instance an UIViewController with a Nib file inherited from an other UIViewController with an other Nib file.
The problem is when I instantiate my son UIViewController .

// SonViewController
- (id)initWithNibName:(NSString *)nibNameOrNil 
                bundle:(NSBundle *)nibBundleOrNil
{
    if ((self = [super initWithNibName:nibNameOrNil 
                                bundle:nibBundleOrNil])) {
        // Custom initialization.
    }
    return self;
}

The init method initWithNibName:bundle: should call the super class but it only call its own nib file. In the super class, I tried to override the initWithNibName:bundle: method and put the nibName myself like that :

// MotherViewController
- (id)initWithNibName:(NSString *)nibNameOrNil 
               bundle:(NSBundle *)nibBundleOrNil
{
    if ((self = [super initWithNibName:@"MotherViewController" 
                                bundle:nibBundleOrNil])) {
        // Custom initialization.
    }
    return self;
}

It only init and display the Mother Class and its IB Object. I understand why but I begin thinking it is impossible to do what I want. Any suggestion ?

Edit:
I would use my SonViewController just like that :

SonViewController *son = [[SonViewController alloc] 
                      initWithNibName:@"SonViewController" bundle:[NSBundle mainBundle]];

[self.navigationController pushViewController:son animated:YES];
[son release];

It should display son and mother IB Object...

Regards,
kl94

Answer 1

Normally, you should only use a specific nib in the init method, and not the initWithNibName:bundle:, for this reason.

@implementation MotherViewController
- (id)initWithNibName:(NSString *)nibNameOrNil bundle:(NSBundle *)nibBundleOrNil {
    if((self = [super initWithNibName:nibNameOrNil bundle:nibBundleOrNil])) {
        //custom initialization
    }
    return self;
}
- (id)init {
    return [self initWithNibName:@"MotherViewController" bundle:nil];
}

Then, to use the default nib for MotherViewController, you just use [[MotherViewController alloc] init];.

As an alternate, you could define a different initializer in MotherViewController for this reason.

@implementation MotherViewController
- (id)_initWithNibName:(NSString *)nibNameOrNil bundle:(NSBundle *)nibBundleOrNil {
    if((self = [super initWithNibName:nibNameOrNil bundle:nibBundleOrNil])) {
        //custom initialization
    }
    return self;
}
- (id)initWithNibName:(NSString *)nibNameOrNil bundle:(NSBundle *)nibBundleOrNil {
    return [self _initWithNibName:@"MotherViewController" bundle:nibBundleOrNil];
}

Then, use a private category interface to tell SonViewController about this method.

//SonViewController.m
@interface MotherViewController (PrivateInit)
- (id)_initWithNibName:(NSString *)nibNameOrNil bundle:(NSBundle *)nibBundleOrNil;
@end
@implementation SonViewController
- (id)initWithNibName:(NSString *)nibNameOrNil bundle:(NSBundle *)nibBundleOrNil {
    if((self = [super initWithNibName:nibNameOrNil bundle:nibBundleOrNil])) {
        //custom initialization
    }
    return self;
}