NSNotificationCenter addObserver in Swift

Question

How do you add an observer in Swift to the default notification center? I\'m trying to port this line of code that sends a notification when the battery level changes.

Answer 1

I'm able to do one of the following to successfully use a selector - without annotating anything with @objc:

NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter().addObserver(self,
    selector:"batteryLevelChanged:" as Selector,
    name:"UIDeviceBatteryLevelDidChangeNotification",
    object:nil)    

OR

let notificationSelector: Selector = "batteryLevelChanged:"

NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter().addObserver(self,
    selector: notificationSelector,
    name:"UIDeviceBatteryLevelDidChangeNotification",
    object:nil)    

My xcrun version shows Swift 1.2, and this works on Xcode 6.4 and Xcode 7 beta 2 (which I thought would be using Swift 2.0):

$xcrun swift --version

Apple Swift version 1.2 (swiftlang-602.0.53.1 clang-602.0.53)

Answer 2

In swift 2.2 - XCode 7.3, we use #selector for NSNotificationCenter

 NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter().addObserver(self, selector: #selector(rotate), name: UIDeviceOrientationDidChangeNotification, object: nil)

Answer 3

Swift 5 & Xcode 10.2:

NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(
            self,
            selector: #selector(batteryLevelDidChangeNotification),
            name: UIDevice.batteryLevelDidChangeNotification,
            object: nil)

Answer 4

Swift 3.0 in Xcode 8

Swift 3.0 has replaced many "stringly-typed" APIs with struct "wrapper types", as is the case with NotificationCenter. Notifications are now identified by a struct Notfication.Name rather than by String. See the Migrating to Swift 3 guide.

Previous usage:

// Define identifier
let notificationIdentifier: String = "NotificationIdentifier"

// Register to receive notification
NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter().addObserver(self, selector: #selector(YourClassName.methodOfReceivedNotification(_:)), name: notificationIdentifier, object: nil)

// Post a notification
NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter().postNotificationName(notificationIdentifier, object: nil)

New Swift 3.0 usage:

// Define identifier
let notificationName = Notification.Name("NotificationIdentifier")

// Register to receive notification
NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(self, selector: #selector(YourClassName.methodOfReceivedNotification), name: notificationName, object: nil)

// Post notification
NotificationCenter.default.post(name: notificationName, object: nil)

All of the system notification types are now defined as static constants on Notification.Name; i.e. .UIDeviceBatteryLevelDidChange, .UIApplicationDidFinishLaunching, .UITextFieldTextDidChange, etc.

You can extend Notification.Name with your own custom notifications in order to stay consistent with the system notifications:

// Definition:
extension Notification.Name {
    static let yourCustomNotificationName = Notification.Name("yourCustomNotificationName")
}

// Usage:
NotificationCenter.default.post(name: .yourCustomNotificationName, object: nil)

Answer 5

Swift 4.0 & Xcode 9.0+:

Send(Post) Notification:

NotificationCenter.default.post(name: Notification.Name("NotificationIdentifier"), object: nil)

OR

NotificationCenter.default.post(name: Notification.Name("NotificationIdentifier"), object: nil, userInfo: ["Renish":"Dadhaniya"])

Receive(Get) Notification:

NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(self, selector: #selector(self.methodOfReceivedNotification(notification:)), name: Notification.Name("NotificationIdentifier"), object: nil)

Function-Method handler for received Notification:

@objc func methodOfReceivedNotification(notification: Notification) {}

Swift 3.0 & Xcode 8.0+:

Send(Post) Notification:

NotificationCenter.default.post(name: Notification.Name("NotificationIdentifier"), object: nil)

Receive(Get) Notification:

NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(self, selector: #selector(YourClassName.methodOfReceivedNotification(notification:)), name: Notification.Name("NotificationIdentifier"), object: nil)

Method handler for received Notification:

func methodOfReceivedNotification(notification: Notification) {
  // Take Action on Notification
}

Remove Notification:

deinit {
  NotificationCenter.default.removeObserver(self, name: Notification.Name("NotificationIdentifier"), object: nil)
}

Swift 2.3 & Xcode 7:

Send(Post) Notification

NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter().postNotificationName("NotificationIdentifier", object: nil)

Receive(Get) Notification

NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter().addObserver(self, selector: #selector(YourClassName.methodOfReceivedNotification(_:)), name:"NotificationIdentifier", object: nil)

Method handler for received Notification

func methodOfReceivedNotification(notification: NSNotification){
  // Take Action on Notification
}

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For historic Xcode versions...

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Send(Post) Notification

NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter().postNotificationName("NotificationIdentifier", object: nil)

Receive(Get) Notification

NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter().addObserver(self, selector: "methodOfReceivedNotification:", name:"NotificationIdentifier", object: nil)

Remove Notification

NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter().removeObserver(self, name: "NotificationIdentifier", object: nil)
NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter().removeObserver(self) // Remove from all notifications being observed

Method handler for received Notification

func methodOfReceivedNotification(notification: NSNotification) {
  // Take Action on Notification
}

Annotate either the class or the target method with @objc

@objc private func methodOfReceivedNotification(notification: NSNotification) {
  // Take Action on Notification
}

// Or

dynamic private func methodOfReceivedNotification(notification: NSNotification) {
  // Take Action on Notification
}

Answer 6

A nice way of doing this is to use the addObserver(forName:object:queue:using:) method rather than the addObserver(_:selector:name:object:) method that is often used from Objective-C code. The advantage of the first variant is that you don't have to use the @objc attribute on your method:

    func batteryLevelChanged(notification: Notification) {
        // do something useful with this information
    }

    let observer = NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(
        forName: NSNotification.Name.UIDeviceBatteryLevelDidChange,
        object: nil, queue: nil,
        using: batteryLevelChanged)

and you can even just use a closure instead of a method if you want:

    let observer = NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(
        forName: NSNotification.Name.UIDeviceBatteryLevelDidChange,
        object: nil, queue: nil) { _ in print("