I have an iPhone project with a NIB that only has a table view (UITableViewController). My delegate loads the nib (and associated controller) and all is well. Now I'd like to have UILabel show up when there is no data to show in the table view. Revisiting the NIB it occurred to me that only the File's Owner, Delegate, and the Table View are present (i.e. no Window).
It seems like I've seen this before in apps when say you search for something and there are no results. What is the best practices approach to adding the UI label or any other UI element for that matter.
Thanks!
You can just add a UILabel in interface builder over top of your table view and set it to hidden. Then, when you get 0 results, just call -setHidden:NO on the label.
You could as easily just return a single table row in the case where your results count is zero with some instructive text such as "No results" that is not tappable/selectable.
Related
I am working on an app that has several prototype cells in one view. This worked well for easily altering the appearance of the app while in development using the storyboard. However, now I'm adding search (filtering) capability. I would like the appearance of the tableview to remain unchanged, just filter out some of the results.
My understanding is that I have to create new cells to do this. Is this correct? If it is, is there a way to create a cell with all the properties of my prototype cells. As it is now, the newly created (search result) cells have default settings.
Thanks.
You can certainly use copy and paste. Create a xib file (an empty one), and copy the cell you want from your table view in the storyboard, and then paste it into the xib file. In the viewDidLoad method for your table data source, register that nib file:
[self.searchDisplayController.searchResultsTableView registerNib:[UINib nibWithNibName:#"SearchCell" bundle:nil] forCellReuseIdentifier:#"SearchCell"];
Then in the cellForRowAtIndexPath method, you just dequeue a cell with that identifier for your search results table view.
The thing to understand clearly is that the table view that appears when you are doing a search with the UISearchDisplayController conglomerate is not your table view. It is a different table view, and you do not have a UITableViewController managing it - the UISearchDisplayController does that. Thus you must take other measures if you want that different table view to look like your table view.
EDIT: On the whole (and after the little exchange with rdelmar in the comments on his answer), I tend to think the easiest solution is to abandon the use of cell prototypes altogether. If you design the cell in a nib (xib), you can then use that cell both for the real table and for the search results table. In both cases you register the nib with the respective table view - and then dequeue just does the right thing all by itself, in both cases, with no change in the code.
You can see me doing something similar here:
https://github.com/mattneub/Programming-iOS-Book-Examples/blob/master/ch21p632searchableTable/p536p550searchableTable/RootViewController.m
... except that in that case I'm registering the same cell class for both tables, not the same nib. But it all comes down to the same thing. However, note that I do not start with a storyboard, so I never fell into the trap of using a prototype cell in the first place.
I need to add a new table view to my UITableViewController which will includes a different data and design.
the above prototype cells is the new table view I've added in storyboard, and the main table view is the second one which includes (title, label, and image).
Is it allowed to create another table view in UITableViewController, or should I create a UIViewController and implement the two tables in it???
In fact, I've finished the implementation of the first table view controller, so I need to implement the new one.
the attached image is showing what I want:
You will be better off with a UIViewController that has two tableViews as subviews if you want both of your tables to be shown at the same time. UITableViewController should be used only when there is just one tableView shown at a certain time.
You can either have one UIViewController being the dataSource and delegate for both of the tableViews, or have a UITableViewController for each of your tables and add them as subviews to a UIViewController that will be a container view for both of them. The latter will probably save you some time debugging possible issues as having two tableViews with a single delegate/dataSource requires a lot of duplicate code in the same place.
I think you should use UIExpandableTableView
there is detailed usage on github page
Scree example of UIExpandableTableView
Are you looking to have them be two independent tables, or is it a master/child setup?
If they are independent, I suggestion using one table and two sections, then depending on the section number return to correct cell.
For master/child, think about making a view that looks like a cell and have the master cells be the sections views and the children be the actually rows. You can make a section class that stores if the children are visible or not and in the numberOfRowsInSection method return the count if visible or 0 if not.
Just a couple ideas
I am new to iPhone development, and I am working on modifications to an existing iPhone app. The high-level overview of the issue is this.
I have a button displaying a pop-up containing a UITableView.
I'd like to click on a menu item and display a second UITableView with sub-items, including a back option. If the user clicks back, they go the original UITableView. If the sub-item has additional sub-items underneath it, it should (when clicked) launch another UITableView with these options. There is also a back button as a menu item that will allow the user to navigate to the previous menu displayed.
The challenge here is that I am not using a navigation controller. the original developer only wants to add UITable Views to the stack, add transitions between them as you go from one menu to the other. Most of the tutorials I have seen and tried utilize a navigation controller and Interface Builder to associate the UITableViews.
Right now, I have an XML data source populating the menu, and when I click on a menu item, the titles change correctly, but still uses the same UITableView to display the options - this has consequences of course, as some of the sub-items may not fit on a screen.
any thoughts on how this can be done? I can post some code if necessary, although I think the general description should be able to ring a bell with one of you smart guys!
This can be done in numerous ways.
I haven't done this first one, but you can probably create a UINavigationController and set its view to the appropriate frame (inside the bubble) hide the navigation bar and set the action of your back button to pop the current view controller.
Another method is to have multiple tableviews on one controller, the delegate and datasource methods have the UITableView as an argument so you can distinguish them when setting the height of your rows, headers etc and when returning a UITableViewCell.
The way I've chosen to deal with such configurations is to have one UITableView and have only the datasource change. When you reload, insert, delete rows or reload the whole table, you can change anything you want depending on the current datasource level. The easiest none animated way is to reload the whole table.
a) If your "options" go off-screen height wise (you want fixed height) table change the - (CGFloat)tableview:(UITableView *)table heightForRowAtSection:(NSInteger)section return value
b) If your "options" go off-screen length wise either make your cell's default textLabel flexible: cell.textLabel.adjustsFontSizeToFitWidth = YES; cell.textLabel.minimumFontSize = 14; or have custom cells (lookup subclassing UITableViewCell, which is recommended) for each datasource level.
If you subclass TableViewCells remember to have different dequeue cell identifiers for each level, so the table doesn't provide you with another level's cell class.
For the "stack" of tableviews or datasources, you can have an NSMutableArray with addObject for push and removeLastObject for pop.
For animations, UITableViews can animate their rows/sections for 3. (see documentation for insert, delete, reload - Rows/Sections UITableView class reference), for 2. you can even have UIView (if not CoreAnimation as Grimless suggested) animations, that move the current tableview to the left (setFrame:) and the next tableview from the right (setFrame offscreen before animation and then in place in the beginAnimation-commitAnimation clause), but make sure you add the tableviews in a container view (the bubble interior) that clips its subviews.
Oi. This is gonna be a tough one. My suggestion would be to maintain your own stack implementation. Then, use CoreAnimation to add/remove UITableViews from your main view controller to get animated effects. So whenever the user clicks on an element in the current table view, the appropriate controller creates a new controller and table view, and then your custom navigation controller pushes the old one onto the stack, removes the old table view from the main view, sets the new controller as the current one, and adds the new table view to the main view. Kinda messy, but I think it will work.
first time asker, long-time lurker.
I am trying to create an iPhone view that has a date/time picker on the bottom half of the screen, and a grouped, single-section, four-row table view on the top half of the screen (almost identical to the one Apple shows in Fig. 2-4 of their View Controller Programming Guide (but then never goes on to explain).
Conceptually, I think I understand that what I need is a main view with a pair of subviews - one for the picker, and one for the table view. I'm pretty sure I can make the picker function once I have it on-screen, and I'm pretty sure I can make the table view function too. What I can't for the life of me figure out is how, programmatically speaking, to get the two views onto the screen simultaneously. I can lay it out perfectly in Interface Builder, but then it all goes to hell when I switch to Xcode...the view appears with the picker, but no table view.
Thanks, in advance, for any help you can offer.
the view appears with the picker, but no table view.
If the table view isn't assigned a data source, then it has nowhere from which to populate itself, and so it may give you the appearance of "not being there".
Have you created a view controller for this view? Is it a subclass of UITableViewController, or does it at least implement the UITableViewDelegate/UITableViewDataSource protocols? Is it set as the File's Owner in the .xib? And has it been assigned (using the connections) as your table view's delegate and dataSource?
In your .xib, are both the UITableView and the UIPickerView subviews of a top-level UIView, which is connected to your view controller's view property (i.e. for the File's Owner)?
UIView
+
|
+---UITableView
|
+---UIPickerView
I have a ordinary UITableViewController inside a UINavigationController. The former includes a searchbar which is connected to a search display controller. I use the standard behaviour, i.e. when the user enters any character the search results table view overlays the normal table view.
Now, both table views act inside a navigation controller. If I select one item from the search results table view, a new uitableviewcontroller (with specific information about the item selected) gets pushed onto the nav stack. When I hit the back button on that controller, I observe a strange behavior: The section headers of the normal table view overdraw the section headers of my search results table view. They are displayed as if my normal table view is being displayed (I can see that from the number of rows between the headers, though the rows remain empty). The search result table rows are still being displayed.
This behavior comes from the fact that I reload the table view on viewWillAppear. I do this to react on changes in the database made by the user at some other point in the application or automatic background data updates. I already tried to poll if the recently displayed table view is being shown via
(self.tableView == self.searchDisplayController.searchResultsTableView)
but that statement is always false after I return to my normal table view controller.
The question: how can I poll the correct state of my table view to avoid the displaying errors?
The UISearchDisplayController class implements an active property. Guess what it's used for :-)
e.g. just check for (self.searchDisplayController.active) or ([self.searchDisplayController isActive]).