Can I programmatily embed multiple views in RootView while using Storyboard? - ios

I'm trying to make multiple UITableView inside a UIScollView, using Paging to navigate between TableViews.
I can Drag, let's say 10 UITableView to UIScollView using Storyboard. and it's working, but the those UITableView are nearly look the same, and I have to set each TableView with different info. It's kind of tedious and inefficient.
What if I create a generic UITableView and controller using storyboard. and programatically generate and add 10 copys of it (with different content) to the UIScollView (which also created using storyboard)
Can I do it using Storyboard, and How? or this can only be done using xib file?

Instead of that I would suggest you programatically add or remove the table view as a subview, by creating a new instance of the table view each time, scrollViewDidScroll is called, ..
Just do this make sure u have the array data for table view before hand and as soon as you add a tableview populate it with the respective data,….I had applied the same logic for a bunch of labels it worked for me.

Related

How to create a separate view in Storyboard to be included programmatically in UITableView?

I have a UIViewController with a UITableView that is fed with data from the local database. When the user first launches the app (after installing) the table view is empty and I display a UIView in the middle of the table view that contains a UIImage, a UILabel and a UIButton (a call to action).
The first version of this view I built programmatically, which was no good to me because every time I tweaked something I had to build the app again. Then I switched to the storyboard but had to drag a UIView to the middle of my tableView. It is working now but I don't like the way it is, I can't edit my table view cells without having to move the UIView out of the table view.
I'd like to have a way to build this view entirely separated from my tableView (or even from my view controller in question) and then reference it in the viewDidLoad call of my view controller.
Unfortunately Xcode does not allow us to drag views directly to the storyboard so I'm pretty lost here.
Please tell me if I haven't been clear enough. I appreciate any help you could give me.
UPDATE: It'd be particularly awesome to me if I could also create a custom Swift class for this view of mine and reference it in the storyboard. And then in my viewDidLoad I could simply instantiate my custom view.
Thanks in advance.
Create a XIB file in which you can drag a view (without a view controller).
In your code you can load the XIB using NSBundle.mainBundle().loadNibNamed("MyXibName", owner:self, options:nil).
In the XIB file you can give the UIView a custom class (like you can do with view controllers in storyboard).
You then of course have to retrieve the view from the array returned by loadNibNamed and cast it to your custom class.

UITableView inside a UITableView?

Generally:
Is it OK to add a UITableView as a subview of another UITableView? Or, should I create a UIView and add each UITableView to it?
Specifically:
For a ComposeTableViewController with a typeahead, like in the iPhone's native Mail app, which approach would you recommend and why?
Note: I prefer to construct things 100% programmatically (no Interface Builder).
Subclass UITableViewController.
Then, to show the typeahead results, create and add a resultsTableView as a subview of self.tableView positioned directly underneath the the cell (of self.tableView) with the typeahead text field.
The nice thing about this approach is that resultsTableView scrolls with self.tableView automatically.
But, is it OK to add a UITableView as a subview of another UITableView?
Subclass UIViewController.
Create and add tableView (custom property) as a subview of self.view.
Create and add resultsTableView also as a subview of self.view.
The annoying thing about this approach is that I have to reposition resultsTableView manually anytime self.tableView scrolls.
I think I'd prefer approach 1, but adding a UITableView as a subview of another UITableView just seems smelly to me.
TableViews cannot have subviews. You can try adding a tableview as the view of a TableViewCell, but then you have to ask yourself how it would scroll, if you tried scrolling in the subtableview would it scroll the child tableview or the parent tableview? It is much easier to present multiple tableviews within a view. This can be done easily by setting your custom viewcontroller as the datasource of both tableviews contained within its view and then comparing the tableview pointer that is sent as a parameter of the datasource method to the two tableview pointers that are IVars of your custom view controller.
Hold stuff like this in a container. Create a container view controller which only does typeahead. This container view controller will hold your main table view controller (and its table view) and it will hold the typeahead view controller (and its view).
It will keep the logic needed for the typeahead out of your main table view and as a bonus you might end up with a reusable typeahead container which could be applied to other views.
Yes it is good to go for adding UITableView in as a cell of another UITableView.
I had one issue and posted a question
Multiple Views as subviews
And requirement was like a group of controls with list of other controls. I thought that time that it will be messy if i'm going to add UITableView as a cell of UITableView.
What i found that... Boy !! it's how iOS meant to be. There is no any lag while doing this.
Tested for below functionalities:
Scrolls like a charm
Separate delegates called for each
Reordering of both UITableView cell
Swipe and remove cell
Runtime datasource update for both UITableView and reload both at the same time.
There is no any reason not to add subview UITableView.
You can do it but it is against the principle of MVC. You will be setting the delegate of a view to another view which is wrong.

Multiple UITableViews visible at once in one UIViewController

I have seen questions asked about mutliple UITableViews in one view but they all have only one table visible at a time. I am after something different please.
In my head I want four UITableViews visible in one UIScrollView inside one UIView. The four tables will be visible and populated at once. They will have a dynamic number of rows each so the scroll view will allow users to scroll off of the page to see rows that do not fit.
The tables would be two side by side and then below them the next two side by side so that you end up with a 2x2 square.
I can (sort of) wrap my head around how to code this in the controllers etc. but I cannot figure out how to organise the hierarchi. I have tried using the storeboard to layout the tables inside the view but 9 out of 10 attempts to drop controls in fail as I am obviously not fully understanding this.
Do I need to generate the UITableViews in the UIViews implementation file and add them as objects to the UIView? Or can I use the Storyboard?
Could someone please explain how the hierarchi of objects would be structured?
In my head it would be:
UIViewController
-> UiView
---> UIScrollView
------> UITableView
------> UITableView
------> UITableView
------> UITableView
But trying this in Storyboard doesn't work. I assume each UITableView will want its own UITableViewController and what I have read in other posts I would likey need to do this connecting in the UIViewController implementation file.
Any help is appreciated.
I think you might try to drag UITableViewController into your view Controller, at least I don't have that problem to add 4 table view into a scroll view.
here is how i added it
1.> Drag the scroll view control into view controller
Your view controller should look like this:
2.> Drag the table view control into the scroll view, and set the size and position of that table view
Your view controller should look like this:
3.> Then drag all the rest 3 table views onto Scroll view
But i would like to suggest a couple of things in your case
no using that much table view in the same view controller, it's a chaos in your codes to maintain all them. There are always better
options than 4 table view, maybe consider collection view. or even
separate the use flow.
If i were you, i won't use table view inside Scroll view, they are like scroll view inside scroll view, if you don't design the
interaction very very well, they become extremely hard to use.
If you still want to use four table view in the same view controller after all, you want to pay extra attentions on your table view datasource and delegate. very carefully handle all the cases.
Hope that helps you.
Tableviews are very customized scrollviews. I wouldn't put 4 of them on a scrollview, this wouldn't be very intuitive for the user as your finger would scroll the view in many ways depending on where exactly it touches the screen.
Instead, try having your 4 tableviews in a 2x2 pattern directly onto a simple UIView. This can be done inside the Storyboard.
As for filling up and using them, you have 2 ways :
A) Your UIViewController is the delegate and datasource of each of the 4 tableviews. When executing, you perform a switch on the first parameter (the tableview that called you) to determine the appropriate course of action.
B) You create 4 classes that each handle a single tableview, instanciate 4 objects inside your UIViewController and assign the UITableviews' delegate and datasource properties to these objects.
All technicality aside, 4 tableviews in a single screen is pretty crowded. Your design will definitely not fly on a iPhone, so I'm assuming iPad only. Even then, you should make sure that everything is visually appealing and the purpose of each control is clear. It's up to you, but I'd hate to see you work hard on an application only to see your efforts wasted because your visual design doesn't appeal to your users.
If the table views take up the entire region of the scroll view then they wont let any scroll events past to the scroll view that contains them, unless the scroll is horizontal.
For a simple one to one between a table view and a view controller, I would make each table view part of it's own UITableViewController (so you have four), and then make a UIViewController that adds each of the UITableViewControllers to it as a child.
This way you don't have to do any fancy logic around if statements on which tableview is asking for data, because the table view controllers only have one table view.
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/featuredarticles/ViewControllerPGforiPhoneOS/CreatingCustomContainerViewControllers/CreatingCustomContainerViewControllers.html

How to add centered UIActivityIndicator for UICollectionView when using UICollectionViewController?

I'v never used UITableViewControllers or UICollectionViewControllers, because you can have the same functionality by using UIViewController with its root UIView, then adding UITableView in xib or storyboard and assigning its delegate and datasource. And I also was able to put activity indicator inside the center of root UIView.
Now the things get a little bit complicated when using UICollectionViewController where its root view is UICollectionView. I need to update some code of other guys and they put activity indicator inside UICollectionView (in storyboard). The problem is this activity indicator gets hidden when cells are reused because activity indicator view is the most bottom one. I was unable to change visibility priority storyboard and also this code in view didLoad is not working:
[self.itemsCollectionView bringSubviewToFront:self.activityIndicator];
Because labels, images and etc. views of collection view cell are placed later, during collectionView:cellForItemAtIndexPath:. I could try to call bringSubviewToFront: in collectionView:cellForItemAtIndexPath: but that would be a wrong decision. Any ideas how to achieve this when using UITableViewControllers or UICollectionViewControllers?
IMHO the only reason to use UITableViewControllers or UICollectionViewControllers is because static cells are not shown storyboards when designing layout.
UPDATE It appears iOS wraps UICollectionView inside UICollectionViewControllerWrapperView. Tried to add activity to this wrapper view in viewWillAppear:
[self.itemsCollectionView.superview addSubview:self.activityIndicator];
But with no luck - activity indicator is still is below the cells.
I'v ended in refactoring existing UICollectionViewController in storyboards: I'v opened storyboard xml file with TextEdit, searched for the screen and changed its type from collectionViewController to viewController because was unable to find another way how to change the type of controller, though I hope there will appear some more elegant way for that in the nearest future. Then, I'v wrapped collectionView inside root view and placed activityIndicator inside this view. It's proven classical approach that works like a charm.

UITableView header view

I have 3 different instances of tableview in Nib, where I am displaying all these tableview in a page control. And delegate and data source for all the 3 tableview is same.
Problem here is, Header view is appearing in one tableview and disappearing in others when I change the Page of the UIPageControl ?
Any idea how can I resolve this issue ?
Since it's not possible for a view to be a subview of more than one view at a time, using the same view as a header for multiple table views will result in odd visual artifacts (views disappearing one place and showing up somewhere else). You can add one header view per table view to your nib, or generate a header view for each programmatically, and assign them at run-time.

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