tableHeaderView - layoutSubviews and initWithFrame - ios

Question

I have a custom UITableViewHeaderFooterView class and an xib for it. There is a label in this xib which is connected to the custom class using an outlet. This custom class is being used as the tableHeaderView for a table view in a view controller.
I am able to show the header view with required dimensions but the label in the header is not showing any value.
In view controller's viewDidLoad.
- (void)viewDidLoad {
..
DashboardHeaderView* headerView = [[DashboardHeaderView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 320, 180) headerText:#"XYX"];
self.alertsTableView.tableHeaderView = headerView;
}
In DashboardHeaderView which is a subclass of UITableViewHeaderFooterView.
- (id)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame headerText:(NSString *)headerText {
if (self = [super initWithFrame:frame]) {
self.headerText = headerText;
NSArray* objects = [[NSBundle mainBundle] loadNibNamed:#"DashboardHeaderView"
owner:self
options:nil];
UIView *nibView = [objects firstObject];
UIView *contentView = self.contentView;
contentView.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
CGSize contentViewSize = contentView.frame.size;
nibView.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, contentViewSize.width, contentViewSize.height);
[contentView addSubview:nibView];
}
return self;
}
- (void)layoutSubviews {
[super layoutSubviews];
self.headerLabel.text = self.headerText;
}
If I put some log messages in initWithFrame:headerText: and layoutSubviews, I can see that the self of both is pointing to different addresses and hence in layoutSubviews, self.headerText is always nil.
layoutSubviews
<DashboardHeaderView: 0x7ff862cf1a90; baseClass = UITableViewHeaderFooterView; frame = (0 0; 320 180); text = ''; opaque = NO; autoresize = W+H; layer = <CALayer: 0x7ff861634e30>>
initWithFrame
<DashboardHeaderView: 0x7ff862cf05e0; baseClass = UITableViewHeaderFooterView; frame = (0 0; 320 180); text = ''; layer = <CALayer: 0x7ff8616d13f0>>
layoutSubviews
<DashboardHeaderView: 0x7ff862cf1a90; baseClass = UITableViewHeaderFooterView; frame = (0 0; 290 180); text = ''; opaque = NO; autoresize = W+H; layer = <CALayer: 0x7ff861634e30>>
layoutSubviews
<DashboardHeaderView: 0x7ff862cf05e0; baseClass = UITableViewHeaderFooterView; frame = (0 0; 290 180); text = ''; layer = <CALayer: 0x7ff8616d13f0>>
layoutSubviews
<DashboardHeaderView: 0x7ff862cf05e0; baseClass = UITableViewHeaderFooterView; frame = (0 0; 290 180); text = ''; layer = <CALayer: 0x7ff8616d13f0>>
layoutSubviews
<DashboardHeaderView: 0x7ff862cf1a90; baseClass = UITableViewHeaderFooterView; frame = (0 0; 345 180); text = ''; opaque = NO; autoresize = W+H; layer = <CALayer: 0x7ff861634e30>>
layoutSubviews
<DashboardHeaderView: 0x7ff862cf05e0; baseClass = UITableViewHeaderFooterView; frame = (0 0; 345 180); text = ''; layer = <CALayer: 0x7ff8616d13f0>>
layoutSubviews
<DashboardHeaderView: 0x7ff862cf1a90; baseClass = UITableViewHeaderFooterView; frame = (0 0; 345 180); text = ''; opaque = NO; autoresize = W+H; layer = <CALayer: 0x7ff861634e30>>
layoutSubviews
<DashboardHeaderView: 0x7ff862cf05e0; baseClass = UITableViewHeaderFooterView; frame = (0 0; 345 180); text = ''; layer = <CALayer: 0x7ff8616d13f0>>
If you look at above logs, why do we have two different addresses - 0x7ff862cf1a90 and 0x7ff862cf05e0.

Answer 1

UIView Class Reference says:
layoutSubviews - Implement this method if you need more precise
control over the layout of your subviews than either the constraint or
autoresizing behaviors provide.
You are setting a value of an UILabel inside the layoutSubviews method, that is intended only for resizing operations.
I suggest you to move the self.headerLabel.text = self.headerText instruction into the initWithFrame:headerText: method and perform other operations like resizing or changing constraints into the layoutSubviews method.
In this way it works fine!