ios - In Swift, how to get the device orientation correctly right after it's launched?

Question

I use following code to see if the device is in landscape mode or not:

UIDevice.currentDevice().orientation.isLandscape.boolValue

It works BUT if I put my device in landscape mode before the app is launched, and after viewDidLoad, I call this line of code, it always returns false.

If I use this instead:

interfaceOrientation.isLandscape

it returns true, which is correct, but the compiler is showing a warning that interfaceOrientation was deprecated in iOS 8.0.

What is the correct way to get the device orientation right after the app is launched?

Answer 1

DeviceOrientation vs. ScreenSize vs StatusBar.isLandscape?

iOS 11, Swift 4 and Xcode 9.X

Regardless of using AutoLayout or not, there are several ways to get the right device orientation, and they could be used to detect rotation changes while using the app, as well as getting the right orientation at app launch or after resuming from background.

This solutions work fine in iOS 11 and Xcode 9.X

1. UIScreen.main.bounds.size: If you only want to know if the app is in landscape or portrait mode, the best point to start is in viewDidLoad in the rootViewController at launch time and in viewWillTransition(toSize:) in the rootViewController if you want to detect rotation changes while the app is in background, and should resume the UI in the right orientation.

let size = UIScreen.main.bounds.size
if size.width < size.height {
    print("Portrait: (size.width) X (size.height)")
} else {
    print("Landscape: (size.width) X (size.height)")
}

This also happens early during the app/viewController life cycles.

2. NotificationCenter

If you need to get the actual device orientation (including faceDown, faceUp, etc). you want to add an observer as follows (even if you do it in the application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions method in the AppDelegate, the first notifications will likely be triggered after the viewDidLoad is executed

device = UIDevice.current
device?.beginGeneratingDeviceOrientationNotifications()
notificationCenter = NotificationCenter.default
notificationCenter?.addObserver(self, selector: #selector(deviceOrientationChanged),
    name: Notification.Name("UIDeviceOrientationDidChangeNotification"),
    object: nil)

And add the selector as follows. I split it in 2 parts to be able to run inspectDeviceOrientation() in viewWillTransition

@objc func deviceOrientationChanged() {
    print("Orientation changed")
    inspectDeviceOrientation()
}

func inspectDeviceOrientation() {
    let orientation = UIDevice.current.orientation
    switch UIDevice.current.orientation {
    case .portrait:
        print("portrait")
    case .landscapeLeft:
        print("landscapeLeft")
    case .landscapeRight:
        print("landscapeRight")
    case .portraitUpsideDown:
        print("portraitUpsideDown")
    case .faceUp:
        print("faceUp")
    case .faceDown:
        print("faceDown")
    default: // .unknown
        print("unknown")
    }
    if orientation.isPortrait { print("isPortrait") }
    if orientation.isLandscape { print("isLandscape") }
    if orientation.isFlat { print("isFlat") }
}

Note that the UIDeviceOrientationDidChangeNotification may be posted several times during launch, and in some cases it may be .unknown. What I have seen is that the first correct orientation notification is received after the viewDidLoad and viewWillAppear methods, and right before viewDidAppear, or even applicationDidBecomeActive

The orientation object will give you all 7 possible scenarios(from the enum UIDeviceOrientation definition):

public enum UIDeviceOrientation : Int {
    case unknown
    case portrait // Device oriented vertically, home button on the bottom
    case portraitUpsideDown // Device oriented vertically, home button on the top
    case landscapeLeft // Device oriented horizontally, home button on the right
    case landscapeRight // Device oriented horizontally, home button on the left
    case faceUp // Device oriented flat, face up
    case faceDown // Device oriented flat, face down
}

Interestingly, the isPortrait read-only Bool variable is defined in an extension to UIDeviceOrientation as follows:

extension UIDeviceOrientation {
    public var isLandscape: Bool { get }
    public var isPortrait: Bool { get }
    public var isFlat: Bool { get }
    public var isValidInterfaceOrientation: Bool { get }
}

3. StatusBarOrientation

UIApplication.shared.statusBarOrientation.isLandscape 

This also works fine to determine if orientation is portrait or landscape orientation and gives the same results as point 1. You can evaluate it in viewDidLoad (for App launch) and in viewWillTransition(toSize:) if coming from Background. But it won't give you the details of top/bottom, left/right, up/down you get with the notifications (Point 2)