Calling deselectRowAtIndexPath on custom UITableViewCell is not a fluid transition - ios

Question

This is the setup of the portion of the app that is having issues.
MyTableViewController is my custom UITableViewController class.
TableViewController1, 2, and 3, are all of type MyTableViewController. 1 and 2 are the viewcontrollers controlled by a tabbarcontroller, 3 is pushed into the stack after a cell is selected from 1.
BaseCell is my UITableViewCell subclass.
MyCell1, 2, and 3 are all of type BaseCell.
The cells are setup like this
BaseCell
- (id)initWithStyle:(UITableViewCellStyle)style reuseIdentifier:(NSString *)reuseIdentifier
{
self = [super initWithStyle:style reuseIdentifier:reuseIdentifier];
if (self) {
// Initialization code
UIView *myContentView = self.contentView;
self.gradientView = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:myContentView.frame];
CAGradientLayer *gradient = [CAGradientLayer layer];
gradient.colors = [UIColor grayGradient];
[self.gradientView.layer insertSublayer:gradient atIndex:0];
self.gradientView.backgroundColor = [UIColor blueColor];
[myContentView addSubview:self.gradientView];
}
return self;
}
- (void)setSelected:(BOOL)selected animated:(BOOL)animated
{
[super setSelected:selected animated:animated];
// Configure the view for the selected state
if (selected) {
self.gradientView.layer.hidden = TRUE;
} else {
self.gradientView.layer.hidden = FALSE;
}
}
- (void)setHighlighted:(BOOL)highlighted animated:(BOOL)animated
{
[super setHighlighted:highlighted animated:animated];
// Configure the view for the highlighted state
if (highlighted) {
self.gradientView.layer.hidden = TRUE;
} else {
self.gradientView.layer.hidden = FALSE;
}
}
-(UILabel *)newLabelWithColor:(UIColor *)incomingColor font:(UIFont *)incomingFont
{
UILabel *newLabel = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectZero];
newLabel.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
newLabel.opaque = YES;
newLabel.textColor = incomingColor;
newLabel.highlightedTextColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
newLabel.font = incomingFont;
return newLabel;
}
Thus every cell that extends the BaseCell has the gradient background. The Cell1, 2, and 3 continue to add more objects to the contentView in a similar fashion. Each cell is customized for a different purpose all follow the same format.
- (id)initWithStyle:(UITableViewCellStyle)style reuseIdentifier:(NSString *)reuseIdentifier
{
self = [super initWithStyle:style reuseIdentifier:reuseIdentifier];
if (self) {
// Initialization code
UIView *myContentView = self.contentView;
self.someLabel = [self newLabelWithColor:[UIColor blueColor] font:[UIFont boldSystemFontOfSize:12]];
[myContentView addSubview:self.someLabel];
self.someView = [UIView] alloc] init];
[myContentView addSubview:self.someView];
}
return self;
}
- (void)layoutSubviews
{
//Layout any views necessary
}
- (void)setupCell
{
self.someLabel = #"Placeholder Text";
self.someView.backGroundColor = [UIColor redColor];
}
Imagine the label is just a title in the cell and the view is a small bar on the left hand side of the cell indicating a state(the actual code has logic to determine different colors/states).
The final bit of information is that MyTableViewController doesn't seem to want to do cell deselection on its own. I do not have clearSelectionOnViewWillAppear = NO anywhere (and the default state is YES), yet cells are staying selected when I return to one of TableViewController1, 2. Oddly, 3 does not share in this behavior, and I cannot figure out why. Thus I implemented
- (void)viewDidAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
[super viewDidAppear:animated];
[self.tableView deselectRowAtIndexPath:[self.tableView indexPathForSelectedRow] animated:YES];
}
and deselection works. If I put it in viewWillAppear, it doesn't work. So my first question is, does anyone know why this behavior is happening? The standard behavior of UITableViewController is to leave a cell highlighted and then deselect it on return so that a user is reminded of what they had selected, as can be seen in something like Contacts. I'm wondering if this issue my be leading to my next problem, which is the topic of the post.
The cells look awful when they are being deselected. The flow is going like this Return To TableView -> Cell is highlighted blue in selected state -> Cell returns to highlighted state (all text is white with gradient background and self.someView is still invisible) -> cell returns to normal state (text is normal color and self.someView reappears). The transition is not fluid at all and you can clearly see the cell moving through these states, where as in Contacts the cell smoothly transitions with the blue fading and the normal text color appearing.
There is a ton of info here, and I've actually learned a lot about what is going on by writing this post, but I'm still confused if it is a problem with the deselection or if it is a problem with the way I've set up the cells or if it is possibly an issue in my overrides of setSelected and setHighlighted. Thanks for any help, I really appreciate it considering the amount of content here.