iOS - UiTableviewCell - Background Image only showing on one cell at a time - iphone

Question

I've used UIAppearance to set the background image of my table cells across my app.
[[UITableViewCell appearance] setBackgroundView:[ [UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:[ [UIImage imageNamed:#"list_bg.png"] stretchableImageWithLeftCapWidth:0.0 topCapHeight:5.0] ]];
However, when I view a list the background image is only set for one of the cells on screen. If I scroll the screen the background image is set on the cell that appears into view but it doesnt set this bg image on any other visible cell.
Anyone got any idea whats going on? I thought that by setting the UIAppearance of UITableviewCell that all instances of this type would automatically get the background image.
Thanks
Brian
Here is my cellForRowAtIndexPath method:
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
static NSString *CellIdentifier = #"plantCell";
UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
if (cell == nil) {
[[NSBundle mainBundle] loadNibNamed:#"PlantListCell" owner:self options:nil];
cell = _plantCell;
self.plantCell = nil;
}
Plant *plant = [self.fetchedResultsController objectAtIndexPath:indexPath];
UIImageView *thumbnail = (UIImageView *)[cell viewWithTag:1];
thumbnail.image = [UIImage imageNamed:[plant.name stringByAppendingString:#"_S"]];
UILabel *label = (UILabel *)[cell viewWithTag:2];
label.text = plant.name;
UIImageView *set = (UIImageView *)[cell viewWithTag:3];
set.image = [UIImage imageNamed:#"set"];
UIImageView *favourite = (UIImageView *)[cell viewWithTag:4];
favourite.image = [UIImage imageNamed:#"fav"];
return cell;
}

Answer 1

Yep. The issue with this is you're telling the UITableViewCell class to set the one UIImageView for each table view cell's background view. Once its set as one, its removed from its previous superview, and added to the new UITableViewCell. You're not getting duplicate UIImageViews set on each tableViewCell; you're getting the one view set on every table view cell.
So then its set and unset from each tableViewCell till the last one it was set on.
Using the appearance proxy for this method sets it on every object of the UITableViewCell.
I wouldn't use the appearance proxy to set the background view method, as whatever view you pass to it will be one view, which can only apply to one cell at a time.
My recommendation is to create a view for each cell independently, or creating a subclass which sets it on initialisation.

Answer 2

Thanks thebarcodeproject. It kind of makes sense alright, but I don't see why Apple bothered to allow us to set the UITableviewCell background image if it doesnt really work.
I went with a simple solution in the end by just setting the image in the cellForRowAtIndexPath method.
cell.backgroundView = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:[UIImage imageNamed:#"list_bg.png"]];
It works fine, but not great if you have lots of tables and want to set it in a generic way.
Cheers
Brian

Answer 3

I solved this by creating a base class called CustomizableUITableCell and setting up a ui appearance value for the background image. Then whenever i create a cell that i need with a custom background i simple subclass CustomizableUITableCell.
//Header
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#interface CustomizableUITableCell : UITableViewCell <UIAppearance>
#property (nonatomic, weak) UIColor *backgroundCellColor UI_APPEARANCE_SELECTOR;
#end
//Implementation
#import "CustomizableUITableCell.h"
#implementation CustomizableUITableCell
#synthesize backgroundCellColor;
#pragma mark - Public Methods.
-(void)setBackgroundCellColor:(UIColor *)backgroundColor
{
[super setBackgroundColor:backgroundColor];
}
#end
You can then set it using the appearance proxy.
[[CustomizableUITableCell appearance] setBackgroundCellColor:[UIColor colorWithPatternImage:backgroundImage]];

Answer 4

cell.backgroundView = [[UIImageView alloc]
initWithImage:[ [UIImage imageNamed:#"1.jpg"]
stretchableImageWithLeftCapWidth:0.0 topCapHeight:5.0] ];
It works for me..