How to get Cell title from external data source for UICollectionView - ios

Question

I currently have a view where I display a collectionView with some categories. I followed this post to get my collectionView to properly load display data. I got that working just fine.
My issue is that now I need to be able to get the text from whichever cell the user selects to use within my search bar.
My current code:
class SearchViewController: ButtonBarPagerTabStripViewController, UISearchBarDelegate{
let headerId = "sectionHeader"
let categoriesId = "categoriesId"
lazy var searchBar: UISearchBar = {
let sb = UISearchBar()
sb.placeholder = "Search businesses or coupons"
sb.barTintColor = .gray
UITextField.appearance(whenContainedInInstancesOf: [UISearchBar.self]).backgroundColor = UIColor.mainWhite()
sb.delegate = self
return sb
}()
lazy var searchCategriesView: UICollectionView = {
let layout = UICollectionViewFlowLayout()
layout.headerReferenceSize = CGSize(width: view.frame.width, height: 75)
layout.itemSize = CGSize(width: view.frame.width, height: 50)
layout.minimumInteritemSpacing = 1
layout.minimumLineSpacing = 1
layout.scrollDirection = .vertical
let cv = UICollectionView(frame: .zero, collectionViewLayout: layout)
cv.backgroundColor = UIColor.mainWhite()
cv.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
return cv
}()
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
view.backgroundColor = .white
categoriesDataSource = SearchCategories()
searchCategriesView.dataSource = categoriesDataSource
searchCategriesView.register(SearchCategoriesCell.self, forCellWithReuseIdentifier: categoriesId)
searchCategriesView.register(SectionHeaderView.self, forSupplementaryViewOfKind: UICollectionElementKindSectionHeader, withReuseIdentifier: headerId)
}
//EXCLUDED VIEW SETUP CODE FOR BREVITY
}
And as per the link mentioned above, I set up my data source in another file like this:
class SearchCategories: NSObject {
let categories = ["Apparel & Clothing", "Arts & Crafts", "Automotive",
"Baby", "Bars & Lounges", "Beauty", "Books",
"Entertainment",
"Family & Children", "Furniture",
"Grocery",
"Health", "Home & Garden", "Home improvement",
"Pets", "Pizza",
"Restaurants",
"Sporting Goods"]
let headerId = "sectionHeader"
let categoriesId = "categoriesId"
override init() {
}
}
extension SearchCategories: UICollectionViewDataSource {
func collectionView(_ collectionView: UICollectionView, numberOfItemsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
return categories.count
}
func collectionView(_ collectionView: UICollectionView, cellForItemAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UICollectionViewCell {
let cell = collectionView.dequeueReusableCell(withReuseIdentifier: categoriesId, for: indexPath) as! SearchCategoriesCell
cell.label.text = categories[indexPath.item]
return cell
}
func collectionView(_ collectionView: UICollectionView, viewForSupplementaryElementOfKind kind: String, at indexPath: IndexPath) -> UICollectionReusableView {
let sectionHeaderView = collectionView.dequeueReusableSupplementaryView(ofKind: kind, withReuseIdentifier: headerId, for: indexPath) as! SectionHeaderView
if indexPath.section == 0 {
sectionHeaderView.categoryTitleLabel.text = "Search Categories"
}
return sectionHeaderView
}
func collectionView(_ collectionView: UICollectionView, didSelectItemAt indexPath: IndexPath) {
let cell = collectionView.dequeueReusableCell(withReuseIdentifier: categoriesId, for: indexPath) as! SearchCategoriesCell
//NEED TO PASS THIS DATA BACK TO SEARCHVIEWCONTROLLER
}
}
How do I now get the cell text back in the SearchViewController whenever a user clicks on a collectionView cell?

Answer 1

Suppose you will hold the text in this function inside SearchViewController
func send(_ res:String){
print(res)
}
1- Add a var inside
class SearchCategories: NSObject {
weak var delegate:SearchViewController?
2- Set the delegate
categoriesDataSource = SearchCategories()
categoriesDataSource.delegate = self
3- Send the clicked text
func collectionView(_ collectionView: UICollectionView, didSelectItemAt indexPath: IndexPath) {
let sendedText = categories[indexPath.item]
delegate?.send(sendedText)
}
Edit: You need to add
searchCategriesView.delegate = categoriesDataSource
in viewDidLoad also you can do
searchCategriesView.delegate = self
and implement the didSelectItemAt inside SearchViewController