See the other DHDeclarable documentation.

• DHDeclarable views are programatic UIKit, so start with a breakpoint
  • Inspect the properties, make sure they are correct
  • Make sure the view is not hidden
• Use Xcode’s built-in View Hierarchy Debugger
  • See Apple’s Documentation here
• Use DHDeclarable helper properties such as .declaredWithRedLines
  • On any UIView, you can add .declaredWithRedLines to see where the view is being drawn
  • This property adds a red border, and a light red background to the view
  • This same concept can be extended to use any color, or properties that help signify where a view is
• Use .hierarchy to inspect view hierarchies
  • Consider the following vertical stack:

    DHDVStack(distribution: .fill, spacing: 10).add([
          DHDLabel("This is a header"),
          DHDSeparator(),
          UIButton().declaredWith { button in
              // use `button` to set titles, etc
          }.centerHorizontally,
          DHDSpacer(),
      ])
    

  • Set a breakpoint on a line after this view is created, then use LLDB to run a command such as po testStack.recursiveDescription().asNSString
  • LLDB will print something similar to this:

    StackView (0) [
      [0] Label (This is a header)
      [1] separator	
      StackView (2) [
      [0] spacer
      [1] Button (TestButton)
      [2] spacer
      ]
      [3] spacer
    ]
    

  • The type, accessibility identifier, and value are given for elements in the hierarchy
  • This can be useful to break down how views are being added. Note that this method provides indices that can be helpful when writing tests
  • Note that as of writing this article this method can only be used on a UIStackView, so if a view is not added to a stack view, it will not be shown in the debug output

Continue learning about DHDeclarable in the next article: Examples, or view the map.