Question

I am posting this question to get suggestion about an issue. FYI… I have tried approaches 1 and 2, but I am not satisfied with the outcome from programming (and partly UX also) perspective(s).

I have a table which has 2 sections. Each section has 4 cells. Each cell contains a textField. When the user presses Edit button (located on the navigationBar), the user can change the position of the cells, i.e. – s/he can move the cells from one section to another. Simple!

So far I have been considering three approaches.

1. Include a UIButton object with each cell. The button could have an image of + or -. – move cell from second section to first and + moves cells from first section to second. But once the change has been made, the image of the button should change from + to – or vice versa. But I realized that I cannot change the image of the button programmatically. So I will have to make two sets of buttons for each cell => 16 buttons + 16 button @property to change hidden from YES to NO and opposite. I personally think this is not the best approach. Even worse, I will have to keep a track of the index where the cell should appear when it translates from one section to another.

2. Have 8 cells in section 1 and 2. 4 cells of second section appear as hidden in the first section and vice versa. When the user presses + in one section A, its property should be set to hidden in section A and it should be made visible in section B. However, when the cell’s property is set to hidden, a void is created in its place which looks very ugly. Is there a way to fill the void? Also, if I use a grouped cells, the remaining cell at the end of section will not have rounded bottom corners.

3. User can drag cells from one section to another. (FYI.. drag is represented by three horizontal lines.) Issues: how popular is the drag feature? Will the users interpret it without being suggested by the app? If this the best approach, how do I implement it?

I would be glad if you kindly help me pick the best option.

Thanks!

Cheers!

Edit 1:

what if there were three sections, is it possible to change/ move fields between 2 and 3, without making any changes to section 1?

Answer 1

Option 3 is the standard approach and already implemented by UITableView and its data source and delegate methods. Users are used to using this standard interface.

All you need to do is implement the appropriate data source and delegate methods involved with moving rows – three in total.

If you have any questions about implementing the three methods, see the Table View Programming Guide for iOS for details.