Adding Subview to UICollectionViewCell Subclass? - ios

Question

I seem to be having trouble adding a subview to a view within my UICollectionViewCell subclass.
I have an abstract UICollectionViewCell subclass titled MessageItem, which looks like this:
I've created a few classes that inherit from this (since they all use the same logic for the header and footer). However I can't seem to add any subviews into MessageItem's blue view from within the child subclasses.
For example one of the child views is called TextItem. I'm trying to add a label to it's parent messageView (the blue view) but it only works if I do it in my UIViewController's cellForItemAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath method, and not in my custom subclass.
This is how I'm trying to add it in my child subclass:
- (instancetype)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame {
self = [super initWithFrame:frame];
if (self) {
//Setup Message Label
[self setupMessageLabel];
}
return self;
}
#pragma mark - Setup Methods
- (void)setupMessageLabel {
NSLog(#"Setting up label");
//Setup Message Label
self.messageLabel = [TTTAttributedLabel new];
self.messageLabel.verticalAlignment = TTTAttributedLabelVerticalAlignmentCenter;
self.messageLabel.textInsets = UIEdgeInsetsMake(8, 8, 8, 8);
self.messageLabel.numberOfLines = 0;
[self.messageContentView addSubview:self.messageLabel];
[self.messageContentView autoPinEdgesToSuperviewEdges];
//Update Label Color
self.messageLabel.backgroundColor = FlatRed;
}
Note: I'm not using storyboard or xibs. Could that be the problem?
Update
This is what my MessageItem class is implemented:
MessageItem.h
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#class Message;
#interface MessageItem : UICollectionViewCell
#property (nonatomic, strong) Message *message;
#property (nonatomic, strong) UIView *messageContentView;
#end
MessageItem.m
#interface MessageItem ()
#property (nonatomic, strong) TTTAttributedLabel *headerLabel;
#property (nonatomic, strong) TTTAttributedLabel *footerLabel;
#end
#implementation MessageItem
#synthesize message = _message;
- (instancetype)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame {
self = [super initWithFrame:frame];
if (self) {
//Setup Main View
[self setupMainView];
}
return self;
}
#pragma mark - Setup Methods
- (void)setupMainView {
//Setup Header
[self setupHeaderLabel];
//Setup Message
[self setupMessageView];
//Setup Footer View
[self setupFooterLabel];
}
- (void)setupHeaderLabel {
//Setup Header Label
self.headerLabel = [[TTTAttributedLabel alloc] initForAutoLayout];
self.headerLabel.font = [UIFont fontWithName:#"Lato-Bold" size:12.0];
self.headerLabel.textColor = FlatGray;
self.headerLabel.textAlignment = NSTextAlignmentCenter;
self.headerLabel.verticalAlignment = TTTAttributedLabelVerticalAlignmentCenter;
self.headerLabel.textInsets = UIEdgeInsetsMake(0, 8, 0, 8);
self.headerLabel.backgroundColor = FlatPurple;
[self.contentView addSubview:self.headerLabel];
[self.headerLabel autoSetDimension:ALDimensionHeight toSize:20.0];
[self.headerLabel autoPinEdgesToSuperviewEdgesWithInsets:UIEdgeInsetsZero excludingEdge:ALEdgeBottom];
}
- (void)setupMessageView {
//Setup Message View
self.messageContentView = [UIView new];
self.messageContentView.backgroundColor = [UIColor blueColor];
[self.contentView addSubview:self.messageContentView];
[self.messageContentView autoSetDimension:ALDimensionHeight toSize:30 relation:NSLayoutRelationGreaterThanOrEqual];
[self.messageContentView autoPinEdgeToSuperviewEdge:ALEdgeLeading];
[self.messageContentView autoPinEdgeToSuperviewEdge:ALEdgeTrailing];
[self.messageContentView autoPinEdge:ALEdgeTop toEdge:ALEdgeBottom ofView:self.headerLabel];
}
- (void)setupFooterLabel {
//Setup Footer Label
self.footerLabel = [[TTTAttributedLabel alloc] initForAutoLayout];
self.footerLabel.font = [UIFont fontWithName:#"Lato-Bold" size:10.0];
self.footerLabel.textColor = FlatGray;
self.footerLabel.backgroundColor = FlatGreen;
self.footerLabel.textAlignment = NSTextAlignmentLeft;
self.footerLabel.textInsets = UIEdgeInsetsMake(0, 8, 0, 8);
[self.contentView addSubview:self.footerLabel];
[self.footerLabel autoSetDimension:ALDimensionHeight toSize:10.0];
[self.footerLabel autoPinEdgeToSuperviewEdge:ALEdgeLeading];
[self.footerLabel autoPinEdgeToSuperviewEdge:ALEdgeTrailing];
[self.footerLabel autoPinEdgeToSuperviewEdge:ALEdgeBottom];
[self.footerLabel autoPinEdge:ALEdgeTop toEdge:ALEdgeBottom ofView:self.messageContentView];
}
TextItem.m
- (instancetype)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame {
self = [super initWithFrame:frame];
if (self) {
//Setup Message Label
[self setupMessageLabel];
}
return self;
}
#pragma mark - Setup Methods
- (void)setupMessageLabel {
//Setup Message Label
self.messageLabel = [[TTTAttributedLabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 320, 100)];
self.messageLabel.verticalAlignment = TTTAttributedLabelVerticalAlignmentCenter;
self.messageLabel.textInsets = UIEdgeInsetsMake(8, 8, 8, 8);
self.messageLabel.numberOfLines = 0;
[self.messageContentView addSubview:self.messageLabel];
//Update Label Color
self.messageLabel.backgroundColor = FlatRed;
}
#pragma mark - Setter Methods
- (void)setMessageText:(NSString *)text {
//Incoming Text Message
NSMutableAttributedString *textString = [[NSMutableAttributedString alloc] initWithString:text];
[textString addAttribute:NSForegroundColorAttributeName value:[UIColor darkGrayColor] range:NSMakeRange(0, textString.length)];
[textString addAttribute:NSFontAttributeName value:[UIFont systemFontOfSize:16 weight:UIFontWeightLight] range:NSMakeRange(0, textString.length)];
//Set Paragraph Style
NSMutableParagraphStyle *paragraphStyle = [NSMutableParagraphStyle new];
paragraphStyle.minimumLineHeight = 20;
paragraphStyle.maximumLineHeight = 20;
[textString addAttribute:NSParagraphStyleAttributeName value:paragraphStyle range:NSMakeRange(0, textString.length)];
//Update Message Label
[self.messageLabel setText:textString];
NSLog(#"Set Message Label Text");
}
- (void)setMessage:(Message *)message {
//Super
[super setMessage:message];
//Update Message Text
[self setMessageText:message.text];
}
This is what my collectionView looks like:
I would at least expect the color of the messageLabel to reflect the change in TextItem, but it doesn't.

Answer 1

Have you implement initWithCoder?
- (id)initWithCoder:(NSCoder*)aDecoder
{
if(self = [super initWithCoder:aDecoder]) {
// Do something
}
return self;
}
I don't have all your code, but you code looks good to me. Maybe the problem was how you init the TextItem.
Here is a demo using your code, it works fine to me. https://www.dropbox.com/s/7qp9ayqnyacf57j/CustomCellView.zip?dl=0