drill down UITableView using storyboard in iOS program - ios

I'm trying to develop an iOS app that has drill down UITable View. I got a drill down table view tutorial, but the number of UITableViews is static. What I need is a dynamic one. My requirement is simple. I need to access an FTP Server and get the directory hierarchy (I guess I need to store it in NSDictionary or in an xml file) and display the content in the UITableView. If it is a text file, I need to display it in some view, otherwise I need to display the selected folder's content in the same UITableView, and it goes on till the bottom of the directory hierarchy.
I need to use the storyboard.

I've had to make a something very similar to what your talking about in a previous application I worked on.
In that I created table views inside of table view cells with a button at the top to expand and collapse the view using the cell height.
This worked pretty well but since then I've found the best way to simply programmatically add ui elements to either your table view cells or view.
In both cases I created a management system using parent child architecture to hold your information.
I hope this puts you in the right direction :)

Related

creating a scrollview with data coming from database and variable number of elements for ios

So I was trying to create a sample ios application. As I am designing the app UI with the storyboard (and not coding), I find Xcode really hard to understand.
what I want to do is I added a scrollView to the view controller. now what I want to do in the scrollView is simple.
I want my scrollView to have buttons (vertically stacked) and it does some action on the basis of the data it is getting from the database. let's suppose it is getting links from the database and on a click of those buttons those links open. now the data may contain 10 links, or 20 links .. basically, we want it to be according to the database.
now if I was designing the UI programmatically it would look something like
ScrollView{
for loop...{
button("for example name coming from the database"
}
}
or atleast this is what I know of.
so how to do the same with storyboard ?
like we first take it's refernce to the uiViewController class.. and then ?
You need to add buttons programmatically if they are created dynamically depending on external non static data. Create new UIViewContoroller class and implement it with connecting storyboard file, the easiest would be to add buttons inside some kind of UIStackView which is inside scrollview imo, or by using UITableView if there are significant number of links to display.

Should I choose ViewController or TableViewController?

New to Swift. I am trying to write a recipe-sharing app for fun. One of the features is to let users create a new recipe. On this page, users should be able to give an intro to the recipe to be created, upload an image THEN add a LIST of ingredients dynamically (as we have no idea how many ingredients in total beforehand).
I have created a UIViewController, which includes a UIViewTable, an image view and a "add another ingredient" button. I have created a class for the ingredient. And when the "add" button is pressed, a new "Ingredient" cell will be added to the table. However, I found that adjusting the UIViewTable height dynamically is quite hard.
I want my table to adjust its height according to the number of cells (rows). I haven't found much useful info online.
Or maybe I should've not even used this structure. Instead, just use UITableController (The entire page is a table)? But I got confused that some of the elements (image view, submit a recipe button, recipe-intro textfield etc) will be only created once. Why do I bother making them as prototype cells and add them to my view programmatically?
Thanks in advance!
First of all, welcome to Swift!
You put a few questions together, I will try to answer them one by one. Let's start with the simple stuff.
Don't try to change the height of UITableView based on the number of items. If you want to achieve similar functionality, take a look at UIStackView. Set fixed size for the tableView, ideally with constraints using auto layout.
UITableView is supposed to fill specified space and scroll items inside or show cell on top if there are not enough cells to cover all space.
UITableView is highly optimized to scroll over huge amount of cells as the cells are reused on the background. If you are new to the iOS world, take a look at this function https://developer.apple.com/documentation/uikit/uitableviewcell/1623223-prepareforreuse it can save you hours of debugging (I have been there)
UITableView vs UITableController
UITableController can save you a few lines of code, but using UITableView inside of UIViewController can give you more freedom and save you refactoring if your app is likely to change in the future. There is no specific advantage of UITableController
If you want to provide the extra elements (image view, submit button, text field etc), you can use several methods and this is where the UIViewController with your own UITableView comes in handy.
You can put some buttons, like a plus icon or "Done" button into the navigation bar, as the native Calendar app does.
You can put the static content (intro text field, image view) above the table view (visible always). Use constraints to place the static content on the viewController.view and constraint the table view under your static content. The table view will take less space on the view keeping the space for your content.
Insert your static content as a table view header (will scroll out with the content). Search "HeaderView" here on stack overflow to see how to achieve that.
Place your content over the tableView. If your button is small (rounded), you can place it over the tableView, eg. Twitter uses this for a new tween button.
Hope this answer your questions. Cheers!

Creating a menu in iOS

I'm currently creating an update of my iOS application and I'm a bit stuck. I've tried to googling around but cannot find a decent answer on this.
I've a menu which links to different views. And I'm not really sure if I've done it the best method.
I've created a view, and added the links into a stack view. Should I considering changing it all to a tableview? or a collection view? Or maybe there's another way?
The current look:
Should I change this to a tableview? collection view? or something else? Or just let it stay as it is?
If the number of items in your menu changes at runtime and is large, you should use a table view, because a table view is good for efficiently displaying a screen's worth of items from a large list of items.
If the contents of your menu is small (under maybe two screenfuls of items) and fixed at compile time and you are using a storyboard, then you could use a table view with static cells, if you can make it look the way you want.
If the contents of your menu is small, then you can use a stack view (inside a scroll view) if that is easier for you. There is no particular advantage to using a table view over a stack view to display a small amount of content, unless you need other features of the table view (like the ability to select/deselect rows).
Based on the screen shot you posted, I'd either use a table view with static cells (since the screen shot is from a storyboard) or a stack view, depending on whether I can get the appearance I want from a table view. If, as in the screen shot, the buttons must be centered vertically, I'd use a stack view, because it's easier to vertically center the content with a stack view.
Look, the fact of have many itens on your screen is clear on the mobile applications, to make it easy, we have collecions view like UITableView and UICollectionView. On the UITableView's case, this implements the scrolling and have methods do handle the operations' list, you can see the documentation to check these methods: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/uikit/uitableview.
Main reasons to use UITableView
Implements scroll behavior.
Independent of size screen you can access all itens.
Easy to detect interactions like tap on cell.
Easy to make changes, like insert and remove content.
The UITableView exists precisely to solve problems like you has.

Static table cells with detail

I'm trying to make an iOS 'information' or 'guide' app in Swift. I wanted to utilise the Master Detail template so that when the user clicks a cell it will take them to a relevant ViewController with either basic text labels or a PDF file.
From what I understand, Dynamic Cells can be dynamically changed whilst the app runs however I want to set static cells from the storyboard (or programmatically) and their relevant content/PDF files so the user can view each one. I don't want any "new cell" or "editing" functionality.
How can I make this work? I would post my code so far but it's almost identical to the Master Detail template so I don't see any use. I know this is quite a vague question but I need help and don't know where to start.
Any help will be so appreciated!
A static table cell can entirely be created via storyboard. In the storyboard once you add a tableviewcpntroller you can prototype call added to it.You can add as many prototype cells to your table ( not necessarily every one should have common layout). After all cells are added you can assign individual tags to the cells if you need identify these cells from your code.You can add segue from each cells to move to different page.
Let me know if something more is needed.
In Interface Builder set the Content of the table view to Static Cells.
Drag as many table view cells as you need into the table view.
In the controller create IBOutlets for the labels and the other UI elements.
Connect the outlets in Interface Builder.
Rather than using the datasource methods assign the values directly to the UI elements via the outlets.

Xamarin.iOS - UITableView with more cells than can fit in Designer

In my Xamarin Studio storyboard, I have created a Table View (UITableView) that has one section containing a bunch of table view cells (static content). I need 6 rows (cells) but the 6th one does not fit the display area of the view controller. I can see this cell in the designer but I cannot drag anything on it as it is somehow placed outside of the view controller (under it).
For clarity, I am attaching an image explaining the situation.
http://share.pho.to/7WKSL/i6/original
I am wondering if it is possible to add more cells than the view area can hold as in my scenario... or am I now forced to place controls at runtime ?
Thanks
This is a confirmed bug by the Xamarin team. The solution is to use the Interface Builder of XCode for this particular task.

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