SwiftUI MapKit UIViewRepresentable Can't present Alert

Question

I have a SwiftUI app where a couple of views are MapKit maps made with UIViewRepresentable. I have custom annotations for the points of interest and use both the right and left callout buttons for further action. On the right I simply want to display information about the waypoint. On the left I want to raise an alert with a choice of further actions - for example, insert a new annotation point. Before SwiftUI I just raised an alert and did both of the above. But from what I can tell, there is no self.present on the UIViewRepresentable versions. Hence I have not been able to present alerts.

Just for an experiment - I attached SwiftUI alert code to the SwiftUI view that calls the MapView. Using Observable booleans I can indeed raise both those alerts. That seems strange to me but maybe the code for alerts bound to global properties can be ANYWHERE.

My first attempt: (the struct is DetailMapView)

func mapView(_ mapView: MKMapView, annotationView view: MKAnnotationView, calloutAccessoryControlTapped control: UIControl) {

    if control == view.leftCalloutAccessoryView {
        guard let tappedLocationCoord = view.annotation?.coordinate else {return}
        let tappedLocation = CLLocation(latitude: tappedLocationCoord.latitude, longitude: tappedLocationCoord.longitude)

        let ac = UIAlertController(title: nil, message: nil, preferredStyle: .alert)

        let deleteAction = UIAlertAction(title: "Delete Waypoint", style: .destructive) { (action) in
            //some stuff
        }

        let insertAction = UIAlertAction(title: "Insert Waypoint After This", style: .default) { (action) in
            //some stuff
        }

        let cancelAction = UIAlertAction(title: "Cancel", style: .default) { (action) in
            //some stuff
        }//cancelAction

        ac.addAction(deleteAction)
        ac.addAction(insertAction)
        ac.addAction(cancelAction)

        //tried adding self, referencing parent - always error saying
        //the object does not have a .present
        mapView.present(ac, animated: true)

    } else if control == view.rightCalloutAccessoryView {
        //more of the same
    }
}//annotationView

I then removed the alert code and added:

parent.userDefaultsManager.shouldShowAnnotationEditMenu.toggle()

And I changed the calling screen to:

@ObservedObject var userDefaultsManager: UserDefaultsManager
var aTrip: Trip?

var body: some View {

    VStack {
        Text(aTrip?.name ?? "Unknown Map Name")
            .padding(.top, -50)
            .padding(.bottom, -20)

        DetailMapView(aTrip: aTrip, userDefaultsManager: userDefaultsManager)
            .padding(.top, -20)
            .alert(isPresented: $userDefaultsManager.shouldShowAddress) {
                //Alert(title: Text("\(aTrip?.name ?? "No") Address"),
                Alert(title: Text(self.userDefaultsManager.approximateAddress),
                      message: Text("This is the approximate street address."),
                      dismissButton: .default(Text("Got it!")))
            }//.alert shouldShowAddress

        Text("This is the view where the trip information will be displayed.")
            .multilineTextAlignment(.center)
        .alert(isPresented: $userDefaultsManager.shouldShowAnnotationEditMenu) {
            Alert(title: Text("Edit Annotations"),
                  message: Text("Choose this to insert an Annotation."),
                  dismissButton: .default(Text("Got it!")))
        }//.alert shouldShowAddress
    }
}

I guess if this is safe I could make it work - but it seems more complicated that it should be.

This is the idea:

Any guidance would be appreciated: Xcode Version 11.3.1 (11C504)

Answer 1

Yes, Glenn.

This is actually the way I did it. I had used ObservedObjects. However I think your approach with @State and @Binding is better. Also, I do not want to show the map conditionally - just want to show annotation connections. For some reason I was not able to add a comment to your answer so replying here.

Answer 2

I spent an hour for this, I'm new to SwiftUI, and I jumped into it just to answer some easy questions.

One way to do what you want is to use Bool (@State and @Binding).

You also need to have a View rather than directly use your UIViewRepresentable in your SceneDelegate. Because that is where you will chain your alert.

Like so:

struct MainView: View {
    @State var text = ""
    @State var showingAlert: Bool

    var body: some View {
        VStack {
            MapView(showingAlert: self.$showingAlert)
                .alert(isPresented: $showingAlert) { () -> Alert in
                    print("SHOWING ALERT BODY: --> \($showingAlert.wrappedValue)")
                    return Alert(title: Text("Important message"), message: Text("Go out and have a girlfriend!"), dismissButton: .default(Text("Got it!")))
            }
        }
    }
}

and then your MapView should go like this:

struct MapView: UIViewRepresentable {

    let landmarks = LandmarkAnnotation.requestMockData()

    @Binding var showingAlert: Bool

    func makeCoordinator() -> MapViewCoordinator {
        MapViewCoordinator(mapView: self, showingAlert: self.$showingAlert)
    }

    /**
     - Description - Replace the body with a make UIView(context:) method that creates and return an empty MKMapView
     */
    func makeUIView(context: Context) -> MKMapView {
        MKMapView(frame: .zero)
    }

    func updateUIView(_ view: MKMapView, context: Context){
        //If you changing the Map Annotation then you have to remove old Annotations
        //mapView.removeAnnotations(mapView.annotations)
        view.delegate = context.coordinator
        view.addAnnotations(landmarks)
    }
}

struct MapView_Previews: PreviewProvider {
    static var previews: some View {
        MapView(showingAlert: Binding<Bool>.constant(true))
    }
}

Finally, in your MapViewCoordinator (I suppose you have this class, this is the one that implements the delegate methods of the MKMapViewDelegate.).

/*
 Coordinator for using UIKit inside SwiftUI.
 */
class MapViewCoordinator: NSObject, MKMapViewDelegate {

    var mapViewController: MapView!
    @Binding var showAlert: Bool

    init(mapView: MapView, showingAlert: Binding<Bool>) {

        self.mapViewController = mapView
        self._showAlert = showingAlert
        super.init()
    }

    func mapView(_ mapView: MKMapView, viewFor
        annotation: MKAnnotation) -> MKAnnotationView?{
        //Custom View for Annotation
        let annotationView = MKAnnotationView(annotation: annotation, reuseIdentifier: "customView")
        annotationView.canShowCallout = true
        //Your custom image icon
        annotationView.image = UIImage(named: "locationPin")
        return annotationView
    }

    func mapView(_ mapView: MKMapView, annotationView view: MKAnnotationView, calloutAccessoryControlTapped control: UIControl) {
        print("calloutAccessoryControlTapped")
    }

    func mapView(_ mapView: MKMapView, didSelect view: MKAnnotationView) {
        print("didSelect")

        self.showAlert = true
    }
}

So as you can see, I just make use of the Bool flag. Especially the @Binding one.