Using the TiApp Utility Class in Hyperloop iOS

Class Methods
Instance Methods
Instance Properties
Examples

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This document describes technologies available in Hyperloop 3.1.0+ and Titanium 7.3.0+.

When developing iOS modules with Hyperloop, there are situations where you want to present a new view controller from your current context or pass your current context to a new view controller. Natively, you would usually reference "self" as its represents your current UIViewController subclass. In Titanium, your "self" is usually a Ti.UI.Window instance, which is fine for Titanium development, but cannot be used in native development.

That's why Hyperloop includes a number of utility methods that solve these kind of problems. They are exposed in the "TiApp" class that can be required as the following:

indes.js

                      
                            // ES5
var TiApp = require('Titanium/TiApp');
 
// ES6+
import TiApp from 'Titanium/TiApp';

And that's basically it. As the TiApp class is a singleton in Titanium, the instance methods are done on the TiApp.app() singleton and the class methods on TiApp directly. See the following table for a reference of the available utilities:

Class Methods

Call these methods on the TiApp property directly.

Name	Parameters	Return	Description
app()	void	TiApp	The singleton object to call all other API's on.
getController()	void	UIViewController	Returns the application's root view controller.
getTiAppProperties()	void	NSDictionary	Return a read-only dictionary from tiapp.xml properties.

Instance Methods

Call these methods on the TiApp.app() singleton.

Name	Parameters	Return	Description
showModalController(controller, animated)	UIViewController, BOOL	void	Presents a view controller on the top presented view controller (e.g. "`presentViewController:animated`:").
hideModalController(controller, animated)	UIViewController, BOOL	void	Hides a currently presented view controller (e.g. "`dismissViewControllerAnimated:completion`:").
showModalError(error)	NSString	void	Shows the "red screen of death" indicating an unhandled error.
startNetwork()	void	void	Tells application to show network activity indicator.
stopNetwork()	void	void	Tells application to hide network activity indicator.
registerApplicationDelegate(delegate)	id<UIApplicationDelegate>	void	Registers a new `UIApplicationDelegate` to the host application.
unregisterApplicationDelegate(delegate)	id<UIApplicationDelegate>	void	Unregisters an existing `UIApplicationDelegate` from the host application.
windowIsKeyWindow()	void	BOOL	Indicates weather the current window is the key-window of the host application.
getRemoteDeviceUUID()	void	NSString	Returns the remote UUID for the current running device.
getSessionId()	void	NSString	Returns the unique identifier for the current application launch.
getLaunchOptions()	void	NSDictionary	Returns the application's launch options.

Instance Properties

Call these properties on the TiApp.app() singleton.

Name	Type	Description
userAgent	NSString	The user agent string to use for system network requests.
window	UIWindow	The application's primary window.
remoteNotification	NSDictionary	The details for the last remote notification.
localNotification	NSDictionary	The details for the last local notification.
userAgent	NSString	The user agent string to use for network requests.

Examples

Present a view controller

This example shows how to open a new view controller in your current application context.

                      
                            var myNewViewController = new UIViewController(); // Create a new view controller or pass it from existing libraries / SDK's
var myNewView = UIView.alloc().initWithFrame(CGRectMake(0,0, 200, 200)); // Create a  new UIView with a 200x200 frame
myNewView.backgroundColor = UIColor.greenColor; // Set a green background color
myNewViewController.view = myNewView; // Assign the UIView instance to your UIViewController
 
TiApp.app().showModalController(myNewViewController, true); // Present the view controller

Pass the current view controller

This example shows how to pass your top presented controller to a native method (e.g. in the Facebook SDK).

var FBSDKShareDialog = require('FBSDKShareKit/FBSDKShareDialog');
var FBSDKShareDialogModeAutomatic = require('FBSDKShareKit').FBSDKShareDialogModeAutomatic;
var FBSDKShareLinkContent = require('FBSDKShareKit/FBSDKShareLinkContent');
var NSURL = require('Foundation/NSURL');
var TiApp = require('Titanium/TiApp');
 
var dialog = new FBSDKShareDialog(); // Create a new share dialog. Equals "FBSDKShareDialog.alloc().init()".
var content = new FBSDKShareLinkContent(); // Create new share content (link-based). Equals "FBSDKShareLinkContent.alloc().init()".
 
content.contentURL = NSURL.URLWithString('http://appcelerator.com'); // Construct a native URL
dialog.setMode(FBSDKShareDialogModeAutomatic); // Use enumerations to define how the dialog should be shown
dialog.setFromViewController(TiApp.controller); // <- This is where you pass your current context
dialog.setShareContent(content); // Assign the share content
 
dialog.show(); // Present it!

Get the device's push notifications UUID

This examples shows how to receive the device's UUID used for remote notifications.

                      
                            var remoteUUID = TiApp.app().remoteDeviceUUID;
Ti.API.info('UUID: ' + remoteUUID);

Subscribe to the UIApplicationDelegate

This example shows how to subscribe to the UIApplicationDelegate in order to use the application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions: delegate method. For more infos, see iOS Modules - Use Native UI Application Delegates in Hyperloop and Native Modules.

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Note: Many native SDK's recommend to initialize them in this delegate. In the Titanium world, you can also do this in the open event of your initial window, which effectively does the same and is more cross-platform fashioned way of implementing this.

                      
                      
                        
                            var TiApp = require('Titanium/TiApp');
var UIApplicationDelegate = require('UIKit').UIApplicationDelegate;
 
// Create a new class to handle the delegate
var TiAppApplicationDelegate = Hyperloop.defineClass('TiAppApplicationDelegate', 'NSObject', 'UIApplicationDelegate');
 
// Add the selector to handle the result
TiAppApplicationDelegate.addMethod({
  selector: 'application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:',
  instance: true,
  returnType: 'BOOL',
  arguments: [
    'UIApplication',
    'NSDictionary'
  ],
  callback: function(application, options) {
    if (this.didFinishLaunchingWithOptions) {
      return this.didFinishLaunchingWithOptions(application, options);
    }
    return true;
  }
});
 
// Instantiate the delegate subclass
var applicationDelegate = new TiAppApplicationDelegate();
  
// Called when the application finished launching. Initialize SDK's here
                              for example
applicationDelegate.didFinishLaunchingWithOptions = function(application, options) {
  Ti.API.info('Hey there!');
  return true
};
 
// Finally, assign your subclass to the "applicationDelegate"
                              property of the TiApp class
TiApp.app().registerApplicationDelegate(applicationDelegate);

                          

                      
                    