When an UITableView is empty, show an UIImage - iphone

Question

This is related to another question of mine which wasn't answered in a helpful way (message when a UITableView is empty).
I'm trying to show an UIImage graphic that says You haven't saved any bookmarks over an UITableView when it's empty. I have NSNotification set-up so that when bookmarks are added or deleted, a message is sent so that the UITableView can be updated.
I've been trying to do it with this code. Why won't this work?
- (void)bookmarksChanged:(NSNotification*)notification
{
[self.tableView reloadData];
UIImageView* emptyBookmarks = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(75, 100, 160, 57)];
emptyBookmarks.alpha = 1;
emptyBookmarks.image = [UIImage imageNamed:#"emptyBookmark.png"];
[self.view addSubview:emptyBookmarks];
[emptyBookmarks release];
if ([self.dataModel bookmarksCount] == 0)
{
emptyBookmarks.alpha = 1;
}
else
{
emptyBookmarks.alpha = 0;
}
}
I'm probably approaching this the wrong way... But if salvageable, what am I doing wrong?
When I initially have an empty bookmarks tableview, there's no image displayed. After I add a bookmark and then delete it, the image shows. Grrh.

Answer 1

Another way (and IMO the correct way) to do this is to manipulate the backgroundView property on the UITableView.
While making a single cell with a custom image cell would certainly works, I think it overly complicates the logic of your UITableViewController's data source. It feels like a kludge.
According to UITableView documentation:
A table view’s background view is automatically resized to match the
size of the table view. This view is placed as a subview of the table
view behind all cells , header views, and footer views.
Assigning an opaque view to this property obscures the background color
set on the table view itself.
While you probably don't want to just set it to your UIImageView, it is very easy to make a UIView that contains the UIImageView that you want.

Answer 2

Well first off if you were going to do it that way, you would need to reload the tableView after updating the image or model etc. and not before.
But you are probably making things more complicated than they need to be!
Why not just check to see if the data for section 0 and indexPath.row 0 are empty and if so in cellForRowAtIndexPath display a text message accordingly.
// First make sure there is always one row returned even if the dataModel is empty.
-(NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section
{
NSInteger numRows = 0;
if ([self.dataModel lastObject]) {
// Return the number of rows in the section.
numRows = [self.dataModel count]; // etc.
}
if (numRows < 1) numRows = 1;
return numRows;
}
// Then display the data if there is some, otherwise a message if empty.
-(UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
static NSString *CellIdentifier = #"Cell";
UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
if (cell == nil) {
cell = [[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleSubtitle reuseIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
}
if ([self.dataModel lastObject]) {
// setup the cell the normal way here.
} else { // the datasource is empty - print a message
cell.textLabel.text = nil;
cell.detailTextLabel.text = NSLocalizedString(#"You haven't saved any bookmarks", #"");
cell.detailTextLabel.textColor = [UIColor colorWithRed:0/255.0 green:0/255.0 blue:0/255.0 alpha:0.7];
cell.accessoryType = UITableViewCellAccessoryNone;
}
return cell;
}

Answer 3

Are you sure [self.dataModel bookmarksCount] is equal to 0 ?

Answer 4

While I agree that you are probably going about this the wrong way,
your image is allocated and added in your bookmark changed, your notification does not trigger when there are no bookmarks initially. Hence you don't see the image. Call the bookmar changed when your table view inits or appears.

Answer 5

Probably the best way to achieve this is to perform a check in your numberOfRowsInSection method to return 1 if your data source is empty. Then in cellForRowAtIndexPath check if your data source is empty and if it is, create a custom cell that contains whatever you want. In heightForRowAtIndexPath you need to return your custom cell height if your datasource is empty, but only if you want the cell larger than the default. At least that is how I would approach it.

Answer 6

when bookmarks count is nil add one to your row method:
- (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section{
int c;
c = bookmarks.count;
if(c == 0){
c = 1;
}
return c;
}
and then the same check again in your cellforrowatindexpath.

Answer 7

Another thing to be aware of in this situation is that if you're using core data and you're datasource is feeding off an entity, you will want to make sure your model matches. You can get some weird side-effect behavior in certain situations. This is especially true if you allow editing and core data has an empty model but you're tableview is still showing a cell.