how to put messageCell at bottom of tableView? *Swift* - ios

Question

Chat set up. messagetableView bottom constraint attached to top of dockView. Unfortunately the tableView messageCell doesn't conform to the same constraint forced on the tableView. In my screenshot you can see the yellow tableView. It starts at the top of the superView and extends down to the top of the UIViewDock. The white messageCell does not follow the tableView. Obviously the messageCell is doing this because there are only 5 rows of messages so how do I make the white cell start at the bottom of the tableView like chat apps do?
Someone in another old thread said to use this Obj-C.
#property (nonatomic, assign) BOOL shouldScrollToLastRow;
- (void)viewDidLoad
{
[super viewDidLoad];
_shouldScrollToLastRow = YES;
}
- (void)viewDidLayoutSubviews
{
[super viewDidLayoutSubviews];
// Scroll table view to the last row
if (_shouldScrollToLastRow)
{
_shouldScrollToLastRow = NO;
[self.tableView setContentOffset:CGPointMake(0, CGFLOAT_MAX)];
}
}
Is this correct and how would I do it in Swift?

Answer 1

Make your messageCell the footer of the table view so it will always stick to the bottom of the table. You can add a view to the table in IB, and give it an IBOutlet (I call mine footer in the code below).
#IBOutlet weak var footer: UIView!
#IBOutlet weak var tableView: UITableView!
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
tableView.rowHeight = 44
tableView.tableFooterView = footer
tableView.setContentOffset(CGPoint(x: 0, y: tableView.contentSize.height), animated: false)
}
In the "Send" button's action method, you can do this to add a new row and keep the table scrolled to the bottom,
#IBAction func sendMessage(sender: UIButton) {
var message = messageField.text
messages.append(message)
let lastPath = NSIndexPath(forRow: messages.count - 1, inSection: 0)
tableView.beginUpdates()
tableView.insertRowsAtIndexPaths([lastPath], withRowAnimation: .Automatic)
tableView.contentSize = CGSize(width: tableView.contentSize.width, height: tableView.contentSize.height + tableView.rowHeight)
tableView.setContentOffset(CGPoint(x: 0, y: tableView.contentSize.height), animated: true)
tableView.endUpdates()
}