Assign xib to the UIView in Swift

in objective c it can be done in init method by

-(id)init{
    self = [[[NSBundle mainBundle] loadNibNamed:@"ViewBtnWishList" owner:0 options:nil]     objectAtIndex:0];
return self;
}

but when i do this in swift

init(frame: CGRect) {
    self = NSBundle.mainBundle().loadNibNamed("ViewDetailMenu", owner: 0, options: nil)[0] as? UIView
}

cannot assign to self in a method error is shown. now my approach is to create a view, and add the view loaded from nib to it. anyone have a better idea?

for Swift 4

extension UIView {
    class func loadFromNibNamed(nibNamed: String, bundle: Bundle? = nil) -> UIView? {
      return UINib(
          nibName: nibNamed,
          bundle: bundle
      ).instantiate(withOwner: nil, options: nil)[0] as? UIView
  }
}

for Swift 3

You could create an extension on UIView:

extension UIView {
    class func loadFromNibNamed(nibNamed: String, bundle: NSBundle? = nil) -> UIView? {
        return UINib(
            nibName: nibNamed,
            bundle: bundle
        ).instantiateWithOwner(nil, options: nil)[0] as? UIView
    }
}

Note: Using UINib is faster because it does caching for you.

Then you can just do:

ViewDetailItem.loadFromNibNamed("ViewBtnWishList")

And you will be able to reuse that method on any view.

This worked for me.

override func awakeAfterUsingCoder(aDecoder: NSCoder) -> AnyObject? {
    if self.subviews.count == 0 {
        return loadNib()
    }
    return self
}

private func loadNib() -> YourCustomView {
    return NSBundle.mainBundle().loadNibNamed("YourCustomViewNibName", owner: nil, options: nil)[0] as YourCustomView
}

Tested in Xcode 7 beta 4 , Swift 2.0 . The following code will assign xib to the UIView. You can use this custom xib view in storyboard and access the IBOutlet object also.

import UIKit

@IBDesignable class SimpleCustomView:UIView
{
    var view:UIView!;

    @IBOutlet weak var lblTitle: UILabel!

   @IBInspectable var lblTitleText : String?
        {
        get{
            return lblTitle.text;
        }
        set(lblTitleText)
        {
            lblTitle.text = lblTitleText!;
        }
    }

    override init(frame: CGRect) {
        super.init(frame: frame)
        loadViewFromNib ()
    }

    required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
        super.init(coder: aDecoder)
        loadViewFromNib ()
    }
    func loadViewFromNib() {
        let bundle = NSBundle(forClass: self.dynamicType)
        let nib = UINib(nibName: "SimpleCustomView", bundle: bundle)
        let view = nib.instantiateWithOwner(self, options: nil)[0] as! UIView
        view.frame = bounds
        view.autoresizingMask = [.FlexibleWidth, .FlexibleHeight]
        self.addSubview(view);



    }


}

Access customview programatically

self.customView =  SimpleCustomView(frame: CGRectMake(100, 100, 200, 200))
        self.view.addSubview(self.customView!);

Source code - https://github.com/karthikprabhuA/CustomXIBSwift

that may be a solution for you:

Swift 3.x

class func instanceFromNib() -> UIView {
    return UINib(nibName: "<<NibFileName>>", bundle: nil).instantiate(withOwner: nil, options: nil)[0] as! UIView
}

Swift 2.x

class func instanceFromNib() -> UIView {
    return UINib(nibName: "<<NibFileName>>", bundle: nil).instantiateWithOwner(nil, options: nil)[0] as UIView
}