Popovers
A library to present popovers.
- Present any view above your app's main content.
- Attach to source views or use picture-in-picture positioning.
- Supports multiple popovers at the same time with smooth transitions.
- Highly customizable API that's super simple — just add
.popover. - Written in SwiftUI with full SwiftUI + UIKit support. No dependencies.
Showroom
| Alert | Color | Menu | Tip | Standard |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Tutorial | Picture-in-Picture | Notification | ||
 |
 |
 |
||
Example
I wrote the example app with Swift Playgrounds 4, so you can run it right on your iPad. If you're using a Mac, download the Xcode version. Download for Swift Playgrounds 4 • Download for Xcode
Installation
Requires iOS 13+. Popovers can be installed through the Swift Package Manager (recommended) or Cocoapods.
| Swift Package Manager Add the Package URL: |
Cocoapods Add this to your Podfile: |
|
|
Usage
To present a popover in SwiftUI, use the .popover(present:attributes:view) modifier. By default, the popover uses the parent view as the source frame.
import SwiftUI
import Popovers
struct ContentView: View {
@State var present = false
var body: some View {
Button("Present popover!") {
present = true
}
.popover(present: $present) { /// here!
Text("Hi, I'm a popover.")
.padding()
.foregroundColor(.white)
.background(.blue)
.cornerRadius(16)
}
}
}
In UIKit, create a Popover instance, then present with Popovers.present(_:). You should also set the source frame.
import SwiftUI
import Popovers
class ViewController: UIViewController {
@IBOutlet weak var button: UIButton!
@IBAction func buttonPressed(_ sender: Any) {
var popover = Popover { PopoverView() }
popover.attributes.sourceFrame = { [weak button] in
button.windowFrame()
}
Popovers.present(popover) /// here!
}
}
struct PopoverView: View {
var body: some View {
Text("Hi, I'm a popover.")
.padding()
.foregroundColor(.white)
.background(.blue)
.cornerRadius(16)
}
}
Customization
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|---|
Customize popovers through the Attributes struct. Pretty much everything is customizable, including positioning, animations, and dismissal behavior.
| SwiftUI Configure in the attributes parameter. |
UIKit Modify the attributes property. |
.popover(
present: $present,
attributes: {
$0.position = .absolute(
originAnchor: .bottom,
popoverAnchor: .topLeft
)
}
) {
Text("Hi, I'm a popover.")
}
|
var popover = Popover {
Text("Hi, I'm a popover.")
}
popover.attributes.position = .absolute(
originAnchor: .bottom,
popoverAnchor: .topLeft
)
Popovers.present(popover)
|
🔖
Tag • String?
Tag popovers to access them later from anywhere. This is useful for updating existing popovers.
/// Set the tag.
$0.tag = "Your Tag"
/// Access it later.
let popover = Popovers.popovers(tagged: "Your Tag")
Note: When you use the .popover(selection:tag:attributes:view:) modifier, this tag is automatically set to what you provide in the parameter.
💠
Position • Position
The popover's position can either be .absolute (attached to a view) or .relative (picture-in-picture). The enum's associated value additionally configures which sides and corners are used.
Anchors represent sides and corners.- For
.absolute, provide the origin anchor and popover anchor. - For
.relative, provide the popover anchors. If there's multiple, the user will be able to drag between them like a PIP.
| Anchor Reference | .absolute(originAnchor: .bottom, popoverAnchor: .topLeft) |
.relative(popoverAnchors: [.right]) |
|---|---|---|
 |
 |
 |
⬜
Source Frame • (() -> CGRect)
This is the frame that the popover attaches to or is placed within, depending on its position. This must be in global window coordinates. Because frames are can change so often, this property is a closure. Whenever the device rotates or some other bounds change happens, the closure will be called.
| SwiftUI The source frame is automatically set to the parent view. You can still override it if you want. |
UIKit It's highly recommended to provide a source frame, otherwise the popover will appear in the top-left of the screen. |
$0.sourceFrame = {
/** some CGRect here */
}
|
/// use `weak` to prevent a retain cycle
attributes.sourceFrame = { [weak button] in
button.windowFrame()
}
|
🔲
Source Frame Inset • UIEdgeInsets
Edge insets to apply to the source frame. Positive values inset the frame, negative values expand it.
| Absolute | Relative |
|---|---|
 |
 |
⏹
Screen Edge Padding • UIEdgeInsets
Global insets for all popovers to prevent them from overflowing off the screen. Kind of like a safe area. Default value is UIEdgeInsets(top: 16, left: 16, bottom: 16, right: 16).
🟩
Presentation • Presentation
This property stores the animation and transition that's applied when the popover appears.
/// Default values:
$0.presentation.animation = .default
$0.presentation.transition = .opacity
🟥
Dismissal • Dismissal
This property stores the popover's dismissal behavior. There's a couple sub-properties here.
/// Same thing as `Presentation`.
$0.dismissal.animation = .default
$0.dismissal.transition = .opacity
/// Advanced stuff! Here's their default values:
$0.dismissal.mode = .tapOutside
$0.dismissal.tapOutsideIncludesOtherPopovers = false
$0.dismissal.excludedFrames = { [] }
$0.dismissal.dragMovesPopoverOffScreen = true
$0.dismissal.dragDismissalProximity = CGFloat(0.25)
Mode: Configure how the popover should auto-dismiss. You can have multiple at the same time!
.tapOutside- dismiss the popover when the user taps outside it..dragDown- dismiss the popover when the user drags it down..dragUp- dismiss the popover when the user drags it up..none- don't automatically dismiss the popover.
Tap Outside Includes Other Popovers: Only applies when mode is .tapOutside. If this is enabled, the popover will be dismissed when the user taps outside, even when another presented popover is what's tapped. Normally when you tap another popover that's presented, the current one will not dismiss.
Excluded Frames: Only applies when mode is .tapOutside. When the user taps outside the popover, but the tap lands on one of these frames, the popover will stay presented. If you want multiple popovers, you should set the source frames of your other popovers as the excluded frames.
/// Set one popover's source frame as the other's excluded frame.
/// This prevents the the current popover from being dismissed before animating to the other one.
let popover1 = Popover { Text("Hello") }
popover1.attributes.sourceFrame = { [weak button1] in button1.windowFrame() }
popover1.attributes.dismissal.excludedFrames = { [weak button2] in [ button2.windowFrame() ] }
let popover2 = Popover { Text("Hello") }
popover2.attributes.sourceFrame = { [weak button2] in button2.windowFrame() }
popover2.attributes.dismissal.excludedFrames = { [weak button1] in [ button1.windowFrame() ] }
Drag Moves Popover Off Screen: Only applies when mode is .dragDown or .dragUp. If this is enabled, the popover will continue moving off the screen after the user drags.
Drag Dismissal Proximity: Only applies when mode is .dragDown or .dragUp. Represents the point on the screen that the drag must reach in order to auto-dismiss. This property is multiplied by the screen's height.
🎾
Rubber Banding Mode • RubberBandingMode
Configures which axes the popover can "rubber-band" on when dragged. The default is [.xAxis, .yAxis].
.xAxis- enable rubber banding on the x-axis..yAxis- enable rubber banding on the y-axis..none- disable rubber banding.
🛑
Blocks Background Touches • Bool
Set this to true to prevent underlying views from being pressed.
🪟
Window Scene • UIWindowScene? • v1.0.4
The window scene that the popover is tied to. By default, this is set to UIApplication.shared.keyWindow?.windowScene, which fully provides single window support and basic multi-window support on iPad. See Supporting Multiple Screens for more details.
👉
On Tap Outside • (() -> Void)?
A closure that's called whenever the user taps outside the popover.
🎈
On Dismiss • (() -> Void)?
A closure that's called when the popover is dismissed.
🔰
On Context Change • ((Context) -> Void)?
A closure that's called whenever the context changed. The context contains the popover's attributes, current frame, and other visible traits.
Utilities
|
|
|
|
|
|
|---|
Popovers comes with some features to make your life easier.
🧩
Animating Between Popovers
As long as the view structure is the same, you can smoothly transition from one popover to another.
| SwiftUI Use the .popover(selection:tag:attributes:view:) modifier. |
UIKit Get the existing popover using Popovers.popover(tagged:), then call Popovers.replace(_:with:). |
struct ContentView: View {
@State var selection: String?
var body: some View {
HStack {
Button("Present First Popover") { selection = "1" }
.popover(selection: $selection, tag: "1") {
/// Will be presented when selection == "1".
Text("Hi, I'm a popover.")
.background(.blue)
}
Button("Present Second Popover") { selection = "2" }
.popover(selection: $selection, tag: "2") {
/// Will be presented when selection == "2".
Text("Hi, I'm a popover.")
.background(.green)
}
}
}
}
|
@IBAction func button1Pressed(_ sender: Any) {
var newPopover = Popover { Text("Hi, I'm a popover.").background(.blue) }
newPopover.attributes.sourceFrame = { [weak button1] in button1.windowFrame() }
newPopover.attributes.dismissal.excludedFrames = { [weak button2] in [button2.windowFrame()] }
newPopover.attributes.tag = "Popover 1"
if let oldPopover = Popovers.popover(tagged: "Popover 2") {
Popovers.replace(oldPopover, with: newPopover)
} else {
Popovers.present(newPopover) /// Present if the old popover doesn't exist.
}
}
@IBAction func button2Pressed(_ sender: Any) {
var newPopover = Popover { Text("Hi, I'm a popover.").background(.green) }
newPopover.attributes.sourceFrame = { [weak button2] in button2.windowFrame() }
newPopover.attributes.dismissal.excludedFrames = { [weak button1] in [button1.windowFrame()] }
newPopover.attributes.tag = "Popover 2"
if let oldPopover = Popovers.popover(tagged: "Popover 1") {
Popovers.replace(oldPopover, with: newPopover)
} else {
Popovers.present(newPopover)
}
}
|
 |
|---|
🌃
Background
You can put anything in a popover's background.
| SwiftUI Use the .popover(present:attributes:view:background:) modifier. |
UIKit Use the Popover(attributes:view:background:) initializer. |
.popover(present: $present) {
PopoverView()
} background: { /// here!
Color.green.opacity(0.5)
}
|
var popover = Popover {
PopoverView()
} background: { /// here!
Color.green.opacity(0.5)
}
|
📖
Popover Reader
This reads the popover's context, which contains its frame, attributes, and various other properties. It's kind of like GeometryReader, but cooler. You can put it in the popover's view or its background.
.popover(present: $present) {
PopoverView()
} background: {
PopoverReader { context in
Path {
$0.move(to: context.frame.point(at: .bottom))
$0.addLine(to: Popovers.windowBounds.point(at: .bottom))
}
.stroke(Color.blue, lineWidth: 4)
}
}
 |
|---|
🏷
Frame Tags
Popovers provides a mechanism for tagging and reading SwiftUI view frames. You can use this to provide a popover's sourceFrame or excludedFrames. As convenient as it is, don't use it for anything else, due to possible state issues.
Text("This is a view")
.frameTag("Your Tag Name")
/// ...
.popover(
present: $present,
attributes: {
$0.sourceFrame = Popovers.frameTagged("Your Tag Name")
}
)
📄
Templates
Get started quickly with some templates. All of them are inside PopoverTemplates.swift with example usage in the example app.
AlertButtonStyle- a button style resembling a system alert.VisualEffectView- lets you use UIKit blurs in SwiftUI.ContainerShadow- a view modifier that applies a system-like shadow.Container- a wrapper view for theBackgroundWithArrowshape.BackgroundWithArrow- a shape with an arrow that looks like the system popover.CurveConnector- an animatable shape with endpoints that you can set.Menu- the system menu but built from scratch.MenuButton- buttons to put in theMenu.
Notes
State Re-Rendering
If you directly pass a variable down to the popover's view, it might not update. Instead, move the view into its own struct and pass down a Binding.
| Yes The popover's view is in a separate struct, with $string passed down. |
No The button is directly inside the view parameter and receives string. |
struct ContentView: View {
@State var present = false
@State var string = "Hello, I'm a popover."
var body: some View {
Button("Present popover!") { present = true }
.popover(present: $present) {
PopoverView(string: $string) /// Pass down a Binding ($).
}
}
}
/// Create a separate view to ensure that the button updates.
struct PopoverView: View {
@Binding var string: String
var body: some View {
Button(string) { string = "The string changed." }
.background(.mint)
.cornerRadius(16)
}
}
|
struct ContentView: View {
@State var present = false
@State var string = "Hello, I'm a popover."
var body: some View {
Button("Present popover!") {
present = true
}
.popover(present: $present) {
/// Directly passing down the variable (without $) is unsupported.
/// The button might not update.
Button(string) {
string = "The string changed."
}
.background(.mint)
.cornerRadius(16)
}
}
}
|
Supporting Multiple Screens • v1.0.4
Popovers comes with built-in support for multiple screens (represented by UIWindowScene).
Here's a couple things to keep in mind.
- Popovers are tied to window scenes. This way, tapping on one side of the screen won't interfere or dismiss popovers on the other side.
- Set a popover's window scene with
attributes.windowScene. By default, this isUIApplication.shared.keyWindow?.windowScene, which is enough for basic multi-screen support. - Each screen will only show the popovers with the same
windowScene. - If your app has multiple screens enabled (all SwiftUI apps by default), methods like
Popovers.popover(tagged:)require specifying the window scene:
/// Get a currently-presented popover in the window scene.
Popovers.popover(tagged: "Your Tag Name", in: yourWindowScene)
/// Tag a frame (SwiftUI) in the window scene.
Text("Hello").frameTag("Your Frame Tag Name", in: yourWindowScene)
/// Get a tagged frame (SwiftUI) in the window scene.
Popovers.frameTagged("Your Frame Tag Name", in: yourWindowScene)
However, getting a view's window scene in SwiftUI is tricky. My current workaround is embedding a UIViewRepresentable and reading its window scene. This is not completely reliable — if anyone has a better method, please let me know.
/// Help me fix in https://github.com/aheze/Popovers/issues/3
WindowGroup {
ContentView()
.injectWindowScene() /// Make the window scene available to all subviews. Not ideal, but it works (usually).
}
struct ContentView: View {
@EnvironmentObject var windowSceneModel: WindowSceneModel
/// ...
Text("Hello").frameTag("Your Frame Tag Name", in: windowSceneModel.windowScene)
}
Popover Hierarchy
To bring a popover to front, just attach .zIndex(_:). A higher index will bring it forwards.
Popover Not Animating At First?
Make sure the library is set up by calling Popovers.prepare() when your app starts.
import SwiftUI
import Popovers
@main
struct YourApp: App {
@Environment(\.scenePhase) private var scenePhase
var body: some Scene {
WindowGroup {
ContentView()
}
.onChange(of: scenePhase) { _ in
Popovers.prepare() /// Make sure Popovers is ready.
}
}
}
Community
Author
Popovers is made by aheze.
Contributing
All contributions are welcome. Just fork the repo, then make a pull request.
Need Help?
Open an issue or join the Discord server. You can also ping me on Twitter. Or read the source code — there's lots of comments.
License
MIT License
Copyright (c) 2021 A. Zheng
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.
|
| --- |
97 Nov 11, 2022
2 May 3, 2022
48 Dec 9, 2022
487 Dec 2, 2022
1.1k Dec 18, 2022
609 Nov 20, 2022
10 May 7, 2022
491 Nov 20, 2022
2.5k Jan 3, 2023
3.8k Dec 20, 2022
3.3k Dec 31, 2022
11 Jun 6, 2022
4.9k Dec 31, 2022
3.8k Dec 27, 2022
794 Nov 29, 2022
397 Dec 6, 2022