Dynamically resizing UITableViewCell based on text input - ios

Question

I am trying to dynamically resize some UITableViewCell's based on the height of UITextView's contained within them.
There's loads of solutions to this by keeping a pointer to the UITextView and getting it's content size in heightForRowAtIndexPath however when the whole table is created dynamically with an unknown number of rows and an unknown number of them rows contain UITextView's this just isn't possible.
It would be easy if I could call the cell in question during heightForRowAtIndexPath but that causes an infinite loop and crash as this method is called before any cell's are even created.
Any other solutions?
I am using a UITableViewCell subclass for my cell like this:
- (void)initalizeInputView {
// Initialization code
self.selectionStyle = UITableViewCellSelectionStyleNone;
self.textView = [[UITextView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectZero];
self.textView.autocorrectionType = UITextAutocorrectionTypeDefault;
self.textView.autocapitalizationType = UITextAutocapitalizationTypeNone;
self.textView.textAlignment = NSTextAlignmentRight;
self.textView.textColor = [UIColor lightBlueColor];
self.textView.font = [UIFont fontWithName:#"HelveticaNeue-Light" size:17];
self.textView.autoresizingMask = UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleWidth;
self.textView.keyboardType = UIKeyboardTypeDefault;
[self addSubview:self.textView];
self.textView.delegate = self;
}
- (BOOL)resignFirstResponder {
if (_delegate && [_delegate respondsToSelector:#selector(tableViewCell:didEndEditingWithLongString:)]) {
[_delegate tableViewCell:self didEndEditingWithLongString:self.stringValue];
}
return [super resignFirstResponder];
}
- (void)setKeyboardType:(UIKeyboardType)keyboardType
{
self.textView.keyboardType = keyboardType;
}
- (id)initWithStyle:(UITableViewCellStyle)style reuseIdentifier:(NSString *)reuseIdentifier
{
self = [super initWithStyle:style reuseIdentifier:reuseIdentifier];
if (self) {
[self initalizeInputView];
}
return self;
}
- (id)initWithCoder:(NSCoder *)aDecoder {
self = [super initWithCoder:aDecoder];
if (self) {
[self initalizeInputView];
}
return self;
}
- (void)setSelected:(BOOL)selected {
[super setSelected:selected];
if (selected) {
[self.textView becomeFirstResponder];
}
}
- (void)setSelected:(BOOL)selected animated:(BOOL)animated {
[super setSelected:selected animated:animated];
if (selected) {
[self.textView becomeFirstResponder];
}
}
- (void)setStringValue:(NSString *)value {
self.textView.text = value;
}
- (NSString *)stringValue {
return self.textView.text;
}
- (void)textViewDidBeginEditing:(UITextView *)textView
{
// For keyboard scroll
UITableView *tableView = (UITableView *)self.superview;
AppSetupViewController *parent = (AppSetupViewController *)_delegate;
parent.activeCellIndexPath = [tableView indexPathForCell:self];
}
- (void)textViewDidChange:(UITextView *)textView
{
if (textView.contentSize.height > contentRowHeight) {
contentRowHeight = textView.contentSize.height;
UITableView *tableView = (UITableView *)self.superview;
[tableView beginUpdates];
[tableView endUpdates];
[textView setFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 300.0, textView.contentSize.height)];
}
}
- (void)textViewDidEndEditing:(UITextView *)textView
{
if (_delegate && [_delegate respondsToSelector:#selector(tableViewCell:didEndEditingWithLongString:)]) {
[_delegate tableViewCell:self didEndEditingWithLongString:self.stringValue];
}
UITableView *tableView = (UITableView *)self.superview;
[tableView deselectRowAtIndexPath:[tableView indexPathForCell:self] animated:YES];
}
- (void)layoutSubviews {
[super layoutSubviews];
CGRect editFrame = CGRectInset(self.contentView.frame, 10, 10);
if (self.textLabel.text && [self.textLabel.text length] != 0) {
CGSize textSize = [self.textLabel sizeThatFits:CGSizeZero];
editFrame.origin.x += textSize.width + 10;
editFrame.size.width -= textSize.width + 10;
self.textView.textAlignment = NSTextAlignmentRight;
} else {
self.textView.textAlignment = NSTextAlignmentLeft;
}
self.textView.frame = editFrame;
}
Which is created in cellForRowAtIndexPath like this:
else if ([paramType isEqualToString:#"longString"]) {
MyIdentifier = #"AppActionLongString";
LongStringInputTableViewCell *cell = (LongStringInputTableViewCell *)[tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:MyIdentifier];
cell.textLabel.text = [[[_selectedAction objectForKey:#"parameters"] objectAtIndex:indexPath.row] objectForKey:#"name"];
cell.params = [[_selectedAction objectForKey:#"parameters"] objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];
cell.textView.text = [results objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];
return cell;
}
Simply passing back the height to a variable in my ViewController is no good because like I said, there could be several of these cells within the table.
Thanks

Answer 1

Use this method to dynamically resize your tableviewCell. First store the user input in NSMutable Array and after that reload table. Hope it will help you.
-(CGFloat)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView heightForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath{
NSString *msg =[self.messages objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];
CGSize textSize = { 120, 10000.0 };
CGSize size = [msg sizeWithFont:[UIFont systemFontOfSize:15]
constrainedToSize:textSize
lineBreakMode:UILineBreakModeWordWrap];
return size.height+20;
}

Answer 2

I needed a dynamic table view cell height based on the amount of text to be displayed in that cell. I solved it in this way:
- (CGFloat)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView heightForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
if (!isLoading)
{
if ([self.conditionsDataArray count]>0)
{
Conditions *condition =[self.conditionsDataArray objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];
int height;
UITextView *textview = [[UITextView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 236, 0)]; //you can set your frame according to your need
textview.text = condition.comment;
textview.autoresizingMask = UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleHeight;
[tableView addSubview:textview];
textview.hidden = YES;
height = textview.contentSize.height;
NSLog(#"TEXT VIEW HEIGHT %f", textview.contentSize.height);
[textview removeFromSuperview];
[textview release];
return height;
}
return 55; //Default height, if data is in loading state
}
Notice that the Text View has been added as Subview and then made hidden, so make sure you add it as SubView otherwise it's height will not be considered.

Answer 3

It would be easy if I could call the cell in question during heightForRowAtIndexPath but that causes an infinite loop and crash as this method is called before any cell's are even created. Any other solutions?
You can. I would guess you're attempting to call cellForRowAtIndexPath, which will cause an infinite loop. But you should rather be dequeuing the cell directly by calling dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier.
See the table view delegate implementation of TLIndexPathTools. The heightForRowAtIndexPath method looks like this:
(EDIT Initially forgot to include the method prototypeForCellIdentifier that actually dequeues the cell.)
- (CGFloat)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView heightForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
id item = [self.dataModel itemAtIndexPath:indexPath];
NSString *cellId = [self cellIdentifierAtIndexPath:indexPath];
if (cellId) {
UITableViewCell *cell = [self prototypeForCellIdentifier:cellId];
if ([cell conformsToProtocol:#protocol(TLDynamicSizeView)]) {
id<TLDynamicSizeView> v = (id<TLDynamicSizeView>)cell;
id data;
if ([item isKindOfClass:[TLIndexPathItem class]]) {
TLIndexPathItem *i = (TLIndexPathItem *)item;
data = i.data;
} else {
data = item;
}
CGSize computedSize = [v sizeWithData:data];
return computedSize.height;
} else {
return cell.bounds.size.height;
}
}
return 44.0;
}
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView prototypeForCellIdentifier:(NSString *)cellIdentifier
{
UITableViewCell *cell;
if (cellIdentifier) {
cell = [self.prototypeCells objectForKey:cellIdentifier];
if (!cell) {
if (!self.prototypeCells) {
self.prototypeCells = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init];
}
cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:cellIdentifier];
//TODO this will fail if multiple tables are being used and they have
//overlapping identifiers. The key needs to be unique to the table
[self.prototypeCells setObject:cell forKey:cellIdentifier];
}
}
return cell;
}
This uses a protocol TLDynamicSizeView that any cell can implement to have it's height calculated automatically. Here is a working example project. The cell's implementation of the protocol looks like this:
#implementation DynamicHeightCell
- (void)awakeFromNib
{
[super awakeFromNib];
self.originalSize = self.bounds.size;
self.originalLabelSize = self.label.bounds.size;
}
- (void)configureWithText:(NSString *)text
{
self.label.text = text;
[self.label sizeToFit];
}
#pragma mark - TLDynamicSizeView
- (CGSize)sizeWithData:(id)data
{
[self configureWithText:data];
//the dynamic size is calculated by taking the original size and incrementing
//by the change in the label's size after configuring
CGSize labelSize = self.label.bounds.size;
CGSize size = self.originalSize;
size.width += labelSize.width - self.originalLabelSize.width;
size.height += labelSize.height - self.originalLabelSize.height;
return size;
}
#end

Answer 4

just comment
if (cell == nil)
Hope, this will help you.