Custom TableViewCell programmatically - ios

Question

I have source code that does not use storyboard or xib. It contains a UITableView and the cells use the standard cell.textlabel.
What i want is to use a custom TableViewCell, normally i would create a UITableViewCell class and connect them in storyboard, but i cant connect them here since its not using storyboard or xib.
I have following UITableViewClass
#interface chatCell : UITableViewCell
#property(nonatomic, weak) IBOutlet UIImageView *homeTeamImage;
#property(nonatomic, weak) IBOutlet UILabel *homeTeamLabel;
#property(nonatomic, weak) IBOutlet UIImageView *awayTeamImage;
#property(nonatomic, weak) IBOutlet UILabel *awayTeamLabel;
#end
How can i place them inside the TableViewCell and connect them to the properties?
so i can start using
cell.homeTeamImage
cell.homeTeamLabel
cell.awayTeamImage
cell.awayTeamLabel

Answer 1

You don't need to use IBOutlet, since you don't want to use the properties in IB
#interface chatCell : UITableViewCell
{
UIImageView *homeTeamImage;
UILabel *homeTeamLabel;
UIImageView *awayTeamImage;
UILabel *awayTeamLabel;
}
#property(nonatomic, weak) UIImageView *homeTeamImage;
#property(nonatomic, weak) UILabel *homeTeamLabel;
#property(nonatomic, weak) UIImageView *awayTeamImage;
#property(nonatomic, weak) UILabel *awayTeamLabel;
#end
and don't forget to
#synthesize homeTeamImage, ...;
in your implementation file.

Answer 2

You can override the - (UITableViewCell *)cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath. Instead of returning a standard UITableViewCell you can return yours
- (UITableViewCell *)cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
chatCell c = [[chatCell alloc] init];
return c;
}
You don't need the IBOutlet keyword: it isn't a type, it's only used by xcode when you use the storyboard. I think that without storyboard you should change the properties to strong pointers because no one else is strongly pointing to them so they'll be deleted.
The #synthesize is not mandatory if you use xcode 5. It's required only if you override both setter and getter of a property.

Answer 3

See Programmatically Adding Subviews to a Cell’s Content View from Table View Programming Guide for iOS. In this example cells are created in tableView:cellForRowAtIndexPath: but you can use same approach (add views on cell's content view) in UITableViewCell subclass.

Answer 4

#interface chatCell : UITableViewCell
{
UIImageView *homeTeamImage;
UILabel *homeTeamLabel;
UIImageView *awayTeamImage;
UILabel *awayTeamLabel;
}
#property(nonatomic, weak) UIImageView *homeTeamImage;
#property(nonatomic, weak) UILabel *homeTeamLabel;
#property(nonatomic, weak) UIImageView *awayTeamImage;
#property(nonatomic, weak) UILabel *awayTeamLabel;
#end
and don't forget to
enter code here
#synthesize "All properties"