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How to create a UITableView with editable components?
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Closed 3 years ago.
I need to present the user with a screen with controls (i.e. a dialog). It will display some labels and different types of controls so that the user can do some configuration:
select a color (custom color picker)
select a line width (slider)
select one value from a list of values (UISegmentedControl?)
enable / disable one option (On/Off)
...
I am evaluating different alternatives:
Create the layout with labels and controls in InterfaceBuilder
Use a UITableView, so that each cell contains a label and its control
I like option 2 because it is similar to iPhone Settings app, and it makes the screen look organized, giving you sections, scroll..., but it is a real pain to create in code all different cell layouts, taking into account each row heights...
The solution has to be easiliy maintainable, allowing easy reuse of code, DRY (low repetition), data-driven...
Is there a recommended or standard aproach to do this?
Instead of implementing it yourself you might also like to consider some of the open source solutions. I use InAppSettingsKit in my app. There are a few minor UI glitches but it works well. I also evaluated mySettings (indeed I submitted a couple of patches) and InAppSettings.
Even if you don't use them, you might be able to crib a few ideas from them.
You can create the tableview cells in IB and then just create IBOutlets to each cell, and then return each cell in the data source method (forgotten the exact name of it, its where you normally create cells)
You could create a cell in IB for each cell or create different types of cells in IB, say one slider based cell, etc and programmatically change the text, etc.
This is staticly creating a tableview, theres an Apple guide on it somewhere.
you said it. use a UITableView and create custom UITableViewCells (probably in Interface Builder!) and add these in.
Also, as far as selecting a value from a list of values.. a drill in UITableView (embed the root UITableView in a navigation controller) with all the options and then a checkmark is probably advisable (this is how most apps handle this behavior). The On/Off button is more suited for UISegmentedControl.
There are great examples of this in this book.
Good luck.
Related
I have a question. I am trying to create an expandable FAQ menu without using a tableviewcontroller. The reason I don't want to use a tableview is because I don't want expandable cells, rather, I want a buttonclick to reveal a label while also sliding down any other buttons on this page.
I'm using Swift in Xcode 7.3
If anyone has any suggestions/knows of a tutorial/a forum post, it would be greatly appreciated.
Thank You.
Sure,nyou could use buttons, and either change constraints on label heights or dynamically add labels. That's a lot of effort and code.
Or, you could use a table view and one of the myriad guides. Remember that table views don't have to be selectable on ever row, and they don't have to display row separator lines (UI).
Indeed you could disable selection on all rows and add buttons to some rows, though I'd personally say that's overkill and why require the user to be 100% accurate with the tap on a button which in your sample image doesn't even look like a button.
I am a very basic SWIFT Xcode programmer. I make small apps.
For last 2 days, I am stuck at a very simple thing and I am sure with your guidance I can quickly make a decision.
I have a UIViewController class as well as an xib
In the layout I have 4 textfields
Now based on a user setting (in another frame user make a choice), I will either have to show 4 textfields ** OR ** 3 textfields and a UISwitch.
Long story short, if user select one option he should see UISwitch and 3 textfields or else 4 textfield. The labels's text also change.
To my limited knowledge, I will make another UIViewController, another XIB file and if user selection allows I will segue to the new UIViewController.
But all this looks so redundant. How do you smart people do this thing?
(Edit)
I use size classes in my layout as well as constraints in the visual editor for positioning of elements on the layout. If I change things programmatically, which is one option, how will I manage the layout ?
Please advise.
Show me the right path please.
When user select first option based on action show or hide the text field or switches, like when user select first option only show three text field and one UIswitch hide fourth text field.
And programatically change text field hint value and also set NSString Tag="first" so that when you want that value at the time of submit button you can apply if condition to tag and on that basis you can get your desired output on each selection.
I am very new to iphone application development and am struggling to create a table view page where each row contains a left-aligned label with an editable text next to it - just like how it works in the email account details page in the settings application on my iphone.
I have been googling the subject for hours and it is now somehow clear to me that I need to add UITextFields to UITableViewCells, but it is still not at all clear to me how I make these text fields take up the right amount of space:
How do I make the text fields align above each other?
How do I make the text fields expand as far as possible to the right?
How do I prevent the text fields from hiding part of the left-aligned label?
Read the Apple Docs on Tableviews there are a number of predefined table cells. Also look at the Tableview programming Guide. Pick the one that has the font characteristics that you want and Apple will take care of it for you. Also, in the Settings app, the settings are a Grouped style.
For the look you are describing I think it is called UITableViewCellStyleSubtitle.
You need custom UITableViewCells and there are a number of ways of making them. For your purposes, any one of the techniques detailed in the Apple documentation will probably suffice.
An alternative to those approaches is in GSUtils (full disclosure: open-source library written by me), where you can use the same approach to designing your table view cells as you would design a UIView.
So it's trivial to create a Settings style table on the iPhone. The problem is, they add a great deal of code as your Settings have a gamut of options/styled cells. One section might have a check list, another might have cells with accessory disclosures to drill down further, another might be labels with UITextFields.
My question here is, what's the cleanest way to go about creating this table. Do you typically create a subclass of UITableViewController and then subclass UITableViewCell for each different type of cells, and write supporting classes for those cells? Meaning if you have a Settings style table with 4 sections, all different types of cells, you will load 4 nibs into the table and import 4 class files? Programmatically set the frame, views, textfields and tag them for later access?
The answer(s) to this is probably subjective, but I'd like to know what you experts consider the most elegant approach to this common problem.
The easiest way to do this is to simply add your controls during the tableView:cellForRowAtIndexPath: method.
I also recommend this to help corral your code:
A technique for using UITableView and retaining your sanity
I would rather set most of the settings that I can in Interface Builder, instead of writing a whole bunch of code to make the visual/layout just right. As you can imagine, it will take quite a few rounds of "modify - build - test" in the iPhone Simulator to get this special table view laid out the way you want it.
I feel it's probably a bit easier to do all of these rough visual changes in IB, then load all of the custom UITableViewCell dynamically via their identifiers in code. You could then do one final round of tweaking on this code, if something that you want is not doable in IB.
Three20 library (extracted from Facebook iPhone app) has a set of ready-made cells that contain various controls.
(Not sure you want to use them, however. Three20 suffers from “not-invented-here” a little bit and tries to subclass and extend everything, so adding it adds quite a bit of a mess to your project. But at least you can use it as an example.)
P.S. Your question inspired me to open a “What are your favourite UITableView / UITableViewCell tricks?” thread on Stack Overflow, check it out for more tips.
I'm exploring the iPhone SDK and want to create and use a UI component like the figure below. A rounded table with cells in which each cell can have some label text, maybe an input text field and an action button that would take it to the next screen. The table should not be screen filling.
But... I can't figure out how to do it or find example code. The 'Table View' always seems to result in a screen filling table and although the 'Table View Cell' looks like what I need I can't find any good examples. I'm sure it's all not that hard, but I just can't find it. Any tips, pointers are appreciated.
(This figure is just an example of the sort of UI component I'm looking for, I'm not build something related to flight tracking...)
Table like component http://gerodt.homeip.net/table_ui_component.png
Gero
Try looking at the "5_CustomTableViewCell" project of the TableViewSuite code sample from Apple. It should how to create custom subclasses of UITableViewCell.
The short answer is, as alluded to above, you'll want to subclass UITableViewCell and add your custom UI elements to it. For the example you provided, you'd want two different types of cells; one with a label (in light blue) and content (in black) for 4 of your cells, and then a more complex one with additional text on the right.
You want a Grouped style table, which has sections with rounded elements as you lay out instead of filling the screen.
You also want custom table cells, which you can search here to find example code for.
As mentioned by other answers, what you want is a grouped TableView with custom UITableViewCells. Take a look at the Table View Programming Guide, in particular this section on table view creation and this section on custom cells.