[ios] Send and receive messages through NSNotificationCenter in Objective-C?

I am attempting to send and receive messages through NSNotificationCenter in Objective-C. However, I haven't been able to find any examples on how to do this. How do you send and receive messages through NSNotificationCenter?

if you're using NSNotificationCenter for updating your view, don't forget to send it from the main thread by calling dispatch_async:

dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(),^{
    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] postNotificationName:@"my_notification" object:nil];
});

To expand upon dreamlax's example... If you want to send data along with the notification

In posting code:

NSDictionary *userInfo = 
[NSDictionary dictionaryWithObject:myObject forKey:@"someKey"];
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] postNotificationName: 
                       @"TestNotification" object:nil userInfo:userInfo];

In observing code:

- (void) receiveTestNotification:(NSNotification *) notification {

    NSDictionary *userInfo = notification.userInfo;
    MyObject *myObject = [userInfo objectForKey:@"someKey"];
}

SWIFT 5.1 of selected answer for newbies

class TestClass {
    deinit {
        // If you don't remove yourself as an observer, the Notification Center
        // will continue to try and send notification objects to the deallocated
        // object.
        NotificationCenter.default.removeObserver(self)
    }

    init() {
        super.init()

        // Add this instance of TestClass as an observer of the TestNotification.
        // We tell the notification center to inform us of "TestNotification"
        // notifications using the receiveTestNotification: selector. By
        // specifying object:nil, we tell the notification center that we are not
        // interested in who posted the notification. If you provided an actual
        // object rather than nil, the notification center will only notify you
        // when the notification was posted by that particular object.

        NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(self, selector: #selector(receiveTest(_:)), name: NSNotification.Name("TestNotification"), object: nil)
    }

    @objc func receiveTest(_ notification: Notification?) {
        // [notification name] should always be @"TestNotification"
        // unless you use this method for observation of other notifications
        // as well.

        if notification?.name.isEqual(toString: "TestNotification") != nil {
            print("Successfully received the test notification!")
        }
    }
}

... somewhere else in another class ...

 func someMethod(){
        // All instances of TestClass will be notified
        NotificationCenter.default.post(name: NSNotification.Name(rawValue: "TestNotification"), object: self)
 }

There is also the possibility of using blocks:

NSOperationQueue *mainQueue = [NSOperationQueue mainQueue];
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] 
     addObserverForName:@"notificationName" 
     object:nil
     queue:mainQueue
     usingBlock:^(NSNotification *notification)
     {
          NSLog(@"Notification received!");
          NSDictionary *userInfo = notification.userInfo;

          // ...
     }];

Apple's documentation

This one helped me:

// Add an observer that will respond to loginComplete
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self 
                                             selector:@selector(showMainMenu:) 
                                                 name:@"loginComplete" object:nil];


// Post a notification to loginComplete
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] postNotificationName:@"loginComplete" object:nil];


// the function specified in the same class where we defined the addObserver
- (void)showMainMenu:(NSNotification *)note {
    NSLog(@"Received Notification - Someone seems to have logged in"); 
}

Source: http://www.smipple.net/snippet/Sounden/Simple%20NSNotificationCenter%20example