UITableView does not exist when run on iPhone, but works fine in Simulator.

[DevJustin]

Hello everyone,

I am trying to take over an application that was contracted out by my company. We are on a tight deadline and I am new to all things Apple. (no one in the company develops for Apple so I have to turn outward)
to the problem.

I have a dynamically created UITableView and it works fine in the simulator but doesn't work at all when it is installed on the actual iPhone device.

SpecialtyListViewController.h

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@class SpecialtyViewController;

@interface SpecialtyListViewController : UIViewController <UITableViewDelegate, UITableViewDataSource>{
	IBOutlet UITableView *specialtyTableView;
	NSMutableArray *specialtyArray;
	NSString *selectedSpecialty;
}

@property (nonatomic, retain) UITableView *specialtyTableView;

@end

SpecialtyListViewController.m

#import "SpecialtyListViewController.h"
#import "SearchParameters.h"
#import "Query.h"

@implementation SpecialtyListViewController

@synthesize specialtyTableView;

- (void)viewDidLoad {
	// Populate table with specialities parsed from SOAP response
	specialtyArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
	
//problem here: the specialtyTableView seems to be unallocated.  But the code works on the simulator.

	SearchParameters *searchParameters = [SearchParameters sharedSearchParameters];
	specialtyArray = searchParameters.specialties;
	
	// Initialize selected variable
	selectedSpecialty = @"";
	
	[super viewDidLoad];
}

//
- (NSInteger)numberOfSectionsInTableView:(UITableView *)tableView {
	return 1;
}

- (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section {
	return [specialtyArray count];
}

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
	
	static NSString *CellIdentifier = @"Cell";
	
	UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
	if (cell == nil) {
		cell = [[[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectZero reuseIdentifier:CellIdentifier] autorelease];
	}
	
	NSString *cellValue = [specialtyArray objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];
	NSString *decoded = [cellValue stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString: @"&" withString: @"&"];
	cell.textLabel.text = decoded;
	
	return cell;
}

- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView didSelectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
	// When a specialty is tapped, update the Query object with its value
	// and return to parent view
	selectedSpecialty = [specialtyArray objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];

	if (selectedSpecialty == @"Search all specialties") {
		selectedSpecialty = @"";
	}
	
	Query *query = [Query sharedQuery];
	query.specialty = selectedSpecialty;
	[query release];

	[self.navigationController popViewControllerAnimated:TRUE];
}

- (void)viewDidAppear:(BOOL)animated {
	[super viewDidAppear:animated];

	Query *query = [Query sharedQuery];
	if (query.specialty==@"") {
		NSIndexPath *scrollIndexPath = [NSIndexPath indexPathForRow:0 inSection:0];
		[specialtyTableView selectRowAtIndexPath:scrollIndexPath animated:YES scrollPosition:UITableViewScrollPositionTop];
		//[self selectRowAtIndexPath:scrollIndexPath animated:YES scrollPosition:UITableViewScrollPositionTop];
		[scrollIndexPath release];
	}
	[query release];
}

//...I removed a few of the completely boilerplate code.
- (void)dealloc {
	[specialtyArray release];
	[selectedSpecialty release];
    [super dealloc];
}

the way its being called

-(IBAction)showSpecialties:(id)sender {
	// Allocate and assign view controller when button is tapped
	if (self.specialtyListViewController == nil) {
		SpecialtyListViewController *specialtyList = [SpecialtyListViewController alloc];
		self.specialtyListViewController = specialtyList;
		[specialtyList release];
	}
	self.specialtyListViewController.title = @"Provider Specialty";
	[self.navigationController pushViewController:self.specialtyListViewController animated:YES];
}

If anyone has a tutorial or something related to the way this code is being used it would be greatly appreciated. I have been hunting for weeks and I can't find a single tutorial that is near enough that I can make sense of why this works in the Sim but doesn't work on the device. I have been looking through the iPhone development resources: iPhone Dev Center: Table View Programming Guide for iPhone OS: Creating and Configuring a Table View but I can't find anything different enough.

Any ideas, comments, questions, thoughts?

Thanks in advance
-Justin

iPhoneOS 3.1.2
xcode 3.1.4

[BrianSlick]

Is there a XIB file? If so, make sure the IBOutlet is connected.

If not, you don't seem to be building the table in code anywhere. So the property would be nil.

[DevJustin]

There is no xib.

In terms of building the table in code, what might that look like?

The contents of the specialtyArray (strings) should be the text of the table. Since it works in the simulator, I would have thought it was working correctly without discreetly assigning anything. Thus my confusion.

-Justin

[BrianSlick]

This:

@property (nonatomic, retain) UITableView *specialtyTableView;

Is basically just a placeholder. It does not actually create the table.

So somewhere in your code, possibly viewDidLoad, you'll need to do something like this:

UITableView *table = [[UITableView alloc] initWithStyle: ...];
[self setSpecialtyTableView: table];
[table release], table = nil;

I'm not seeing where what you have should be working at all, regardless of device vs. simulator.

[DevJustin]

- (void)viewDidLoad {
	// Populate table with specialities parsed from SOAP response
	specialtyArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
	
	SearchParameters *searchParameters = [SearchParameters sharedSearchParameters];
	specialtyArray = searchParameters.specialties;
	
	// Initialize selected variable
	selectedSpecialty = @"";
	
	UITableView *table = [[UITableView alloc] init];
	[self setSpecialtyTableView:table];
	table.delegate = self;
	table.dataSource = self;
	
	[super viewDidLoad];
	[table release];
}

So I made the above changes and now it wipes out all the previous pages as well.

While working thru the debugger further, I noticed that on the simulator it will make the calls to

(NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section
(UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
(NSInteger)numberOfSectionsInTableView:(UITableView *)tableView

but on the phone it doesn't make those calls. (Previous code or the newly modified code.

Thoughts?

I am thinking about just building a basic XIB and pushing things to it.

Thanks,
-Justin

[BrianSlick]

You've got a leak with specialtyArray there, but that's probably not related.

No idea why a table would work in the simulator but not the device.

I'd vote for a XIB, yes.

[DevJustin]

OK. I have had it tested by the person who built it originally and it works for them on several phones. I tested another phone here and it doesn't work so I have uninstalled XCode and iPhone SDK and started over. If that doesn't fix it I will build a XIB and work on the leak that you pointed out..assuming I can find it.

Sorry, while they say that it is really similar to C, I have to disagree after 6 years of C/C++ coding, this syntax is killing me. Must Learn Faster!