ios - How does Xcode load the main storyboard?

Question

When I create a new single view application in Xcode 4.6 using storyboard, we can see that the main function creates a new application using the application delegate like this:

return UIApplicationMain(argc, argv, nil, NSStringFromClass([MyAppDelegate class]));

However if we look at MyAppDelegate.h and MyAppDelegate.m, there is nowhere in the code that references MainStoryboard.storyboard. This differs from a non-storyboard version where we can find the line of code that loads the nib file programmatically.

So my question is, how does the storyboard get loaded? (where should I poke to find it?)

Answer 1

Look at your Target settings for the Project

Notice the Main Storyboard setting.

If you wanted to do this in code yourself, you would do something like.

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions
{

   UIStoryboard *storyboard = [UIStoryboard storyboardWithName:@"MainStoryboard" bundle:[NSBundle mainBundle]];
   UIViewController *vc = [storyboard instantiateInitialViewController];

   // Set root view controller and make windows visible
   self.window.rootViewController = vc;
   [self.window makeKeyAndVisible];

   return YES;
}