How to distinguish 3 objects in a custom cells - ios

Question

I am making an iPhone app.
In this application I have to make a look like below.
I am not allowed to use collection view.
I am using tableview, and custom cells. Which I am easily able to incorporate. Means taking 3 subviews in Custom cells. And making a look.
Here the problem is In a cell, how do I distinguish each object. so that I can call each object, to set an image on image view.
Is there any Object oriented mechanism to distinguish all 3 objects in a cell ?

Answer 1

Try to get the data as NSArray of NSDictionary containing an array of 3 objects that you want to display on cell.
Assign tag to UImageView in the custom cell.
In cellForRowAtIndexPath, get the 3 objects and apply image using switch case.
Well everything depends on how you get the data from the server

Answer 2

You can use outlet collections which will give you an array of UIImageView and you can assign different tags to the imageview so you can assign to them.
You can use these guides to understand how outlet collections works:
http://nshipster.com/ibaction-iboutlet-iboutletcollection/
http://useyourloaf.com/blog/interface-builder-outlet-collections/

Answer 3

All the standard procedures should work to achieve this but then it only depends on how nice you want to do this.
The straight forward procedure is to expose the outlets of the image views and labels in the cell and assign the correct values to those when dequeuing/creating table view cell.
The first upgrade would be to rather expose 3 setters on the cell to simply set your model to each of them which will then internally set the images and texts inside the cell.
The next thing you may do is to rather insert an array of objects (always sending up to 3 in your case) instead of having 3 setters.
At this point you may actually rather use a collection view INSIDE the cell and make the cell a data source for the collection view. But this is totally optional.
Now since you may still dislike the table view data source you may create another model which contains an array of objects (again up to 3 in your case) and make a system that will distribute your original array of objects into the array of these containers.
If then you need to handle buttons or other touch events they may be handled with collection view delegate or 3 buttons and in both cases I advise you to handle those in the cell and create a custom delegate for the cell which will report the event with the appropriate model.
This together generates the following:
When you receive the data call a container class to distribute your array of objects (into groups of 3) and assign it to your table view data source (view controller usually)
Number of rows is the same as number of containers in the array
Cell for row assigns the container with row index to the cell. It assigns self as a delegate
Cell internally handles the object distribution either via collection view, separated outlets or outlet collections.
Cell handles actions and reports them back to the delegate (- (void)myCell:(MyCell *)cell selectedItem:(MyObject *)item;)
The cell delegate can again handle what to do upon reported actions
Also if you want to avoid a collection view inside the cell you can create a custom view using xib so you do not copy the labels, image views and such. Then simply create 3 of these custom views inside the cell. Also by using inspectable and designable these views will be visible inside the storyboard.

Answer 4

First I'll say that a restriction against using UICollectionView is silly. Are you still targeting ios5?
I'd look at it like this.
make your own view class for the 'subcell' let's use this term for any single instance of the 3 views per cell. I'd subclass UIImageView, adding the label for the name down the bottom and a 'setSelected:' kind of method to highlight when selected via user interaction by drawing differently.
make a UITableViewCell subclass to host and layout up to three of these subcells. I say up to 3 because the last cell may contain 1 or 2 subcells and not 3 if the total people to represent is not divisible by three.
Selection Logic: You'll need to override 'setSelected:' because you want to deselect and select only subcells, you don't want the whole cell to highlight on selection, only a third of it.
You'll also want to implement touchesEnded: in this cell so that you can figure out which of the three subcells was last touched, and you'll need to be able to query or communicate this back to the controller, probably using delegation. If the cell can communicate back whether selection was in subcell 0,1 or 2 then this together with the UITableViewDelegate didSelectAtIndexPath should map to your model nicely - selectedPerson = myArrayOfPeople[ (indexPath.row * 3) + subcellIndex ]
You'll be able to decorate your cells in cellForRowAtIndexPath: in similar fashion..
personOne = model.arrayOfPeople[indexPath.row*3]
personTwo = model.arrayOfPeople[indexPath.row*3 +1 ]
personThree = model.arrayOfPeople[indexPath.row*3 + 2 ]