Sending text from searchbar to superview - ios

Question

I have a tableviewcontroller and a custom headerview (uiview)
Headerview interface
#interface HMDiscoveryHeaderView : UIView <UISearchBarDelegate>
#property (nonatomic, strong) UISearchBar *searchBar;
#end
the searchbar is initialized in the layoutSubviews method
- (void)layoutSubviews {
self.searchBar = [[UISearchBar alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(20, 20, 250, 50)];
[self addSubview:self.searchBar];
}
and I'm able to get the text in it like so
- (void)searchBarSearchButtonClicked:(UISearchBar *)searchBar{
NSLog(#"search text %#", searchBar.text);
}
in my tableview, the interface is this
#interface HMDiscoveryViewController () <UISearchBarDelegate>
#property (nonatomic, strong) NSString * stuff;
#property (nonatomic, strong) HMDiscoveryHeaderView *headerView;
#end
and i set the header in viewdidload like so
- (void)viewDidLoad {
[super viewDidLoad];
self.headerView = [[HMDiscoveryHeaderView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, self.tableView.frame.size.width, 100)];
[[self.headerView searchBar] setDelegate:self];
[self.tableView setTableHeaderView:self.headerView];
NSString *testy = [[self.headerView searchBar] text];
// this prints null
NSLog(#"test %#", testy);
}
and these 2 methods to attempt to get the text are never called
- (void)setStuff:(NSString *)stuff
{
_stuff = stuff;
}
- (void)searchBarSearchButtonClicked:(UISearchBar *)searchBar {
[self setStuff:searchBar.text];
NSLog(#"lol shit %#", self.stuff);
}
How do i get the input text in the UISearchBar in the headerview in the tableviewcontroller?

Answer 1

"My headerview has a UISearchbar as a subview initialized in the viewdidload"
this isn't possible since the headerView is a UIview as you stated, and UIViews don't have a "viewDidLoad" method, however, I digress ... assuming that you meant that the UITAbleViewController declares the headerview in the view did load then you need to do something like this:
HeaderView.h
#interface HeaderView : UIView
#property (nonatomic) UISearchBar *searchBar
#end
Now you have exposed the UISearchBar to other classes by declaring the UISearchBar in the headerViews header file. then do this
headerview *headerView = [[headerview alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, self.tableView.frame.size.width, 100)];
self.tableView.tableHeaderView = headerView;
[headerview searchBar].text <==this is the search bar text!
Now, in order to force this Text into the table view, do this:
in the header file to your tableView declare an NSString property
#property (nonatomic) NSString * stuff;
Then, in the tableview implmentaiton file do this:
- (void)setStuff:(NSString *)stuff
{
_stuff = stuff;
}
Now _stuff holds a string value
In your table view controller, in this method:
- (void)searchBarSearchButtonClicked:(UISearchBar *)searchBar{
NSLog(#"search text %#", searchBar.text);
}
change it to this:
- (void)searchBarSearchButtonClicked:(UISearchBar *)searchBar{
[tableView setStuff:searchBar.text];
}
then, in your tableView you can screw around with the text form the search bar
Delegation is for those who don't know how to use setters and getters correctly, you don't have to use delegation almost ever, and I'd stay away form it because it will turn your app into a beast of of nightmare after you reach 10s of thousands of lines of code.
setters & getters with subclasses is about 4 trillion times better than delegation, use delegation when using UIKit elements that require you to know stuff about the object you are subclassing, otherwise, setters and getters mixed with block operations are bar far the simplest, easiest to read, and most portable ways to code. Pure encapsulation is what you want.
Oh yeah, and make your UITableViewController a UISearchBarDelegte so that you can use the above function in your UITableViewController, that's why you might be scratching your head right now, so this goes into your UITableViewController:
- (void)searchBarSearchButtonClicked:(UISearchBar *)searchBar{
[tableView setStuff:searchBar.text];
}
troubles, you are having, this:
Implementation file for UITableViewController:
#interface CustomSuperStarTableViewController () <UISearchBarDelegate, UITableViewDataSource, UITableViewDelegate>
#end
#implementation CustomSuperStarTableViewController
{
SuperNiftyHeaderView * iLikeCats;
}
-(void)viewDidLoad
{
iLikeCats = [SuperNiftyHeaderView new];
[[iLikeCats iLikeCatsSearchBar] setDelegate:self];
[self.tableView setTableHeaderView:iLikeCats];
// you can now access the searchBar!
//here's how you access the searchBar
NSString * bubbleGum = [[iLikeCats iLikeCatsSearchBar] text]; <=== search bar text
UIColor * hello = [[iLikeCats iLikeCatsSearchBar] backGroundColor]; <=== search bar backGroundColor
}
- (void)searchBarSearchButtonClicked:(UISearchBar *)searchBar{
}
I should also note, that this assumes that you actually created a separate .h and .m file that is a subclassed UITableView, correct? and that this subclass has in it's header file an exposed property like this:
#property (nonatomic) MyNiftyCustomHeaderView * customHeaderView
Okay, so different scenario:
headerView is custom and it contains the UISearchBar, right ? Right, excellent, so let's declare the headerview right now!
SuperNiftyHeaderView.h
#interface SuperNiftyHeaderView : UIView
#property (nonatomic) UISearchBar * iLikeCatsSearchBar;
#end
SuperNiftyHeaderView.m
#implementation SuperNiftyHeaderView
- (id)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame
{
self = [super initWithFrame:frame];
if (self)
{
_iLikeCatsSearchBar = [[UISearchBar alloc] init];
[_iLikeCatsSearchBar setPlaceholder:#" Search ..."];
[_iLikeCatsSearchBar setTranslucent:TRUE];
[_iLikeCatsSearchBar setBarStyle:UIBarStyleDefault];
[_iLikeCatsSearchBar setSearchBarStyle:UISearchBarStyleProminent];
[_iLikeCatsSearchBar setBackgroundColor:[UIColor blueColor]];
[_iLikeCatsSearchBar setTranslatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints:FALSE];
[self addSubView:_iLikeCatsSearchBar];
/// do more work, and then more work
/// add constraints because you are going to learn to do all subviews programmatically from here on out and you love to program IOS so much that 1000s of lines of code are better than storyboard easy street
}
return self;
}
#end
Now, relook at the stuff I did for the CustomSuperStarTableViewController
And what's more, is that we could have had access to the search by text by just adding to the UITableViewController and forcing the SearchBar to be a delegate of the ViewController, BUT, we misunderstood each other at first, so the point is:
1. table view controller = search bar delegate
2. intercept text
3. send this text to the tableview to do as you wish, and if it's to use this to filter the tablview then there's about 1 billion tutorials out there on using predicates and arrays to make this magic happen, but of course it will be easier for you to do this because you used a UITableViewController instead of a UIViewController, excellent and have a good day.
this is where you capture goodness from the SearchBar:
- (void)searchBar:(UISearchBar *)searchBar textDidChange:(NSString *)searchText
{
[_categories removeAllObjects];
_searchText = searchText;
NSArray * ss = [test copy];
_categories = [NSMutableArray arrayWithArray:[ss filteredArrayUsingPredicate:[NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"SELF contains[c] %#", _searchText]]];
if (_categories.count ==0 && _searchText.length ==0) {
_categories = [NSMutableArray arrayWithArray:test];
}
[[[self contentView] tableView] reloadData];
}
don't freak out about the method calls in this call, they aren't important to what you are doing, just worry about this:
- (void)searchBar:(UISearchBar *)searchBar textDidChange:(NSString *)searchText
{
_searchText = searchText;
}
and _searchText is declared in the implementation file like this, it's an IVAR
#implementation WhatEverYouWanttoNameItTableViewController
{
NSString * _searchText;
}