How to view/launch different XIB files

Question

Wow.
Whoever called xcode a RAD should be shot
Very experiences Windows devloper here... muddlin' through my first exposure to xCode. I'm finding even the simplest of tasks to take me forever to figure out.
For example - I have been working for HOURS on this one...
I have
MainWindow.XIB - has a View and a title bar on it.
RootViewConroller.XIB (owner RootViewController) which has a table view on it.
In that table view with several items in it, propogated by an array "menulist".
TSD.XIB (owner TSDController) with just a single text field (for testing)
So this is what I have so far...
Main view loads up fine, table is populated, and when the user hits an option there, it slides to the side and loads up TSDController. I even have a Back Button which slides the RootVewController back into place but the problem is that the TSD.XIB itself is not showing. I'm sure I'm missing a little link somewhere.
In RootViewController.m under didSelectRowAtIndexPath for the table the code looks like :
UIViewController *targetViewController = [[menuList objectAtIndex:indexPath.row] objectForKey:@"viewController"];
[[self navigationController] pushViewController:targetViewController animated:YES];
//next line added as an afterthought
[targetViewController initWithNibName:@"TSD" bundle:nil];
Like I said the "targetviewcontroller" is working becuase I have a break in there so I see it's being "launched"... I just don't "see" the TSD.XIB.
TSD.XIB has TSDController as the file owner with the View linked to the Window. (I also tried linking Window to Window as well).
I also have the App Delegate pointing to UIApplication (is this correct - I've also tried pointing it to TSDController).
There's also a Window object there as well of course so I can have that test text box on there.
So I am obviously missing something somewhere. Somehow I don't have the XIB loading with the controller.
HELP!
Dave

Answer 1

I'm guessing that you're creating the View Controller in the loadView (or somewhere) and then adding it to menuList with the key of ViewController.
Something like this from the UICatalog samplecode:
ButtonsViewController *buttonsViewController = [[ButtonsViewController alloc] init];
[menuList addObject:[NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:
NSLocalizedString(@"ButtonsTitle", @""), @"title",
buttonsViewController, @"viewController",
nil]];
[buttonsViewController release];
Make sure you add the initWithNib in this allocation of the viewController. I believe it's basically creating the viewController in memory at this point, storing it in the array and then just referencing it later (before the push).
I was doing this for a while, but had to stop as i'd rather create the viewController in memory just before the push and then release it straight afterwards. I was tieing myself in knots trying to release the viewController when it was still stored in the array.
I'm quite new to this myself but that's my take on it.
Anyway, hopefully this should get you working:
ButtonsViewController *buttonsViewController = [[ButtonsViewController alloc] initWithNibName:"@MyNib" withBundle:nil];
[menuList addObject:[NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:
NSLocalizedString(@"ButtonsTitle", @""), @"title",
buttonsViewController, @"viewController",
nil]];
[buttonsViewController release];