Custom UITableViewCell

[skinrock]

I have a view xib that contains just a UITableView, which loads fine, I have it listing out data from my database. But I want to use a custom UITableViewCell, so I added one to the same xib. The reason is so that I can design it in Interface Builder instead of trying to code it.

I changed the class of the ListViewCell to a class I created that extends UITableViewCell. I've tried two ways of allocating this class in the cellForRowAtIndexPath method. First I tried:

cell = [[[ListViewCell alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectZero reuseIdentifier:MyIdentifier] autorelease];

But that doesn't seem to use the design from within Interface Builder.

I then tried setting an IBOutlet on my UITableViewController class, and linked it to the TableViewCell using IB, and then this line:

cell = [[listViewCell initWithFrame:CGRectZero reuseIdentifier:MyIdentifier] autorelease];

But as you might imagine, it doesn't properly create a new ViewCell for each row, it gets messed up: the first two become blank and only the last row actually has a design to it.

[skinrock]

Basically I was looking for something similar to initWithNibName, but that's not available on UITableViewCell.

[skinrock]

I thought I was on the right path, but no luck so far...here's what I tried:

Create another UIView set: UIViewController class, UIView class and a xib file, set the propreties in the xib to the respective classes.

In the initWithFrame method for the UITableViewCell class that was created previously, add this:

CGRect tzvFrame = CGRectMake(0.0, 0.0, self.contentView.bounds.size.width, self.contentView.bounds.size.height);
ListViewCellController *listViewCellController = [[ListViewCellController alloc] initWithNibName:@"ListViewCellView" bundle:nil];
listViewCellView =[listViewCellController.listViewCellView initWithFrame:tzvFrame];
listViewCellView.autoresizingMask = UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleWidth | UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleHeight;
[self.contentView addSubview:listViewCellView];

I thought that might work, but no luck. What's odd is that I get no errors, just a blank cell.

[PhoneyDeveloper]

Using alloc/init or loading a nib are orthogonal methods for creating objects. Use one or the other. If you load a nib you get one of each of the objects that are freeze-dried in that nib. If you need more than one you need to load the nib again, and again.

It's possible that you could create a nib that holds a single instance of a UITableViewCell subclass and then load that nib many times using the apis in UINibLoading.h. If you like that method then it should work fine. I agree that laying out a UI in code is so 20th century.

Having said that, I generate my UITableViewCells in code. You seem to be mixing these two strategies with no good results. Give that up. One or the other.

[skinrock]

Well I gave up, I'm just going to lay it out programatically. I'm not about to waste time over this when I have the rest of the app to build.

[ifonecoder]

In IB create the UItableviewcell and save it. Select write class files under menu and add it to the project.

you have to write the initwithcgrectframe ( dont remember the exact function name) by yourself and in the initialization function do this:

if(self=[ super init])
{
self=[ [ [ NSBundle mainBundle ] loadNibNamed:@"NIB name without extension" owner:self options:nil] lastObject];
}
return self;

that should do the trick