Multiple Views in One Nib (addSubview)

Question

I'm trying to keep my code clean and keep the number of files down. I am using a UITableViewController and I would like to load another view on top of it. I thought this would be pretty simple:

(1) create an IBOutlet in my .h file

@interface MyViewController : UITableViewController {
    ...
    UIView *downloadView;
    ...
}
...
@property (nonatomic, retain) IBOutlet UIView *downloadView;
...

(2) link it to my view in IB

(3) do something like:

self.view = downloadView;

or

[self.view addSubview:self.downloadView];

But that doesn't work for me. If I do

[self.tableView removeFromSuperview];

Then the table view goes away but I don't know how to add my view from my nib. I'm doing everything for tableView programatically but I didn't think that would matter. And with UITableViewController subclassing UIViewController I thought it would be no problem using addSubview or something like that. What am I missing? This shouldn't be that hard right?

Update: So if I do the following:

UIView *newView = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:self.view.frame];
newView.backgroundColor = [UIColor greenColor];
[self.view addSubview:newView];

It does (mostly) what I want. So does this mean I'm messing something up with the way I'm connecting my view from IB? In IB I set the fileOwner's class to MyViewController and I make a connection between downloadView and the view that I created (in IB). That's all I should have to do right?

Answer 1

I think it's an issue of where in the hierarchy you're adding the view. You can try this:

[UIWindow addSubview:self.downloadView];

and see if it appears. Or perhaps,

[self.tableView addSubview:self.downloadView];

Otherwise I think you have the right idea.