How to set @EnvironmentObject in an existing Storyboard based project?

Question

I have an iOS project built with Storyboard and UIKit . Now I want to develop the new screens using SwiftUI . I added a Hosting View Controller to the existing Storyboard and used it to show my newly created SwiftUI view.

But I couldn't figure out how to create an @Environm.netObject that can be used anywhere throughout the application. I should be able to access/set it in any of my UIKit based ViewController as well as my SwiftUI views.

Is this possible? If so how to do it? In a pure SwiftUI app, we set the environment object like below,

@main
struct myApp: App {
    @StateObject var item = Item()

    var body: some Scene {
        WindowGroup {
            MainView()
                .environmentObject(item)
        }
    }
}

But in my case, there is no function like this since it is an existing iOS project with AppDelegate and SceneDelegate . And the initial view controller is marked in Storyboard. How to set this and access the object anywhere in the app?

Answer 1

The.environmentObject modifier changes the type of the view from ItemDetailView to something else. Force casting it will cause an error. Instead, try wrapping it into an AnyView.

class OrderObservable: ObservableObject {
    
    @Published var order: String = "Hello"
}

struct ItemDetailView: View {
    
    @EnvironmentObject var orderObservable: OrderObservable
    
    var body: some View {
        
        EmptyView()
            .onAppear(perform: {
                print(orderObservable.order)
            })
    }
}

class ItemDetailViewHostingController: UIHostingController<AnyView> {
    let appDelegate = UIApplication.shared.delegate as! AppDelegate

    required init?(coder: NSCoder) {
        super.init(coder: coder,rootView: AnyView(ItemDetailView().environmentObject(OrderObservable())))
    }
}

This works for me. Is this what you require?

EDIT : Ok, so I gave the setting the property from a ViewController all through the View. It wasn't as easy as using a property wrapper or a view modifier, but it works. I gave it a spin. Please let me know if this satisfies your requirement. Also, I had to get rid of the HostingController subclass.

class ViewController: UIViewController {
    
    var orderObservable = OrderObservable()
    
    override func prepare(for segue: UIStoryboardSegue, sender: Any?) {
        guard let myVC = (segue.destination as? MyViewController) else { return }
        myVC.orderObservable = orderObservable
    }
}

class MyViewController: UIViewController {
    
    var orderObservable: OrderObservable!
    var anycancellables = Set<AnyCancellable>()
    @IBAction @objc func buttonSegueToHostingVC() {
        let detailView = ItemDetailView().environmentObject(orderObservable)
        present(UIHostingController(rootView: detailView), animated: true)
        
        orderObservable.$order.sink { newVal in
            print(newVal)
        }
        .store(in: &anycancellables)
    }
}


class OrderObservable: ObservableObject {
    
    @Published var order: String = "Hello"
    
    init() {
        DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter(deadline: .now() + 10) {
            self.order = "World"
        }
    }
}

struct ItemDetailView: View {
    
    @EnvironmentObject var orderObservable: OrderObservable
    
    var body: some View {
        
        Text("\(orderObservable.order)")
    }
}

Basically I'm creating the observable object in the ViewController class, passing it to the MyViewController class and finally create a hosting controller with the ItemDetailView and setting it's environmentObject and presenting it.

Answer 2

Here's my take on tackling this problem. My app targets iOS 14 or above:

The current state

I have a Main.storyboard file with one view controller scene set as the initial view controller with custom class ViewController . Here's the custom class implementation:

import UIKit

class ViewController: UIViewController {
    @IBOutlet var label: UILabel!
}

The goal

To use this class in a SwiftUI app life cycle and make it react and interact to @EnvironmentObject instance (In this case let's call it a theme manager).

Solution

I will define a ThemeManager observable object with a Theme published property like so:

import SwiftUI

class ThemeManager: ObservableObject {
    @Published var theme = Theme.purple
}

struct Theme {
    let labelColor: Color
}

extension Theme {
    static let purple = Theme(labelColor: .purple)
    static let green = Theme(labelColor: .green)
}

extension Theme: Equatable {}

Next, I created a ViewControllerRepresentation to be able to use the ViewController in SwiftUI:

import SwiftUI

struct ViewControllerRepresentation: UIViewControllerRepresentable {
    @EnvironmentObject var themeManager: ThemeManager

    // Use this function to pass the @EnvironmentObject to the view controller 
    // so that you can change its properties from inside the view controller scope.
    func makeUIViewController(context: Context) -> ViewController {
        let storyboard = UIStoryboard(name: "Main", bundle: nil)
        let viewController = storyboard.instantiateInitialViewController { coder in
            ViewController(themeManager: themeManager, coder: coder)
        }
        return viewController!
    }

    // Use this function to update the view controller when the @EnvironmentObject changes.
    // In this case I modify the label color based on the themeManager.
    func updateUIViewController(_ uiViewController: ViewController, context: Context) {
        uiViewController.label.textColor = UIColor(themeManager.theme.labelColor)
    }
}

I then updated ViewController to accept a themeManager instance:

import UIKit

class ViewController: UIViewController {
    @IBOutlet var label: UILabel!

    let themeManager: ThemeManager

    init?(themeManager: ThemeManager, coder: NSCoder) {
        self.themeManager = themeManager
        super.init(coder: coder)
    }

    required init?(coder: NSCoder) {
        fatalError("init(coder:) has not been implemented")
    }

    @IBAction func toggleTheme(_ sender: UIButton) {
        if themeManager.theme == .purple {
            themeManager.theme = .green
        } else {
            themeManager.theme = .purple
        }
    }
}

Now, the last thing to do is create an instance of the theme manager and pass it as an environment object to the view controller representation:

import SwiftUI

@main
struct ThemeEnvironmentApp: App {
    @StateObject private var themeManager = ThemeManager()

    var body: some Scene {
        WindowGroup {
            ViewControllerRepresentation()
                .environmentObject(themeManager)
        }
    }
}

Running the app shows our view controller with a label and a button. Tapping the button triggers the IBAction , which changes the themeManager.theme , which triggers a call to the representation's updateUIViewController(_:, context:) :