UIRefreshControl - beginRefreshing not working when UITableViewController is inside UINavigationController

Question

I\'ve setup a UIRefreshControl in my UITableViewController (which is inside a UINavigationController) and it works as expected (i.e. pull down fires the correct event). Howe

Answer 1

None of the other answers worked for me. They would cause the spinner to show and spin, but the refresh action itself would never happen. This works:

id target = self;
SEL selector = @selector(example);
// Assuming at some point prior to triggering the refresh, you call the following line:
[self.refreshControl addTarget:target action:selector forControlEvents:UIControlEventValueChanged];

// This line makes the spinner start spinning
[self.refreshControl beginRefreshing];
// This line makes the spinner visible by pushing the table view/collection view down
[self.tableView setContentOffset:CGPointMake(0, -1.0f * self.refreshControl.frame.size.height) animated:YES];
// This line is what actually triggers the refresh action/selector
[self.refreshControl sendActionsForControlEvents:UIControlEventValueChanged];

Note, this example uses a table view, but it could just as well have been a collection view.

Answer 2

If you use Rxswift for swift 3.1, can use below:

func manualRefresh() {
    if let refreshControl = self.tableView.refreshControl {
        self.tableView.setContentOffset(CGPoint(x: 0, y: -refreshControl.height), animated: true)
        self.tableView.refreshControl?.beginRefreshing()
        self.tableView.refreshControl?.sendActions(for: .valueChanged)
    }
}

This work for swift 3.1, iOS 10.

Answer 3

It seems that if you start refreshing programmatically, you have to scroll the table view yourself, say, by changing contentoffset

[self.tableView setContentOffset:CGPointMake(0, -self.refreshControl.frame.size.height) animated:YES];

I would guess the reason for this is that it could be undesirable to scroll to the refresh control when user is in the middle/bottom of the table view?

Swift 2.2 version by @muhasturk

self.tableView.setContentOffset(CGPoint(x: 0, y: -refreshControl.frame.size.height), animated: true)

In a nutshell, to keep this portable add this extension

UIRefreshControl+ProgramaticallyBeginRefresh.swift

extension UIRefreshControl {
    func programaticallyBeginRefreshing(in tableView: UITableView) {
        beginRefreshing()
        let offsetPoint = CGPoint.init(x: 0, y: -frame.size.height)
        tableView.setContentOffset(offsetPoint, animated: true)        
    }
}

Answer 4

Fort Swift 2.2+

    self.tableView.setContentOffset(CGPoint(x: 0, y: -refreshControl.frame.size.height), animated: true)

Answer 5

The already mentioned approach:

[self.refreshControl beginRefreshing];
 [self.tableView setContentOffset:CGPointMake(0, self.tableView.contentOffset.y-self.refreshControl.frame.size.height) animated:YES];

would make the spinner visible. But it wouldn't animate. The one thing I changed is the order of these two methods and everything worked:

[self.tableView setContentOffset:CGPointMake(0, self.tableView.contentOffset.y-self.refreshControl.frame.size.height) animated:YES];
[self.refreshControl beginRefreshing];

Answer 6

In addition to @Dymitry Shevchenko solution.

I found nice workaround to this issue. You can create extension to UIRefreshControl that overwrites method:

// Adds code forgotten by Apple, that changes content offset of parent scroll view (table view).
- (void)beginRefreshing
{
    [super beginRefreshing];

    if ([self.superview isKindOfClass:[UIScrollView class]]) {
        UIScrollView *view = (UIScrollView *)self.superview;
        [view setContentOffset:CGPointMake(0, view.contentOffset.y - self.frame.size.height) animated:YES];
    }
}

You can use new class by setting custom class in Identity Inspector for refresh control in Interface Builder.