UITableView Custom cells, built of UIViews, can be concurrent? - ios

Question

I am building my cellViews like this:
- (UITableViewCell *)cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
static NSString* cellIdentifier=#"cell";
UITableViewCell* cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:cellIdentifier];
if(cell == nil)
{
cell = [[[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:cellIdentifier] autorelease];
}
UIImageView cellView = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithFrame:rectCellFrame];
NSError* error=nil;
NSData* imageData = [NSData dataWithContentsOfURL:imageArray[indexPath.row] options:NSDataReadingUncached error:&error];
UIImage* theImage= [UIImage ImageWithData:imageData];
[cellView setImage:theImage];
[cell addSubView:cellView];
.
.
.
.
[cell addSubView:moreViews];
}
Since the loading time (even when the images are cached) is very slow, I need to make this concurrent. But I would like to still be using my code with UIViews/UIImageViews.
Is there a way for me to show a placeholder and when relevant, ie cellView is finished building from all subviews, update the image instead of the placeholder?

Answer 1

Sure. You can set up all the heavy slow code in a asynchronous task. It's often down when images need to be downloaded. I'm sure it's covered in at least 1 of the WWDC videos on Table Views, but I've no clue which one or how old it would be by now.
- (UITableViewCell *)cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
// place holder image for the moment
[cellView setImage:placeHolderImage];
// run code to get the real image in asynchronous task
dispatch_async(self.contextQueue, ^{
UIImage *realImage = [thingy imageFromTimeConsumingTask];
// update cell on main thread (you need to do all UI stuff on main thread)
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
[cellView setImage:realImage];
});
});
}