Resizing custom UITableViewCell's subviews on creation - ios

Question

I'm attempting to create a custom UITableViewCell with its own XIB, of which contains two important, editable components:
UILabel
UIImage with 'end-cap insets' - this image sits behind the label, and resizes with it
When I create my UITableViewCell I can set its label's text easily, but in the same method I also try to change the UIImage's frame to match that of the UILabel's. However, this is not happening until I 'reload' the cell by scrolling the table view to dequeue it and bring it back into view.
I create the custom table view cell in my view controller's .m:
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
static NSString *UITableViewCellIdentifier = #"msgCell";
RMMessageCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:UITableViewCellIdentifier];
if (cell == nil) {
NSArray *topLevelObjects = [[NSBundle mainBundle] loadNibNamed:#"MessageCell" owner:self options:nil];
cell = [topLevelObjects objectAtIndex:0];
[cell customInit]; //This sets up the ImageView's image etc
}
[cell setMessageValue:[_messages objectAtIndex:indexPath.row]]; //SEE BELOW
return cell;
}
...And in my custom cell's .m, I deal with setting the text label and resizing the image with this method:
- (void)setMessageValue:(NSString *)message {
_testLabel.text = message;
// Assume the text label's frame has already been set to the message's length
// (will add this in once I figure out how to change the imageView's
// frame correctly)
// Set the image view's frame to the label's
// THIS DOES NOT TAKE EFFECT UNTIL THE TABLE VIEW IS RE-SCROLLED
CGRect frame = _imageView.frame;
frame.size.width = _testLabel.frame.size.width + 8;
_imageView.frame = frame;
}

Answer 1

This is caused because a table view cell is created at one size, and then it is resized when it is displayed after being added to the table. If you log the bounds or frame of your cell, you will see that it is one size (smaller) when you load it from the nib, and another size (bigger) when you "refresh" the cell by scrolling it off of the screen and back on.
The simplest approach would be to make sure that the label and image both have the same auto-sizing rules, so that when the cell is resized, they both grow together.

Answer 2

you can use UITableView delegate method,
– (CGFloat)tableView:(UITableView*)tableView heightForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath;
inside this you can set the height of row dynamically like..
// This is only for Example that you can set your cell height
-(CGFloat)tableView:(UITableView *)aTableView heightForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
NSString *text;
text = [_messages objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];
CGSize constraint = CGSizeMake(280, 2000);
CGSize size = [text sizeWithFont:[UIFont boldSystemFontOfSize:12] constrainedToSize:constraint lineBreakMode:UILineBreakModeWordWrap];
return size.height + 5;
}

Answer 3

You should be able to control the size of the subviews if you programmatically create them and add them to your tableview cell (i.e.,so that they are not set in storyboard, and thus are not subjected to explicit auto-contraints).
In my implementation, I created a customCell subclass. In the .h:
#property (strong, nonatomic) UILabel *customLabel;
Then in the .m:
- (id)initWithCoder:(NSCoder *)aDecoder {
METHOD;
self = [super initWithCoder:aDecoder];
if (self) {
// Initialization code
self.customLabel = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 320, 40)];
[self addSubview:self.customLabel];
}
return self;
}
In your tableViewController's .m file, in the method tableView:cellForRowAtAtIndexPath:
theCell.customLabel.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, 320, 40);
theCell.customLabel.text = #"Whatever text you want";
This will give you instant and complete control over your custom label right when the tableview and cell loads.
In response to #inafziger, I tried programmatically removing the constraints on the label but it did not resolve this auto-resizing issue.
Update: making a temporary reference to the subview, then removing it from superview, and then adding it back to the subview, this worked just as well, with the slight exception that the in my case where I'm using a label, the height of the label was fit to the height of the text it contained (whereas programmatically creating the label in my example above, the label will have whatever height you assign it.) The advantage being that you don't have to create any custom labels, or even touch the subclass tableviewCell. Just use whatever you created in storyboard. Here's tableView:cellForRowAtIndexPath:
UILabel *theLabel = theCell.theLabel;
[theCell.theLabel removeFromSuperview];
[theCell addSubview:theLabel];
theCell.theLabel.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, 320, 40);