Bringing a subview to be in front of all other views

Question

I am working on integrating an ad provider into my app currently. I wish to place a fading message in front of the ad when the ad displays but have been completely unsuccessful.

I made a function which adds a subview to my current view and tries to bring it to the front using

[self.view bringSubviewToFront:mySubview]

The function fires on notification that the ad loaded (the notification is from the adprovider's SDK). However, my subview does not end up in front of the ad. I imagine this is made purposely difficult by the ad provider, but I wish to do it regardless. I am currently discussing with the provider whether or not this can be allowed. But for the time being, I just want to see if it's even possible.

Is there anyway I can force a subview of mine to be the top-most view such that it will not be obstructed by anything?

score 179 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 02 '15 at 12:09

179

try this:

self.view.layer.zPosition = 1;

answered Apr 02 '15 at 12:09

daniel kilinskas

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Thank you for this answer. Was useful for a Map pin issue (I wanted to force one on top of the others) – Séraphin Hochart Apr 02 '15 at 16:18
1

Can I ask why you sent this reply 3 years after this question was posted? – Mark S Apr 08 '15 at 17:36
97

i was searching 3 years after the solution =) – daniel kilinskas Apr 09 '15 at 16:35
5

Unfortunately this can not change the gesture responding order. – Yinfeng Feb 23 '16 at 09:12
2

This only puts the view in front, but not all the gesture and touch events. so when the user tries to touch the view, it will touch some other view. The solution by @jere is the correct one. – Daniel Benedykt Oct 11 '16 at 16:39
i was searching 12 years after the solution =) – May 30 '17 at 07:40
how to make the above view active – hussain Oct 07 '17 at 06:13
Well if you do this repeatedly for some arbitrary close by views, they both have zPosition == 1, and that's not ok. (without custom zPosition logic) – sabiland Sep 05 '20 at 15:03

score 90 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 01 '12 at 17:38

90

What if the ad provider's view is not added to self.view but to something like [UIApplication sharedApplication].keyWindow?

Try something like:

[[UIApplication sharedApplication].keyWindow addSubview:yourSubview]

or

[[UIApplication sharedApplication].keyWindow bringSubviewToFront:yourSubview]

answered Nov 01 '12 at 17:38

jere

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Doesn't work for iAd banner views... which is a common "needs to be on top" problem. (iAds are not allowed in non-VCs) – Albert Renshaw Oct 31 '14 at 01:47
1

or [parentview bringSubviewToFront:yourSubview] , where parentview is the inmediate view of the subview – Daniel Benedykt Oct 11 '16 at 16:41

score 23 · Answer 3 · edited Nov 17 '18 at 17:26

23

Swift 2 version of Jere's answer:

UIApplication.sharedApplication().keyWindow!.bringSubviewToFront(YourViewHere)

Swift 3:

UIApplication.shared.keyWindow!.bringSubview(toFront: YourViewHere)

Swift 4:

UIApplication.shared.keyWindow!.bringSubviewToFront(YourViewHere)

Hope it saves someone 10 seconds! ;)

edited Nov 17 '18 at 17:26

Sharad Paghadal

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answered Jan 26 '16 at 20:03

Paul Lehn

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What if I want to bring the keyWindow itself to the front ? I am facing an issue where the keyWindow stays on the back for some reason... – Jesus Rodriguez Jul 13 '17 at 19:16

score 18 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 01 '12 at 17:39

I had a need for this once. I created a custom UIView class - AlwaysOnTopView.

@interface AlwaysOnTopView : UIView
@end

@implementation AlwaysOnTopView

- (void)observeValueForKeyPath:(NSString *)keyPath ofObject:(id)object change:(NSDictionary *)change context:(void *)context {
    if (object == self.superview && [keyPath isEqual:@"subviews.@count"]) {
        [self.superview bringSubviewToFront:self];
    }

    [super observeValueForKeyPath:keyPath ofObject:object change:change context:context];
}

- (void)willMoveToSuperview:(UIView *)newSuperview {
    if (self.superview) {
        [self.superview removeObserver:self forKeyPath:@"subviews.@count"];
    }

    [super willMoveToSuperview:newSuperview];
}

- (void)didMoveToSuperview {
    [super didMoveToSuperview];

    if (self.superview) {
        [self.superview addObserver:self forKeyPath:@"subviews.@count" options:0 context:nil];
    }
}

@end

Have your view extend this class. Of course this only ensures a subview is above all of its sibling views.

score 8 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 06 '17 at 13:17

8

As far as i experienced zposition is a best way.

self.view.layer.zPosition = 1;

answered Mar 06 '17 at 13:17

Gobi M

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score 2 · Answer 6 · answered Dec 24 '19 at 08:43

Let me make a conclusion. In Swift 5

You can choose to addSubview to keyWindow, if you add the view in the last. Otherwise, you can bringSubViewToFront.

let view = UIView()
UIApplication.shared.keyWindow?.addSubview(view)
UIApplication.shared.keyWindow?.bringSubviewToFront(view)

You can also set the zPosition. But the drawback is that you can not change the gesture responding order.

view.layer.zPosition = 1

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered May 22 '19 at 15:51

1

In c#, View.BringSubviewToFront(childView); YourView.Layer.ZPosition = 1; both should work.

answered May 22 '19 at 15:51

Anisetti Nagendra

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score 0 · Answer 8 · edited Nov 21 '18 at 10:12

0

In Swift 4.2

UIApplication.shared.keyWindow!.bringSubviewToFront(yourView)

Source: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/uikit/uiview/1622541-bringsubviewtofront#declarations

edited Nov 21 '18 at 10:12

answered Oct 25 '18 at 09:45

Vinoth Vino

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No they changed in Swift 4.2, Please have a look at https://developer.apple.com/documentation/uikit/uiview/1622541-bringsubviewtofront#declarations @LuigiTaira – Vinoth Vino Nov 13 '18 at 09:16

Bringing a subview to be in front of all other views

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