Question

I have a question regarding uitable view.

I am implementing an app which is similar to the address book app.I am able to present the table view in editing mode. I want to let the user to edit the text in the cells in editing mode. I know that in order to edit the text in the cells, I need a textfield. I have created a textfield.

My question is:

1. what should I do in order to present that textfield in the cells.

2. what are the methods I need to implement in order to present that text field in the table view in editing mode.

3. Once I am done with editing ,How can I update the data which is in my contacts view controller(contains all the contacts).The saving should persist in the address book. For this question I know that I need to implement some delegate method,But I am not sure how to do that.

Please have a look at the following code,so that you will have an idea about my problem.

 - (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath: (NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
[tableView setSeparatorColor:[UIColor clearColor]];
//[self.tableView setEditing: YES  animated: YES];


static NSString *CellIdentifier = @"Cell";

UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:@"Cell"];
if (cell == nil) {
    cell = [[[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:CellIdentifier] autorelease];
}

// Configure the cell...
if(isEditingOn) {

if(cell == nil)
        cell = [self getCellContentView:CellIdentifier];
     UILabel *lblTemp1 = (UILabel *)[cell viewWithTag:1];
     UITextField *textfield1=(UITextField*)[cell viewWithTag:2];

if(indexPath.row == 0) {
        lblTemp1.text = @"Name";
        textfield1.text = myContact.name;
    }

else if(indexPath.row == 1) {
        lblTemp1.text = @"Phone";
        textfield1.text = myContact.phone;
    }

else if(indexPath.row == 2) {
        lblTemp1.text = @"Email";
        textfield1.text = myContact.email;
}

}

else {    

if(indexPath.row == 0) {
    cell.textLabel.text = myContact.name;
}

else if(indexPath.row == 1) {
    cell.textLabel.text = myContact.phone;
}

else if(indexPath.row == 2) {
    cell.textLabel.text = myContact.email;
}
}


return cell;

}

- (UITableViewCell *) getCellContentView:(NSString *)cellIdentifier {

CGRect CellFrame = CGRectMake(0, 0, 60, 20);
CGRect Label1Frame = CGRectMake(10, 10, 180, 25);
UILabel *lblTemp;
UITableViewCell *cell = [[[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithFrame:CellFrame  reuseIdentifier:cellIdentifier] autorelease];
lblTemp = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:Label1Frame];
lblTemp.tag = 1;
[cell.contentView addSubview:lblTemp];
[lblTemp release];
CGRect TextFieldFrame=CGRectMake(240, 10, 60, 25);
UITextField *textfield;
textfield=[[UITextField alloc]initWithFrame:TextFieldFrame];
textfield.tag=2;
textfield.placeholder = @"";
[cell.contentView addSubview:textfield];

}

Answer 1

This is a really complex question to answer this fully and in-depth with code examples, but I’ll try to point you in the right direction.

1) Add a UITextField as a subview of your table cell when you create the cell in the tableView:cellForRowAtIndexPath: method (I assume that’s what your getCellContentView: method is for). Set a tag on your UITextField that matches the row index of the cell and make your tableviewcontroller the delegate for the cell. Set the textfield to hidden. (remember to set the tag each time the cell is requested, not just the first time you create it).

2) In the tableView:didSelectRowAtIndexPath: method, grab the cell using tableViewCellForRowAtIndexPath and then show the textfield inside it (you may have to do some view traversal to get it) and call becomeFirstResponder on the textfield.

3) When the user has typed something, your textfielddelegate methods will be fired. You can look at the tag on the textfield to work out which row the field belongs to and then update the dat source with the new text. Then just reload the table to hide the textfield and update the cell content.

If you know how to use custom table cell subclasses then you can make your life a bit easier by creating a custom cell that already contains a textfield and has an property for accessing it, but otherwise the technique will be mostly the same.

Also, tableView:didSelectRowAtIndexPath: won’t normally fire when a tableview is in edit mode unless you set tableView.allowsSelectionDuringEditing = YES;