Why are my custom cells blank ? - ios

Thanks for the help in advance-
I have a UITableView with a custom cell. If I insert a break point, and log the values for the cell it is correct, but when I execute the code the table view is always blank (but does have the right number of cells)
Cell *cell = (Cell *)[tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:[Cell reuseIdentifier]];
if (cell == nil)
{
cell = [Cell cell];
}
StoreData *currentStore = [_storeArray objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];
cell.phoneNumber.text = currentStore.phoneStr;
cell.address.text = currentStore.addressStr;
return cell;
Thanks for the help

Are you certain you registered the custom cell using its class or nib? Also, you are asking to deque based on asking the cell for its identifier - but you must ensure you registered for every class you are trying to deque. Finally, also ensure you set the identifier property inside the storyboard or nib file as well.

Related

What is the purpose of an Identifier in UITableView

I'm a little confused to why an identifer (*MyIdentifier) is always required. The code below demonstrates this. I have noticed all tableviews require at least one.
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
static NSString *MyIdentifier = #"MyIdentifier";
UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:MyIdentifier];
if (cell == nil) {
cell = [[[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:MyIdentifier] autorelease];
}
What is the purpose behind having an identifier? Ive have seen a few tutorials where there is more than one. Also, reading the Apple documentation, I was a little confused about why the following is called:
if (cell == nil) {
cell = [[[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:MyIdentifier] autorelease];
}
I would like to know why it takes the input of 'MyIdentifier'? Assuming we had more than one identifier, which one should we choose? To be exact, what if we had a Parent, Child and sub-child etc.
Suppose you have several customized UITableViewCells and each of them have different backgound colors. In your storyboard or xib file, you may name the cell with red background color "redCell" and the one with blue "blueCell". Then you can select what kind of cell to add to a particular row using their identifiers. Let's say, you wanna apply red cells to odd rows and blue ones to even rows then you can use the following code to do this:
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
UITableViewCell *redCell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:#"redCell"];
UITableViewCell *blueCell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:#"blueCell"];
if (indexPath.row % 2 == 0) return redCell;
else return blueCell;
}
Without specifying an identifier, the system wouldn't know which kind of cell to pick.
From the docs:
The identifier is a string identifying the cell object to be reused. This parameter must not be nil.
For performance reasons, a table view’s data source should generally reuse UITableViewCell objects when it assigns cells to rows in its tableView:cellForRowAtIndexPath: method. A table view maintains a queue or list of UITableViewCell objects that the data source has marked for reuse. Call this method from your data source object when asked to provide a new cell for the table view. This method dequeues an existing cell if one is available or creates a new one using the class or nib file you previously registered. If no cell is available for reuse and you did not register a class or nib file, this method returns nil.
Every time you return a cell you have 2 options - you can create new cell and return it, dequeue cell that already exists and reconfigure it.
So the way this works is when you create cell you give it reuse identifier, so when cell goes off screen it can be used instead of creating new cell. After the cell is dequeued though, you might want to change its properties(like text or image)
You can have different reuse identifiers for different cell types(different content views)

How to create object in Objective-C?

I am new in iOS development. Currently I am reading this tutorial http://www.appcoda.com/how-to-handle-row-selection-in-uitableview/ . I am facing problem when I am reading this line
UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:indexPath];
cell.accessoryType = UITableViewCellAccessoryCheckmark;
I know object in objective-c is created by following way
classname *objecname = [[classname alloc]init];
My confusion point is here UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:indexPath];
How cell object is created here? Please tell details.
Based on the tutorial you linked to, I'm assuming you are dealing with selecting a row. When you select a row, you have access to the NSIndexPath of that row, which contains two parts:
The section of the cell
The row of the cell
With that information, let's break down the confusing code: UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:indexPath];
UITableViewCell *cell
This part declares your variable. You've chosen to name it cell. You could just as easily have named it theCell, like so:
UITableViewCell *theCell
The * means that you're declaring a pointer, which is just a reference to an actual object, or the table view cell.
[tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:indexPath]
The tableView refers to the UITableView that was just selected. UITableView has a method called cellForRowAtIndexPath, and what that method does is retrieve the cell at the specified section and row of the UITableView. In your case, it retrieves the row that you've just selected and stores the reference to it in your cell variable.
When declaring a new object, yes, it would take on the following syntax:
classname *objecname = [[classname alloc] init];
The key word here is new. When dealing with selecting rows in a UITableView, you don't want to create a new cell because you can't select a cell that doesn't exist. You want to get the cell that the user has just selected.
I assume you have this code in your didSelectRowAtIndexPath: method, is that right?
If so, you're tapping on a cell that is on the screen, so the cell object already exists. Where and how was it created? Inside cellForRowAtIndexPath:, which you have already written.
So when you make this call
UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:indexPath];
it just gives you the cell object to work with, but it doesn't create a new one.
The cell is not created with that line. That line gets a reference to a cell that is already in the table view at that indexPath.

When creating my UITableViewCells, why is the init never called? (Resulting in blank cells?)

In my UITableView, I recently changed the structure of the cell from formerly just putting UILabels in the contentView of the cell, to adding two UIViews (CellFront and CellBack, on top of one another) into the contentView (so I can achieve a sliding effect by sliding the top one off and revealing the lower one) and adding the UILabels to the top UIView.
However, now, for whatever reason, the cells never get init'd and as a result my UITableView is full of blank cells.
My cell gets created as follows (ArticleCell is a subclass of UITableViewCell):
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
static NSString *CellIdentifier = nil;
ArticleInfo *articleInfo = [self.fetchedResultsController objectAtIndexPath:indexPath];
// Checks if user simply added a body of text (not from a source or URL)
if ([articleInfo.isUserAddedText isEqualToNumber:#(YES)]) {
CellIdentifier = #"BasicArticleCell";
}
else {
CellIdentifier = #"FullArticleCell";
}
ArticleCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier forIndexPath:indexPath];
if (cell == nil) {
cell = [[ArticleCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
}
// If the user simply added a body of text, only articlePreview and progress has to be set
cell.preview = articleInfo.preview;
// If it's from a URL or a source, set title and URL as well
if ([articleInfo.isUserAddedText isEqualToNumber:#(NO)]) {
cell.title = articleInfo.title;
cell.URL = articleInfo.url;
}
return cell;
}
But I set a breakpoint on the initWithStyle method above within the if statement and it never gets called:
What would cause this? I'm deleting the app and building it from scratch every time, so data is definitely being added to the UITableView, but all the cells are blank. And I can tell a bunch of cells are being added as I have disclosure indicators on all of them, and the table view just gets filled with empty cells with the indicators only.
What am I doing wrong?
try
ArticleCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
instead of
ArticleCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier forIndexPath:indexPath];
the first one is the old standard way. It will not create a cell for you. While with the second a cell will be created form the storyboard. So if you use storyboards you should use indeed the method you are using now, but it will never go info the if branch, as the cell will never be nil.
when instantiating form storyboard, initWithStyle:reuseIdentifier: is never called. Either set everything up in -initWithCoder: or -layoutSubviews

UITableView Controller with prototype custom cell and search display controller tableview

is there a way I can have in the search results controller table view the exact same styling (height, background etc) I have in the prototype cell of my tableview controller in iOS5?
The root view has a background picture and a specific cell height. The search table does not appear with the background picture and the cell height is lower;
Another way is to just use the same cell identifier (at least if you're using storyboards), so for example:
static NSString *CellIdentifier = #"searchCell";
myCustomCell *cell = (myCustomCell *)[tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
//for search controller need to check if cell is nil, if it is create one since there won't be any to reuse to begin with
if (!cell) {
cell = (myCustomCell *)[self.tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
[cell setAccessoryType:UITableViewCellAccessoryDisclosureIndicator];
}
Other properties such as row heights etc can be set by accessing properties of
self.searchDisplayController.searchResultsTableView

Creating a reusable UIView similar to UITableViewCell

Ahoy!
I'm trying to create a reusable UIView (for various reasons) similar to the UITableViewCell implementation used in UITableViewController. I'd like to use the reusable view in a UIScrollView so I know i'm not trying to achieve something that's entirely unattainable.
The default implementation of this is:
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
//declare cell identifier
static NSString *cellIdentifier = #"cell_identifier";
//dequeue cell
UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:cellIdentifier];
//check cell is valid
if(cell == nil)
{
//create a new cell
cell = [[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleSubtitle reuseIdentifier:cellIdentifier];
}
//
//return cell
return cell;
}
From this, it's worth noting that the cell is dequeued from the UITableView. If the cell is invalid, a new cell is created. My question is, how does this cell then become "queued" for reuse later?
My current attempted implementation looks like this:
- (TestScrollViewCell *)scrollView:(TestScrollView *)_scrollView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
//declare cell identifier
static NSString *cellIdentifier = #"cell_identifier";
//dequeue cell
TestScrollViewCell *cell = (TestScrollViewCell *)[scrollView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:cellIdentifier];
//check cell is valid
if(cell == nil)
{
//create a new cell
cell = [[TestScrollViewCell alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectZero];
}
//
//return cell
return cell;
}
I'm thinking that adding a NSMutableDictionary to my TestScrollView to store the cellIdentifier and the TestScrollViewCell (UIView) and then plucking them back out based on the dictionary key would be a good start but is this really a true implementation of "reusable" cells?
The issue I can see is that I would then be adding the UIView to the ScrollView which is positioned based on the frame. Dequeing a view in this sense wouldn't allow me to then add the view to the scroll view without affecting the first view (by modifying the frame) but surely this is how UITableViewCells work, as well as section headers/footers?
I've been looking at this implementation which seems to be following the same route I was intending on implementing but i'm not 100% sold that this is a true implementation of reusable cells.
Has anyone had any luck with this previously? I'm trying to take Apple's lead on this one but other than UITableViewCell and MKAnnotationView (MapKit) there aren't any accessible implementations of this for me to glean from.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
It's not just the view, it's the whole UITableViewController you'll need to recreate. The reuse flow goes like this:
dequeueReusableCell gets empty reused cell from some storage, I guess, from NSMutableArray (grab first object from array, then delete it from array and return it). If array is empty, method returns nil. You check for cell value, if it's nil, you create a new instance of cell class. If it's not nil, you fill it with your data.
This goes for every visible cell, that is, every cell that can fit on screen. Any non-visible cells are not initialized. When user scrolls the table, cell that are gone completely off-screen (not a single pixel visible) sent to reuseQueue – all their subviews and values return to default values or just nilled, and then cell gets added to the end of our NSMutableArray that is the queue.
I hope I explained well enough.
EDIT: Oh, and one more thing - you'll need different reuse queues for each reuse identifier.

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