How to pass object with NSNotificationCenter

Question

I am trying to pass an object from my app delegate to a notification receiver in another class.

I want to pass integer messageTotal. Right now I have:

In Receiver:

- (void) receiveTestNotification:(NSNotification *) notification
{
    if ([[notification name] isEqualToString:@"TestNotification"])
        NSLog (@"Successfully received the test notification!");
}

- (void)viewDidLoad {
    [super viewDidLoad];

    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self selector:@selector(dismissSheet) name:UIApplicationWillResignActiveNotification object:nil];
    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self selector:@selector(receiveTestNotification:) name:@"eRXReceived" object:nil];

In the class that is doing the notification:

[UIApplication sharedApplication].applicationIconBadgeNumber = messageTotal;
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] postNotificationName:@"eRXReceived" object:self];

But I want to pass the object messageTotal to the other class.

Answer 1

You'll have to use the "userInfo" variant and pass a NSDictionary object that contains the messageTotal integer:

NSDictionary* userInfo = @{@"total": @(messageTotal)};

NSNotificationCenter* nc = [NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter];
[nc postNotificationName:@"eRXReceived" object:self userInfo:userInfo];

On the receiving end you can access the userInfo dictionary as follows:

-(void) receiveTestNotification:(NSNotification*)notification
{
    if ([notification.name isEqualToString:@"TestNotification"])
    {
        NSDictionary* userInfo = notification.userInfo;
        NSNumber* total = (NSNumber*)userInfo[@"total"];
        NSLog (@"Successfully received test notification! %i", total.intValue);
    }
}

Answer 2

Building on the solution provided I thought it might be helpful to show an example passing your own custom data object (which I've referenced here as 'message' as per question).

Class A (sender):

YourDataObject *message = [[YourDataObject alloc] init];
// set your message properties
NSDictionary *dict = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObject:message forKey:@"message"];
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] postNotificationName:@"NotificationMessageEvent" object:nil userInfo:dict];

Class B (receiver):

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad];
    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter]
     addObserver:self selector:@selector(triggerAction:) name:@"NotificationMessageEvent" object:nil];
}

#pragma mark - Notification
-(void) triggerAction:(NSNotification *) notification
{
    NSDictionary *dict = notification.userInfo;
    YourDataObject *message = [dict valueForKey:@"message"];
    if (message != nil) {
        // do stuff here with your message data
    }
}

Answer 3

Swift 2 Version

As @Johan Karlsson pointed out... I was doing it wrong. Here's the proper way to send and receive information with NSNotificationCenter.

First, we look at the initializer for postNotificationName:

init(name name: String,
   object object: AnyObject?,
 userInfo userInfo: [NSObject : AnyObject]?)

source

We'll be passing our information using the userInfo param. The [NSObject : AnyObject] type is a hold-over from Objective-C. So, in Swift land, all we need to do is pass in a Swift dictionary that has keys that are derived from NSObject and values which can be AnyObject.

With that knowledge we create a dictionary which we'll pass into the object parameter:

 var userInfo = [String:String]()
 userInfo["UserName"] = "Dan"
 userInfo["Something"] = "Could be any object including a custom Type."

Then we pass the dictionary into our object parameter.

Sender

NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter()
    .postNotificationName("myCustomId", object: nil, userInfo: userInfo)

Receiver Class

First we need to make sure our class is observing for the notification

override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()

    NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter().addObserver(self, selector: Selector("btnClicked:"), name: "myCustomId", object: nil)   
}

Then we can receive our dictionary:

func btnClicked(notification: NSNotification) {
   let userInfo : [String:String!] = notification.userInfo as! [String:String!]
   let name = userInfo["UserName"]
   print(name)
}

Answer 4

Swift 5

func post() {
    NotificationCenter.default.post(name: Notification.Name("SomeNotificationName"), 
        object: nil, 
        userInfo:["key0": "value", "key1": 1234])
}

func addObservers() {
    NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(self, 
        selector: #selector(someMethod), 
        name: Notification.Name("SomeNotificationName"), 
        object: nil)
}

@objc func someMethod(_ notification: Notification) {
    let info0 = notification.userInfo?["key0"]
    let info1 = notification.userInfo?["key1"]
}

Bonus (that you should definitely do!) :

Replace Notification.Name("SomeNotificationName") with .someNotificationName:

extension Notification.Name {
    static let someNotificationName = Notification.Name("SomeNotificationName")
}

Replace "key0" and "key1" with Notification.Key.key0 and Notification.Key.key1:

extension Notification {
  enum Key: String {
    case key0
    case key1
  }
}

Why should I definitely do this ? To avoid costly typo errors, enjoy renaming, enjoy find usage etc...