How to make a prototype cell 'disappear' when it is 'empty' (not clickable) - swift

Question

I am making an application where the user can see certain items/users within his x km radius (much like Tinder where you can set the radius of girls/guys you want to see in your area). So in my cellForRowAtIndexPath function I am determining whether a cell can be shown.
If he is in the radius, the event is shown. If the location is too far away, it shouldn't be using a cell.
My current code just hides the cell, but it is still clickable. I want it to NOT use a cell in the first place, but I couldn't find how to do it. Any ideas?
override func tableView(tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath, object: PFObject?) -> AllGeneralMeetsTableViewCell {
//get location from backend
let locLati = object?["coordLat"] as? Double
let locLongi = object?["coordLong"] as? Double
let currentLocation:CLLocation = CLLocation(latitude: localLati , longitude: localLongi)
let meetLocation:CLLocation = CLLocation(latitude: locLati! , longitude: locLongi!)
let meters:CLLocationDistance = currentLocation.distanceFromLocation(meetLocation)
// make distance in km
let distInKm = meters/1000
//get distance that user has set in his settings
let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier("GeneralMeetsIdentifier") as! AllGeneralMeetsTableViewCell!
if (distInKm <= settingsKm) {
// Extract values from the PFObject to display in the table cel
if let title = object?["title"] as? String {
cell?.titleCell?.text = title
}
if let message = object?["message"] as? String {
cell?.messageCell?.text = message
}
if let image = object?["image"] as? PFFile {
image.getDataInBackgroundWithBlock({ (imageData: NSData?,error: NSError?) -> Void in
if (error == nil) {
let image1 = UIImage(data:imageData!)
cell.imageCell.image = image1
}
})
}
return cell
}
else {
return cell
}
}
}
The data is being returned by the following query
override func queryForTable() -> PFQuery {
let query = PFQuery(className: self.parseClassName!)
let FBID = myUser.objectForKey("facebookID")!
query.whereKey("facebookID", equalTo: FBID)
query.whereKey("private", equalTo: "false")
return query
}

Answer 1

In your cellForRowAtIndexPath-
if cell is to be displayed {
tableView.rowHeight = 120
//Replace 120 with desired rowHeight
} else {
tableView.rowHeight = 0
}
Hope this helps :-)

Answer 2

You want to make the cell disappear when there is no data. If I am right, then you can use this library called as 'DZNEmptyDataSet' to display some images telling the user that there is no data to load. Use Cocoapods to install it, or just drag the files and create a bridging header. The usage is pretty straightforward as well - just follow the documentation at the GitHub.

Answer 3

The proper solution is to remove the data from your data source so that it won't be displayed in the first place. But sometimes this is a lot of work.
If you just want to hide a cell you can give it a zero height using the tableView(_:heightForRowAtIndexPath:) delegate method:
func tableView(tableView: UITableView, heightForRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) -> CGFloat {
if indexPath.row == 1 {
return 0.0
}
return tableView.rowHeight
}

Answer 4

Parse provides a type PFGeopoint and it is even supported in the Query, with Parse framework you can also obtain location the same way you download stuff from database, this way you can download only those posts that are available for the user in his range...
PFGeoPoint.geoPointForCurrentLocationInBackground { (geoPoint: PFGeoPoint?, error: NSError?) -> Void in
if error == nil { //asynchronous, U have access to GPS location
// create Parse Query
let query: PFQuery = PFQuery(className: "Post")
// 5km range
query.whereKey("gps", nearGeoPoint: geoPoint, withinKilometers: 5.0)
//rest of query....
} else { // dont have access to GPS or whatever
print("Eror location: \(error)")
}
}