Programmatically Creating TableViewControllers inside TabBarController will not render labels - ios

Question

I want to programmatically create a tabBarView with two tableViewControllers
In my AppDelegate.swift file I added the following at the top:
#UIApplicationMain
class AppDelegate: UIResponder, UIApplicationDelegate {
var window: UIWindow?
func application(_ application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplication.LaunchOptionsKey: Any]?) -> Bool {
// Override point for customization after application launch.
window = UIWindow(frame: UIScreen.main.bounds)
window?.makeKeyAndVisible()
let mainVC = MainTabBarController()
window?.rootViewController = mainVC
return true
}
I have my MainTabBarController.swift file with the following:
import Foundation
import UIKit
class MainTabBarController : UITabBarController {
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
setUpTabBar()
}
func setUpTabBar() {
let firstTableViewController = UINavigationController(rootViewController: FirstTableViewController())
firstTableViewController.tabBarItem.image = UIImage(named: "first")
firstViewController.tabBarItem.selectedImage = UIImage(named: "first-selected")
let secondViewController = UINavigationController(rootViewController: SecondTableViewController())
SecondTableViewController.tabBarItem.image = UIImage(named: "second")
SecondTableViewController.tabBarItem.selectedImage = UIImage(named: "second-selected")
viewControllers = [firstViewController, SecondViewController]
guard let items = tabBar.items else { return }
for item in items {
item.imageInsets = UIEdgeInsets(top: 4, left: 0, bottom: -4, right: 0)
}
}
}
I have my FirstTableViewController.swift with the following:
import Foundation
import UIKit
class FirstTableViewController : UITableViewController {
let reuseIdentifier = "firstId"
override func viewDidLoad() {
setUpNavigationBar()
setUpTableView()
}
private func setUpTableView() {
self.tableView.register(FirstTableViewCell.self, forCellReuseIdentifier: reuseIdentifier)
}
func setUpNavigationBar() {
navigationItem.title = "First"
navigationController?.navigationBar.titleTextAttributes = [NSAttributedString.Key.foregroundColor: UIColor.darkGray, NSAttributedString.Key.font: UIFont.boldSystemFont(ofSize: 20)]
}
override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: reuseIdentifier, for: indexPath) as! FirstTableViewCell
return cell
}
override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
return 7
}
override func numberOfSections(in tableView: UITableView) -> Int {
return 1
}
}
Here is FirstTableViewCell.swift:
import Foundation
import UIKit
class FirstTableViewCell: UITableViewCell {
override init(style: UITableViewCell.CellStyle, reuseIdentifier: String?) {
super.init(style: style, reuseIdentifier: reuseIdentifier)
setUp()
}
required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
fatalError("init(coder:) has not been implemented")
}
let cellView: UIView = {
let view = UIView()
view.backgroundColor = UIColor.white
view.setCellShadow()
return view
}()
let firstItemLabel: UILabel = {
let label = UILabel()
label.text = "Name"
label.textColor = .black
label.font = UIFont.boldSystemFont(ofSize: 16)
return label
}()
func setUp() {
addSubview(cellView)
cellView.addSubview(firstItemLabel)
}
}
With this current view of FirsTableView, all I see is an empty tableView with no data populated even though I should be seeing "Name" inside every cell: https://imgur.com/a/Ecenn3O.
So I tried something different with SecondTableViewController.swift:
import Foundation
import UIKit
class SecondTableViewController : UIViewController, UITableViewDelegate, UITableViewDataSource {
let reUseIdentifier: String = "secondId"
let tableView : UITableView = {
let tb = UITableView()
tb.separatorStyle = .none
tb.allowsSelection = false
return tb
}()
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
setUpNavigationBar()
setUpTableView()
}
func setUpNavigationBar() {
navigationItem.title = "Second"
navigationController?.navigationBar.titleTextAttributes = [NSAttributedString.Key.foregroundColor: UIColor.darkGray, NSAttributedString.Key.font: UIFont.boldSystemFont(ofSize: 20)]
}
func setUpTableView() {
tableView.delegate = self
tableView.dataSource = self
tableView.register(SecondTableViewCell.self, forCellReuseIdentifier: reUseIdentifier)
view.addSubview(tableView)
}
func numberOfSections(in tableView: UITableView) -> Int {
return 1
}
func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
return 7
}
func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: reUseIdentifier, for: indexPath) as! SecondTableViewCell
return cell
}
}
Where SecondTableViewCell.swift is very similar to FirstTableViewCell.swift:
import UIKit
class SecondTableViewCell: UITableViewCell {
let cellView: UIView = {
let view = UIView()
view.backgroundColor = UIColor.white
return view
}()
override init(style: UITableViewCell.CellStyle, reuseIdentifier: String?) {
super.init(style: style, reuseIdentifier: reuseIdentifier)
setUp()
}
required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
fatalError("init(coder:) has not been implemented")
}
func setUp() {
addSubview(cellView)
cellView.addSubview(secondTableViewCellLabel)
}
let secondTableViewCellLabel: UILabel = {
let label = UILabel()
label.text = "Name"
label.textColor = .darkGray
label.font = UIFont.boldSystemFont(ofSize: 16)
return label
}()
}
This renders nothing but a black screen with the tab name up above: https://imgur.com/veTNln6.
I'm new to creating views programmatically and I have no idea what else needs to be done to have the tabBar display both tableViews as intended.
I followed these two videos as a reference:
UITabBar programmatically
UITableView programmatically
Any help would be greatly appreciated.