Monotouch custom UITableViewCell GetCell not initialising new custom view cells - uitableview

Question

I've been foloowing a number of tutorials to put together a custom table view cell using storyboard for a prototype table view.
I'm new to monotouch and managed to get a working solution for standard cell types. Running into issues with custom view cells as I'm unable to initialise a fresh cell in the correct manner. Some old tutorials appear to load a cell nib file but I'm using storyboard with the below code.
Where am I going wrong?
(I would use monotouch dialog but not couldn't figure out a way to add lovely uipickerviews on accessory, etc in a simple manner).
http://docs.xamarin.com/guides/ios/user_interface/tables/part_5_-_using_xcode%2C_interface_builder%2C_and_storyboards
public override UITableViewCell GetCell (UITableView tableView, MonoTouch.Foundation.NSIndexPath indexPath)
{
// in a Storyboard, Dequeue will ALWAYS return a cell
//*** above comment doesnt seem to hold for custom uitableview cells
UITableViewCell cell = tableView.DequeueReusableCell (cellIdentifier);
// now set the properties as normal
cell.TextLabel.Text = tableItems[indexPath.Row].Name;
if (tableItems[indexPath.Row].Done)
cell.Accessory = UITableViewCellAccessory.Checkmark;
else
cell.Accessory = UITableViewCellAccessory.None;
return cell;
}
// here's my implementation of GetCell but problem is that I can't seem to generate a new cell
public override UITableViewCell GetCell (UITableView tableView, NSIndexPath indexPath)
{
_cellIdentifier = "SingleTimeViewCell";
CustomViewCell cell = tableView.DequeueReusableCell (_cellIdentifier) as
// if (cell == null)
// {
// cell = new SingleTimeViewCell();
// }
cell.myCustomProperty = "hello";
return cell;
}
// here's the auto generated CustomViewCell class from Xcode storyboard
public partial class CustomViewCell : UITableViewCell
{
public CustomViewCell () : base() // I added this ctor but it didnt seem to help matters
{
}
public CustomViewCell (IntPtr handle) : base (handle)
{
}
}

Answer 1

It can be done using only storyboards with prototype cells, see this sample from Xamarin forums.
Here is the relevant code (credit to Stephane Cordonnier):
public partial class CustomCellStoryBoardViewController : UIViewController
{
public CustomCellStoryBoardViewController(IntPtr handle) : base (handle)
{
}
public override void DidReceiveMemoryWarning()
{
base.DidReceiveMemoryWarning();
}
public override void ViewDidLoad()
{
base.ViewDidLoad();
this.MyTableView.DataSource = new MyDataSource();
}
private class MyDataSource : UITableViewDataSource
{
private String[] items = {"Item 1", "Item 2", "Item 3", "Item 4", "Item 5" };
public MyDataSource()
{
}
public override int RowsInSection(UITableView tableView, int section)
{
return this.items.Length;
}
public override UITableViewCell GetCell(UITableView tableView, NSIndexPath indexPath)
{
MyCustomCell cell = (MyCustomCell)tableView.DequeueReusableCell(MyCustomCell.Key);
cell.SetTitle(this.items[indexPath.Row]);
return cell;
}
}
}
The custom cell:
[Register ("MyCustomCell")]
public class MyCustomCell : UITableViewCell
{
[Outlet]
MonoTouch.UIKit.UILabel TitleLabel { get; set; }
public static readonly NSString Key = new NSString("MyCustomCell");
public MyCustomCell(IntPtr handle) : base(handle)
{
}
public void SetTitle(String title)
{
this.TitleLabel.Text = title;
}
}
Make sure you have set the custom cell class and identifier to the name of your cell class in the storyboard.

Answer 2

In your .xib file, for that cell, are you using the same cell identifier 'SingleTimeViewCell'. I'm not sure exactly how you've created your custom cell but I know I had what sounds like the same issue.

Answer 3

You cant'd do it with storyboard. Use main storyboard and separate xib files for the cells.

Answer 4

I read so mush non sense about tableview cell and reuse and Xib,
Almost every sample code a found jsute don't reuse properly...
on iOS6 and further the simplest way to do it :
create a new UITABLEVIEWCELL from Xamarin. (let's say MyCustomCell)
in InterfaceBuilder set the Identifier of the cell to the value of MyCustomCell.Key (found the value in MyCsutomCell.cs created by Xamarin Studio)
In your ViewController Register the nib this way :
tableView.RegisterNibForCellReuse (MyCsutomCell.Nib, MyCsutomCell.Key);
then on the GetCell méthode in your dataSource symple dequeue a cell (it will create one if none exists):
MyCsutomCell cell = tableView.DequeueReusableCell (MyCsutomCell.Key) as MyCsutomCell;