Need help setting UISwitch in custom cell (XIB, Swift 4, Xcode 9) - ios

Question

Successes so far: I have a remote data source. Data gets pulled dynamically into a View Controller. The data is used to name a .title and .subtitle on each of the reusable custom cells. Also, each custom cell has a UISwitch, which I have been able to get functional for sending out both a “subscribe” signal for push notifications (for a given group identified by the cell’s title/subtitle) and an “unsubscribe” signal as well.
My one remaining issue: Whenever the user "revisits" the settings VC, while my code is "resetting" the UISwitches, it causes the following warnings in Xcode 9.2:
UISwitch.on must be used from main thread
UISwitch.setOn(_:animated:) must be used from main thread only
-[UISwitch setOn:animated:notifyingVisualElement:] must be used from main thread
The code below "works" -- however the desired result happens rather slowly (the UISwitches that are indeed supposed to be "on" take a good while to finally flip to "on").
More details:
What is needed: Whenever the VC is either shown or "re-shown," I need to "reset" the custom cell’s UISwitch to "on" if the user is subscribed to the given group, and to "off" if the user is not subscribed. Ideally, each time the VC is displayed, something should reach out and touch the OneSignal server and find out that user’s “subscribe state” for each group, using the OneSignal.getTags() function. I have that part working. This code is in the VC. But I need to do it the right way, to suit proper protocols regarding threading.
VC file, “ViewController_13_Settings.swift” holds a Table View with the reusable custom cell.
Table View file is named "CustomTableViewCell.swift"
The custom cell is called "customCell" (I know, my names are all really creative).
The custom cell (designed in XIB) has only three items inside it:
Title – A displayed “friendly name” of a “group” to be subscribed to or unsubscribed from. Set from the remote data source
Subtitle – A hidden “database name” of the aforementioned group. Hidden from the user. Set from the remote data source.
UISwitch - named "switchMinistryGroupList"
How do I properly set the UISwitch programmatically?
Here is the code in ViewController_13_Settings.swift that seems pertinent:
public func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: "customCell", for: indexPath) as! CustomTableViewCell
// set cell's title and subtitle
cell.textLabelMinistryGroupList?.text = MinistryGroupArray[indexPath.row]
cell.textHiddenUserTagName?.text = OneSignalUserTagArray[indexPath.row]
// set the custom cell's UISwitch.
OneSignal.getTags({ tags in
print("tags - \(tags!)")
self.OneSignalUserTags = String(describing: tags)
print("OneSignalUserTags, from within the OneSignal func, = \(self.OneSignalUserTags)")
if self.OneSignalUserTags.range(of: cell.textHiddenUserTagName.text!) != nil {
print("The \(cell.textHiddenUserTagName.text!) UserTag exists for this device.")
cell.switchMinistryGroupList.isOn = true
} else {
cell.switchMinistryGroupList.isOn = false
}
}, onFailure: { error in
print("Error getting tags - \(String(describing: error?.localizedDescription))")
// errorWithDomain - OneSignalError
// code - HTTP error code from the OneSignal server
// userInfo - JSON OneSignal responded with
})
viewWillAppear(true)
return cell
}
}
In the above portion of the VC code, this part (below) is what is functioning but apparently not in a way the uses threading properly:
if OneSignalUserTags.range(of: cell.textHiddenUserTagName.text!) != nil {
print("The \(cell.textHiddenUserTagName.text!) UserTag exists for this device.")
cell.switchMinistryGroupList.isOn = true
} else {
cell.switchMinistryGroupList.isOn = false
}

Answer 1

It's not entirely clear what your code is doing, but there seems to be a few things that need sorting out, that will help you solve your problem.
1) Improve the naming of your objects. This helps others see what's going on when asking questions.
Don't call your cell CustomTableViewCell - call it, say, MinistryCell or something that represents the data its displaying. Rather than textLabelMinistryGroupList and textHiddenUserTagName tree ministryGroup and userTagName etc.
2) Let the cell populate itself. Make your IBOutlets in your cell private so you can't assign to them directly in your view controller. This is a bad habit!
3) Create an object (Ministry, say) that corresponds to the data you're assigning to the cell. Assign this to the cell and let the cell assign to its Outlets.
4) Never call viewWillAppear, or anything like it! These are called by the system.
You'll end up with something like this:
In your view controller
struct Ministry {
let group: String
let userTag: String
var tagExists: Bool?
}
You should create an array var ministries: [Ministry] and populate it at the start, rather than dealing with MinistryGroupArray and OneSignalUserTagArray separately.
In your cell
class MinistryCell: UITableViewCell {
#IBOutlet private weak var ministryGroup: UILabel!
#IBOutlet private weak var userTagName: UILabel!
#IBOutlet private weak var switch: UISwitch!
var ministry: Ministry? {
didSet {
ministryGroup.text = ministry?.group
userTagName.text = ministry?.userTag
if let tagExists = ministry?.tagExists {
switch.isEnabled = false
switch.isOn = tagExists
} else {
// We don't know the current state - disable the switch?
switch.isEnabled = false
}
}
}
}
Then you dataSource method will look like…
public func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: "customCell", for: indexPath) as! MinistryCell
let ministry = ministries[indexPath.row]
cell.ministry = ministry
if ministry.tagExists == nil {
OneSignal.getTags { tags in
// Success - so update the corresponding ministry.tagExists
// then reload the cell at this indexPath
}, onFailure: { error in
print("Error")
})
}
return cell
}