How to present UIAlertController when not in a view controller?

Question

Scenario: The user taps on a button on a view controller. The view controller is the topmost (obviously) in the navigation stack. The tap invokes a utility class method call

Answer 1

@agilityvision's answer translated to Swift4/iOS11. I haven't used localized strings, but you can change that easily:

import UIKit

/** An alert controller that can be called without a view controller.
 Creates a blank view controller and presents itself over that
 **/
class AlertPlusViewController: UIAlertController {

    private var alertWindow: UIWindow?

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
    }

    override func viewDidDisappear(_ animated: Bool) {
        super.viewDidDisappear(animated)
        self.alertWindow?.isHidden = true
        alertWindow = nil
    }

    func show() {
        self.showAnimated(animated: true)
    }

    func showAnimated(animated _: Bool) {

        let blankViewController = UIViewController()
        blankViewController.view.backgroundColor = UIColor.clear

        let window = UIWindow(frame: UIScreen.main.bounds)
        window.rootViewController = blankViewController
        window.backgroundColor = UIColor.clear
        window.windowLevel = UIWindowLevelAlert + 1
        window.makeKeyAndVisible()
        self.alertWindow = window

        blankViewController.present(self, animated: true, completion: nil)
    }

    func presentOkayAlertWithTitle(title: String?, message: String?) {

        let alertController = AlertPlusViewController(title: title, message: message, preferredStyle: .alert)
        let okayAction = UIAlertAction(title: "Ok", style: .default, handler: nil)
        alertController.addAction(okayAction)
        alertController.show()
    }

    func presentOkayAlertWithError(error: NSError?) {
        let title = "Error"
        let message = error?.localizedDescription
        presentOkayAlertWithTitle(title: title, message: message)
    }
}