How to make UIPopoverController keep same position after rotating?

Question

I can\'t keep popover the same position on the screen after rotation. Is there any good way to do that, because just setting some frame to popover works terrible after rotating.

Answer 1

I had a same problem. Instead of performing -presentPopoverFromRect each time by keeping track of the source rectangle / view from which it is presented, I subclassed UIPopoverController. After doing it, all you have to do is set either the UIBarButtonItem / UIView from where the popover has to be displayed. You can even opt for displaying the popover from custom frame which can be passed in as a NSString value.

CSPopoverController.h:

#import 

// The original popover controller would not re-orientate itself when the orientation change occurs. To tackle that issue, this subclass is created
@interface CSPopoverController : UIPopoverController

@property (nonatomic, strong) NSString *popoverDisplaySourceFrame;  // Mutually Exclusive. If you want to set custom rect as source, make sure that popOverDisplaySource is nil
@property (nonatomic, strong) id popoverDisplaySource;              // Mutually exclusive. If UIBarButtonItem is set to it, popoverDisplaySourceFrame is neglected.
@property (nonatomic, strong) UIView *popoverDisplayView;

@property (nonatomic, assign, getter = shouldAutomaticallyReorientate) BOOL automaticallyReorientate;

-(void)reorientatePopover;

@end

CSPopoverController.m:

#import "CSPopoverController.h"

@implementation CSPopoverController
@synthesize popoverDisplaySourceFrame = popoverDisplaySourceFrame_;
-(NSString*)popoverDisplaySourceFrame
{
    if (nil==popoverDisplaySourceFrame_)
    {
        if (nil!=self.popoverDisplaySource)
        {
            if ([self.popoverDisplaySource isKindOfClass:[UIView class]])
            {
                UIView *viewSource = (UIView*)self.popoverDisplaySource;
                [self setPopoverDisplaySourceFrame:NSStringFromCGRect(viewSource.frame)];
            }
        }
    }
    return popoverDisplaySourceFrame_;
}
-(void)setPopoverDisplaySourceFrame:(NSString *)inPopoverDisplaySourceFrame
{
    if (inPopoverDisplaySourceFrame!=popoverDisplaySourceFrame_)
    {
        popoverDisplaySourceFrame_ = inPopoverDisplaySourceFrame;
        [self reorientatePopover];
    }
}
@synthesize popoverDisplaySource = popoverDisplaySource_;
-(void)setPopoverDisplaySource:(id)inPopoverDisplaySource
{
    if (inPopoverDisplaySource!=popoverDisplaySource_)
    {
        [self unlistenForFrameChangeInView:popoverDisplaySource_];
        popoverDisplaySource_ = inPopoverDisplaySource;
        [self reorientatePopover];

        if ([popoverDisplaySource_ isKindOfClass:[UIView class]])
        {
            UIView *viewSource = (UIView*)popoverDisplaySource_;
            [self setPopoverDisplaySourceFrame:NSStringFromCGRect(viewSource.frame)];
        }
        if (self.shouldAutomaticallyReorientate)
        {
            [self listenForFrameChangeInView:popoverDisplaySource_];
        }
    }
}
@synthesize popoverDisplayView = popoverDisplayView_;
-(void)setPopoverDisplayView:(UIView *)inPopoverDisplayView
{
    if (inPopoverDisplayView!=popoverDisplayView_)
    {
        popoverDisplayView_ = inPopoverDisplayView;
        [self reorientatePopover];
    }
}
@synthesize automaticallyReorientate = automaticallyReorientate_;
-(void)setAutomaticallyReorientate:(BOOL)inAutomaticallyReorientate
{
    if (inAutomaticallyReorientate!=automaticallyReorientate_)
    {
        automaticallyReorientate_ = inAutomaticallyReorientate;
        if (automaticallyReorientate_)
        {
            [self listenForAutorotation];
            [self listenForFrameChangeInView:self.popoverDisplaySource];
        }
        else
        {
            [self unlistenForAutorotation];
            [self unlistenForFrameChangeInView:self.popoverDisplaySource];
        }
    }
}

-(void)listenForAutorotation
{
    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self
                                             selector:@selector(orientationChanged:)
                                                 name:UIDeviceOrientationDidChangeNotification
                                               object:nil];
}

-(void)unlistenForAutorotation
{
    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] removeObserver:self
                                                    name:UIDeviceOrientationDidChangeNotification
                                                  object:nil];
}

-(void)listenForFrameChangeInView:(id)inView
{
    // Let's listen for changes in the view's frame and adjust the popover even if the frame is updated
    if ([inView isKindOfClass:[UIView class]])
    {
        UIView *viewToObserve = (UIView*)inView;
        [viewToObserve addObserver:self
                        forKeyPath:@"frame"
                           options:NSKeyValueObservingOptionNew
                           context:nil];
    }
}

-(void)unlistenForFrameChangeInView:(id)inView
{
    if ([inView isKindOfClass:[UIView class]])
    {
        UIView *viewToObserve = (UIView*)inView;
        [viewToObserve removeObserver:self
                           forKeyPath:@"frame"];
    }
}

// TODO: Dealloc is not called, check why? !!!
- (void)dealloc
{
    [self unlistenForFrameChangeInView:self.popoverDisplaySource];
    [self unlistenForAutorotation];
    DEBUGLog(@"dealloc called for CSPopoverController %@", self);
}

#pragma mark - Designated initializers
-(id)initWithContentViewController:(UIViewController *)viewController
{
    self = [super initWithContentViewController:viewController];
    if (self)
    {
        [self popoverCommonInitializations];
    }
    return self;
}

-(void)popoverCommonInitializations
{
    [self setAutomaticallyReorientate:YES];
}

#pragma mark - Frame
-(void)observeValueForKeyPath:(NSString *)keyPath ofObject:(id)object change:(NSDictionary *)change context:(void *)context
{
    if (object==self.popoverDisplaySource)
    {
        [self setPopoverDisplaySourceFrame:nil];
        [self reorientatePopover];
    }
}

#pragma mark - Orientation
-(void)orientationChanged:(NSNotification *)inNotification
{
    [self reorientatePopover];
}

-(void)reorientatePopover
{
    [NSObject cancelPreviousPerformRequestsWithTarget:self
                                             selector:@selector(performReorientatePopover)
                                               object:nil];
//    if ([self isPopoverVisible])
    {
        [self performSelector:@selector(performReorientatePopover)
                   withObject:nil
                   afterDelay:0.0];
    }
}

-(void)performReorientatePopover
{
    if (self.popoverDisplaySourceFrame && self.popoverDisplayView)
    {
        [self presentPopoverFromRect:CGRectFromString(self.popoverDisplaySourceFrame)
                              inView:self.popoverDisplayView
            permittedArrowDirections:UIPopoverArrowDirectionAny
                            animated:YES];
    }
    else if (self.popoverDisplaySource && [self.popoverDisplaySource isKindOfClass:[UIBarButtonItem class]])
    {
        UIBarButtonItem *barButton = (UIBarButtonItem*)self.popoverDisplaySource;
        [self presentPopoverFromBarButtonItem:barButton
                     permittedArrowDirections:UIPopoverArrowDirectionAny
                                     animated:YES];
    }
}

@end

Usage:

If it is a UIBarButtonItem from where you are presenting it:

CSPopoverController *popOverCont = [[CSPopoverController alloc]initWithContentViewController:navCont];
self.popOver = popOverCont;
[popOverCont setPopoverDisplaySource:self.settingsButtonItem];

If it is a UIView from where you are presenting the popover:

CSPopoverController *popOver = [[CSPopoverController alloc] initWithContentViewController:navigation];
self.iPadPopoverController = popOver;
[newDateVC setIPadPopoverController:self.iPadPopoverController];
[popOver setPopoverDisplaySource:inButton];
[popOver setPopoverDisplayView:inView];