Refresh UIView FROM Slide-In Menu - ios

Question

I am pretty stuck with this and hoping someone can show me some light about this.
I need help to figure out how to refresh the table list on the main view from the slide-in menu.
IN MAIN VIEW
So basically, I have a main view that has a list of events. I use this function to retrieve data from the database:
[self loadEvents:eventCat sortEvent:nil searchDate:dateSelected];
Inside that function, it has the script that gets data, determines if there is content and then reloads the table:
- (void)loadEvents:(NSString*)searchType sortEvent:(NSString*)sortType searchDate:(NSString *)dateSelect{
NSString *url = [NSString stringWithFormat: #"http://www.url.com/eventList.php];
NSURL *eventURL = [NSURL URLWithString: url];
NSLog(#"%#", eventURL);
NSData *jsonData = [NSData dataWithContentsOfURL: eventURL];
NSError *error = nil;
NSDictionary *dataDictionary = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:jsonData options:0 error: &error];
self.eventList = [NSMutableArray array];
NSArray *eventArray = [dataDictionary objectForKey:#"fitpass"];
//NSString *eventFound = [dataDictionary objectForKey:#"notfound"];
//if nothing is found
if ([dataDictionary objectForKey:#"notfound"]){
tableView.hidden = YES;
noEvent.hidden = NO;
NSLog(#"123");
}else{
noEvent.hidden = YES;
tableView.hidden = NO;
NSLog(#"RELOADDATA");
for(NSDictionary *eventDictionary in eventArray){
Event *event = [Event blogPostWithTitle:[eventDictionary objectForKey:#"name"]];
event.eventTime = [eventDictionary objectForKey:#"event_time"];
[self.eventList addObject:event];
[tableView performSelectorOnMainThread:#selector(reloadData) withObject:nil waitUntilDone:NO];
}
}
I tried using the NSNotificationCenter method to refresh the data. So I have this in the viewDidLoad Method:
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self selector:#selector(refreshTableWithNotification:) name:#"RefreshTable" object:nil];
Then this function right after ViewDidLoad Method:
- (void)refreshTableWithNotification:(NSNotification *)notification
{
[self.tableView reloadData];
}
IN THE SLIDE MENU VIEW
In the side menu, I have a table list to populate the different categories, and when use click a category, it should refresh the event list in the main view:
//on direct press, trigger segue
- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView didSelectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
//get current value and set the eventCategory ID in userDefault
NSDictionary *catPicked = [self.catList objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];
NSString *eventCat =[catPicked objectForKey:#"ID"];
NSLog(#"%#Picked:", eventCat);
[userDefaults setObject:eventCat forKey:kEventCat];
[userDefaults synchronize];
NSLog(#"%#entered", [userDefaults objectForKey:kEventCat]);
//redirect back to eventList;
UIStoryboard *mainStoryboard = [UIStoryboard storyboardWithName:#"Main" bundle: nil];
UIViewController *vc = [mainStoryboard instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier: #"eventListViewController"];
//refresh data
EventLists *destinationController = [[EventLists alloc] init];
[destinationController loadEvents:eventCat sortEvent:nil searchDate:nil];
//send notofication over
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] postNotificationName:#"RefreshTable" object:nil userInfo:nil];
[destinationController.view setNeedsDisplay];
[[SlideNavigationController sharedInstance] popToRootAndSwitchToViewController:vc
withSlideOutAnimation:self.slideOutAnimationEnabled
andCompletion:nil];
return;
}
What I am stuck is that I can see the data (eventList) is updated, but the view does not refresh...
Any help would be very much appreciated!!!

Answer 1

Rory!!!
Thank you so much for your help!! I finally figured it out with your hint.
So basically I thought it was passing he data because of my log. But it was just merely running the function. No data was passed.
And the solution was actually rather simple. Since the data was not really being passed over, refreshing the table in the notification function will not work. The data needs to be reloaded. In other word, I just needed to change the notification function in the Main View to:
- (void)refreshTableWithNotification:(NSNotification *)notification
{
[self loadEvents:[userDefaults objectForKey:kEventCat] sortEvent:nil searchDate:dateSelected];
}
Then my Side Menu View is now much simpler since all I needed was the Notification call and view switch:
//redirect back to eventList;
UIStoryboard *mainStoryboard = [UIStoryboard storyboardWithName:#"Main" bundle: nil];
UIViewController *vc = [mainStoryboard instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier: #"eventListViewController"];
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] postNotificationName:#"RefreshTable" object:nil userInfo:nil];
And yes! I needed to move the notification in the Main view to ViewDidAppear:
- (void)viewDidAppear:(BOOL)animated{
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self selector:#selector(refreshTableWithNotification:) name:#"RefreshTable" object:nil];
}
Thank you so much for your help!!