Passing ObservableObject to View within NavigationView and editing it

Question

Created Jul ’20

Replies 4

Boosts 0

Views 6.1k

Participants 3

I'm trying to create a simple NavigationView showing a list of users and be able to edit them in a child view, while using ObservableObject. The only way I could the ObservedObjects to automatically update between the 2 views is to pass the entire users collection from the parent to the child View so that I could call self.users.objectWillChange.send().

This seems inefficient. Is there a better way to do this?

Model Classes

Code Block swiftclass User: Identifiable, ObservableObject
{
    let id = UUID()
    @Published var name: String
    init(name: String) { self.name = name }
}

Code Block swiftclass Users: ObservableObject
{
    @Published var users: [User]
    init() {
        self.users = [
            User(name: "John Doe"),
            User(name: "Jane Doe"),
        ]
    }
}

Views

Code Block swiftstruct TestNavigationView: View {
    @ObservedObject var users = Users()
    var body: some View {
        NavigationView {
            List(self.users.users) { user in
                NavigationLink(destination: 
										UserDetail(user: user, 
															users: self.users)
                ) {
                Text(user.name)
                }
            }
        }.navigationBarTitle("Users")
    }
}

Code Block swiftstruct UserDetail: View {
    @ObservedObject var user: User
    @ObservedObject var users: Users
    var body: some View {
        VStack {
            TextField("Enter Name", text: $user.name)
            Button(action: {
                self.users.objectWillChange.send()
            }, label: { Text("Save") })
        }
    }
}

Answered by OOPer in 622512022

If you want to utilize the feature creating Binding from @ObservedObject, you may need to write your TestNavigationView like this:

Code Block struct TestNavigationView: View {
		@ObservedObject var users = Users()
		var body: some View {
				NavigationView {
						List(self.users.users.indices) { index in
								NavigationLink(destination:
										UserDetail(user: self.$users.users[index])
								) {
										Text(self.users.users[index].name)
								}
						}
				}.navigationBarTitle("Users")
		}
}

This code passes Binding<User> (whole User, not only Binding<String> representing User.name) to UserDetail. Isn't it good for future extension, like User hold other properties than name edited in detail view.

With the above change, your UserDetail would become like this:

Code Block struct UserDetail: View {
		@Environment(\.presentationMode) var presentationMode
		@Binding var user: User
		var body: some View {
				VStack {
						TextField("Enter Name", text: $user.name)
						Button(action: {
								self.presentationMode.wrappedValue.dismiss()
						}, label: { Text("Save") })
				}
		}
}

Boost

Answer 1

DelawareMathGuy OP

Jul ’20

hi,

i'll offer three suggestions.

there's no need (or there may be, but not in this example) for User to be a class. make it a struct and kill the ObservableObject protocol.

Code Block struct User: Identifiable {
	let id = UUID()
	var name: String
	init(name: String) { self.name = name }
}

treat the Users object as a viewModel, and when a change is made to a user's name, provide a method for the Users object to do that.

Code Block class Users: ObservableObject {
	@Published var users: [User]
	init() {
		self.users = [
			User(name: "John Doe"),
			User(name: "Jane Doe")
		]
	}
	func updateUsername(for user: User, to newName: String) {
		if let index = users.firstIndex(where: { $0.id == user.id }) {
			users[index].name = newName
		}
	}
}

and treat the UserDetailView to not be a live edit, but one where you have parameters users and user coming in; you offload the name you want to edit when the view comes on screen; and when you save the edit, ask the Users object to make that change for you. something like this (with the Save button now also dismissing the view).

Code Block struct UserDetail: View {
	@Environment(\.presentationMode) var presentationMode
	var user: User
	var users: Users
	@State private var username: String = ""
	var body: some View {
		VStack {
			TextField("Enter Name", text: $username)
			Button(action: {
				self.users.updateUsername(for: self.user, to: self.username)
				self.presentationMode.wrappedValue.dismiss()
			}, label: { Text("Save") })
		}
		.onAppear { self.username = self.user.name }
	}
}

that should do it. when the Users object updates the user's name in its array, your TestNavigationView will know about it.

hope that helps,
DMG

2

Answer 2

saifm OP

Jul ’20

Thank you so much!!! Your three suggestions were very helpful, and the save button dismissing the view was a nice bonus!

While this is a major improvement to my original approach, I'm wondering if line 8 below can be simplified to use @Binding and just pass user.username

Code Block languagestruct TestNavigationView: View {
    @ObservedObject var users = Users()
    var body: some View {
        NavigationView {
            List(self.users.users) { user in
                NavigationLink( destination: 
										UserDetail(user: user, users: users, username: user.name)) {
                    	Text(user.name)
                }
            }
        }.navigationBarTitle("Users")
    }
}

User Detail would look like this:

Code Block swiftstruct UserDetail: View {
    @Environment(\.presentationMode) var presentationMode
    @Binding var username: String
    var body: some View {
        VStack {
            TextField("Enter Name", text: $username)
            Button(action: {
                self.presentationMode.wrappedValue.dismiss()
            }, label: { Text("Save") })
        }
    }
}

I noticed others in the forum using this approach (example) but it being contained within a List created an error I couldn't get past:

Cannot convert value of type 'String' to expected argument type 'Binding<String>'

When I change line 8 to below

Code Block swiftstruct TestNavigationView: View {
    @ObservedObject var users = Users()
    var body: some View {
        NavigationView {
            List(self.users.users) { user in
                NavigationLink( destination: 
					UserDetail(username: user.name)) {
                    	Text(user.name)
                }
            }
        }.navigationBarTitle("Users")
    }
}

Thanks again!

0

Answer 3

OOPer OP

Jul ’20

Accepted Answer

If you want to utilize the feature creating Binding from @ObservedObject, you may need to write your TestNavigationView like this:

Code Block struct TestNavigationView: View {
		@ObservedObject var users = Users()
		var body: some View {
				NavigationView {
						List(self.users.users.indices) { index in
								NavigationLink(destination:
										UserDetail(user: self.$users.users[index])
								) {
										Text(self.users.users[index].name)
								}
						}
				}.navigationBarTitle("Users")
		}
}

This code passes Binding<User> (whole User, not only Binding<String> representing User.name) to UserDetail. Isn't it good for future extension, like User hold other properties than name edited in detail view.

With the above change, your UserDetail would become like this:

Code Block struct UserDetail: View {
		@Environment(\.presentationMode) var presentationMode
		@Binding var user: User
		var body: some View {
				VStack {
						TextField("Enter Name", text: $user.name)
						Button(action: {
								self.presentationMode.wrappedValue.dismiss()
						}, label: { Text("Save") })
				}
		}
}

1

Answer 4

saifm OP

Jul ’20

Thank you!!! That's the simplification I was looking for.

0