How to access a property of a tableview cell from viewcontroller? - swift

Question

Please see screenshot. There is a repliesTableView, replyTextField and replyButtonin ViewController. repliesTableView cell is called ReplyCell. In ReplyCell there is a commentTableView to list all comments for that reply and a textfField, a commentButton to add new comments.
I have problem when add new replies and new comments. I guess I need to make comments array in ReplyCell empty when I click the Reply button. How can I make this happen? I have no idea how to access comments arrayfrom the root ViewController.
Exact problems: fter clicking commentButton, all comments in every cell doubled. After clicking replyButton, comments went to wrong cell.
Code:
import UIKit
import Firebase
class TopicForumVC: UIViewController, UITableViewDelegate, UITableViewDataSource, UITextFieldDelegate {
#IBOutlet weak var topicNameLabel: UILabel!
#IBOutlet weak var replyNumberLabel: UILabel!
#IBOutlet weak var repliesTableView: UITableView!
#IBOutlet weak var replyTextField: UITextField!
var topicName:String?
var firstKey:String?
var secondKey:String?
var replies = [String]()
var replyButtonTapped = false
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
repliesTableView.delegate = self
repliesTableView.dataSource = self
replyTextField.delegate = self
}
override func viewDidAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
topicNameLabel.text = self.topicName
loadReplies()
}
func loadReplies() {
self.replies = []
DataService.ds.Categories_Base.child(self.firstKey!).child("Topics").observe(.value, with:{(snapshot) in
if let snapshots = snapshot.children.allObjects as? [FIRDataSnapshot] {
for snap in snapshots {
if let topicDict = snap.value as? Dictionary<String,AnyObject> {
if let topic = topicDict["text"] as? String {
if topic == self.topicName {
self.secondKey = snap.key
UserDefaults.standard.setValue(snap.key, forKey: Key_SecondKey)
if let replyDict = topicDict["replies"] as? Dictionary<String,AnyObject> {
for eachDict in replyDict {
if let textDict = eachDict.value as? Dictionary<String,AnyObject> {
if let reply = textDict["text"] as? String {
self.replies.append(reply)
self.replyNumberLabel.text = String(self.replies.count)
}
}
}
}
}
}
}
}
self.repliesTableView.reloadData()
}
})
}
func numberOfSections(in tableView: UITableView) -> Int {
return 1
}
func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
return replies.count
}
func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
if let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: "ReplyCell") as? ReplyCell {
let reply = replies[indexPath.row]
cell.configureReplyCell(reply: reply)
return cell
} else {
return UITableViewCell()
}
}
#IBAction func replyButtonTapped(_ sender: Any) {
replyButtonTapped = true
if let reply = replyTextField.text, reply != "" {
self.replies = []
DataService.ds.Categories_Base.child(self.firstKey!).child("Topics").child(self.secondKey!).child("replies").childByAutoId().child("text").setValue(reply)
self.repliesTableView.reloadData()
let i = replies.count
for n in 0..<i {
let indexPath = IndexPath(row: n, section: 1)
let cell = repliesTableView.cellForRow(at: indexPath) as! ReplyCell
cell.comments = []
cell.repliesToReplyTableView.reloadData()
}
self.replyTextField.text = ""
self.replyButtonTapped = false
}
}
}
import UIKit
import Firebase
class ReplyCell: UITableViewCell,UITableViewDataSource,UITableViewDelegate, UITextFieldDelegate {
#IBOutlet weak var replyTextView: UITextView!
#IBOutlet weak var repliesToReplyTableView: UITableView!
#IBOutlet weak var commentTextField: UITextField!
var reply:String?
var comments = [String]()
var replyKey:String?
override func awakeFromNib() {
super.awakeFromNib()
self.comments = []
repliesToReplyTableView.delegate = self
repliesToReplyTableView.dataSource = self
commentTextField.delegate = self
loadComments()
}
func configureReplyCell(reply:String) {
self.reply = reply
self.replyTextView.text = self.reply
}
func loadComments() {
self.comments = []
if let firstKey = UserDefaults.standard.value(forKey: Key_FirstKey) as? String, let secondKey = UserDefaults.standard.value(forKey: Key_SecondKey) as? String {
DataService.ds.Categories_Base.child(firstKey).child("Topics").child(secondKey).child("replies").observe(.value, with:{(snapshot) in
if let snapshots = snapshot.children.allObjects as? [FIRDataSnapshot] {
for snap in snapshots {
if let replyDict = snap.value as? Dictionary<String,AnyObject> {
if let reply = replyDict["text"] as? String {
if reply == self.reply {
self.replyKey = snap.key
DataService.ds.Categories_Base.child(firstKey).child("Topics").child(secondKey).child("replies").child(snap.key).child("comments").observe(.value, with: { (commentSnapshot) in
if let commentSnapshots = commentSnapshot.children.allObjects as? [FIRDataSnapshot] {
for commentSnap in commentSnapshots {
if let commentDict = commentSnap.value as? Dictionary<String,AnyObject> {
if let comment = commentDict["text"] as? String {
self.comments.append(comment)
}
}
}
}
self.repliesToReplyTableView.reloadData()
})
}
}
}
}
}
})
}
}
func numberOfSections(in tableView: UITableView) -> Int {
return 1
}
func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
return comments.count
}
func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
let commentCell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier:"CommentCell")
commentCell?.textLabel?.text = comments[indexPath.row]
return commentCell!
}
override func setSelected(_ selected: Bool, animated: Bool) {
super.setSelected(selected, animated: animated)
}
#IBAction func commentBtnPressed(_ sender: Any) {
if let comment = commentTextField.text, comment != "" {
self.comments = []
if let firstKey = UserDefaults.standard.value(forKey: Key_FirstKey) as? String, let secondKey = UserDefaults.standard.value(forKey: Key_SecondKey) as? String {
DataService.ds.Categories_Base.child(firstKey).child("Topics").child(secondKey).child("replies").child(self.replyKey!).child("comments").childByAutoId().child("text").setValue(comment)
if let myViewController = parentViewController as? TopicForumVC {
// myViewController.repliesTableView.reloadData()
myViewController.replies = []
}
self.repliesToReplyTableView.reloadData()
self.commentTextField.text = ""
self.replyKey = ""
}
}
}

Answer 1

I don't really know the exact circumstances of what you're building but there are two ideas that may offer some guidance.
1) If your table is displaying content from a data source then you will likely have some kind of reference. E.g. when loading the cells (in this case CustomCell) you'll do something like get the index of the cell and get the same index from the data, and put that data in the cells content. If that's the case, all you have to do on the button click is use tableview.cellForRowAtIndexPath with your sender object, and then remove the array from the data source, e.g. tableDataSource[index] = nil and reload the tableView.
2) If you have a stored property on the CustomCell that you've add specifically for storing this array, then you'd cast the sender object to CustomCell and remove the property, as in Kim's answer.
Hope this helps, but without more information it's kind of hard to tell.

Answer 2

let cell = tableview.cellForRowAtIndexPath(...) as? CustomCell
if cell != nil {
let arr = cell.array
}
BTW: I would re-think storing your array in the cell..