Vertical offset on a UICollectionView column - ios

Question

Image on right is what I try to achieve
Does anyone know how I could achieve this on a two column UICollectionView ?
I'm able to discern my columns by testing if (indexPath.row % 2 = 0) but I can't manage to achieve this result.
Is their a simple way to do so ? Or would I need a custom UICollectionViewFlowLayout ?
Note : All my cells are the same size.

Answer 1

Yes, you need to create a custom UICollectionViewLayout and that's simple to achieve. All you need is the following:
prepare(): Perform the up-front calculations needed to provide layout information
collectionViewContentSize: Return the overall size of the entire content area based on your initial calculations
layoutAttributesForElements(in:): Return the attributes for cells and views that are in the specified rectangle
Now that we have cells of the same size it's pretty easy to achieve.
Let's declare few variables to use:
// Adjust this as you need
fileprivate var offset: CGFloat = 50
// Properties for configuring the layout: the number of columns and the cell padding.
fileprivate var numberOfColumns = 2
fileprivate var cellPadding: CGFloat = 10
// Cache the calculated attributes. When you call prepare(), you’ll calculate the attributes for all items and add them to the cache. You can be efficient and
fileprivate var cache = [UICollectionViewLayoutAttributes]()
// Properties to store the content size.
fileprivate var contentHeight: CGFloat = 0
fileprivate var contentWidth: CGFloat {
guard let collectionView = collectionView else {
return 0
}
let insets = collectionView.contentInset
return collectionView.bounds.width - (insets.left + insets.right)
}
Next let's override the prepare() method
override func prepare() {
// If cache is empty and the collection view exists – calculate the layout attributes
guard cache.isEmpty == true, let collectionView = collectionView else {
return
}
// xOffset: array with the x-coordinate for every column based on the column widths
// yOffset: array with the y-position for every column, Using odd-even logic to push the even cell upwards and odd cells down.
let columnWidth = contentWidth / CGFloat(numberOfColumns)
var xOffset = [CGFloat]()
for column in 0 ..< numberOfColumns {
xOffset.append(CGFloat(column) * columnWidth)
}
var column = 0
var yOffset = [CGFloat]()
for i in 0..<numberOfColumns {
yOffset.append((i % 2 == 0) ? 0 : offset)
}
for item in 0 ..< collectionView.numberOfItems(inSection: 0) {
let indexPath = IndexPath(item: item, section: 0)
// Calculate insetFrame that can be set to the attribute
let cellHeight = columnWidth - (cellPadding * 2)
let height = cellPadding * 2 + cellHeight
let frame = CGRect(x: xOffset[column], y: yOffset[column], width: columnWidth, height: height)
let insetFrame = frame.insetBy(dx: cellPadding, dy: cellPadding)
// Create an instance of UICollectionViewLayoutAttribute, sets its frame using insetFrame and appends the attributes to cache.
let attributes = UICollectionViewLayoutAttributes(forCellWith: indexPath)
attributes.frame = insetFrame
cache.append(attributes)
// Update the contentHeight to account for the frame of the newly calculated item. It then advances the yOffset for the current column based on the frame
contentHeight = max(contentHeight, frame.maxY)
yOffset[column] = yOffset[column] + height
column = column < (numberOfColumns - 1) ? (column + 1) : 0
}
}
Last we need collectionViewContentSize and layoutAttributesForElements(in:)
// Using contentWidth and contentHeight from previous steps, calculate collectionViewContentSize.
override var collectionViewContentSize: CGSize {
return CGSize(width: contentWidth, height: contentHeight)
}
override func layoutAttributesForElements(in rect: CGRect) -> [UICollectionViewLayoutAttributes]? {
var visibleLayoutAttributes = [UICollectionViewLayoutAttributes]()
for attributes in cache {
if attributes.frame.intersects(rect) {
visibleLayoutAttributes.append(attributes)
}
}
return visibleLayoutAttributes
}
override func layoutAttributesForItem(at indexPath: IndexPath) -> UICollectionViewLayoutAttributes? {
return cache[indexPath.item]
}
You can find gist with the class.
This is how it appears:
Note: It is just a demo, you may have to tweak it according to your needs.
Hope It Helps!