Xcode 11 (Swift 5) – Creating an App without Storyboard

The previous tutorial in creating an app without a Storyboard was for iOS 12 or below. In this updated tutorial (October 2019), the target is for iOS 13.

Creating a Project

Open XCode (Version 11A420a; as of October 2019) and click Create a new Xcode project.

Select Single View App and press the Next button.

Enter the name of the product (app name), select Swift as your language, and UI is Storyboard, uncheck Use Core Data, and press the Next button. Core Data means to have a local database in the app (I will cover this in future tutorials).

Enter the name of the product, language set to Swift, User Interface set to Storyboard, uncheck Use Core Data, and click Next.

Save the project by pressing the Create button.

Deleting Main.Storyboard

First, change the iOS Target requirements (optional). Second, erase the Main and Main Interface blank, and delete Main.storyboard.

Delete Main and leave Main Interface field blank.

Remove “Main” from Main Interface and leave it blank.

Open Info.plist file. In the Info.plist:

Open Application Scene Manaifest
open Scene Configuration
open Application Session Role
open Item 0 (Default Configuration)
Press the minus sign on the Storyboard Name.

The Storyboard Name is removed.

Delete Main.storyboard file.

Press Move to Trash button.

Also, delete ViewController.swift.

Press Move to Trash button.

Scene Folder

Add a group and call it Scenes. The Scenes folder will contain views. Each views will have a View and a Controller. The View will manage the user interface and the Controller will manage the backend or events of the view.

After creating a folder called Scenes, create another folder inside Scenes called Home.

Create a folder called Scenes. Inside Scenes, create another folder called Home.

Adding our file scenes (View and Controller)

Add a Swift file inside the Home folder.

Select Swift File and press the Next button.

Under the Home folder, name a Swift file called HomeView. After changing the name, press the Create button.

Create another Swift file called HomeController.

HomeView Source Code

Open the HomeView.swift file and enter the following source code:

import UIKit

class HomeView: UIView {
    // + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
    override init(frame: CGRect) {
        super.init(frame: frame)
        Setup()
    }
    // + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
    required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
        fatalError("init(coder:) has not been implemented.")
    }
    // + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
    func Setup(){
        self.backgroundColor = .systemGray
    }
    // + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
}

HomeController Souce Code

Open the HomeController.swift file and enter the following source code:

import UIKit

class HomeController: UIViewController {
    var homeView: HomeView!
    // + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        setupView()
    }
    // + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
    override func viewWillAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
        super.viewWillAppear(animated)
    }
    // + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
    func setupView() {
        let mainView = HomeView(frame: self.view.frame)
        self.homeView = mainView
        self.view.addSubview(homeView)
        homeView.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.topAnchor, constant: 0).isActive = true
        homeView.trailingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.trailingAnchor, constant: 0).isActive = true
        homeView.bottomAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.bottomAnchor, constant: 0).isActive = true
        homeView.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.leadingAnchor, constant: 0).isActive = true
        homeView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
    }
    // + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
}

Adding a snippet in SceneDelegate.swift

Open the SceneDelegate.swift.

In SceneDelegate.swift, add the following source code inside the scene method. This snippet will point to the main controller (in this example, HomeController is our main starting point after the Launch Screen).

guard let windowScene = (scene as? UIWindowScene) else { return }
        
window = UIWindow(frame: windowScene.coordinateSpace.bounds)
window?.windowScene = windowScene
window?.rootViewController = HomeController()
window?.makeKeyAndVisible()

A snippet was inserted in the **scene** method.

Run the App

Run the application by pressing the PLAY (or Command and R on your keyboard).

And here is the app running without a Storyboard. The next tutorial, I will go over on how to add contents.