Question

I have an app consisting of a TabBar with a few TabBarControllers. One Controller contains a very simple table, which is supposed to display the contents of a NSMutableDictionary. When you hit the appropriate button, the Dictionary is updated in a separate Controller and the view switches to the UITableViewController, displaying the newly updated table.

I can see the Dictionary being updated. But the TableView never reflects the changes. In fact, it seems to display the changes only the 1st time I enter that screen.

I have tried [self table.reloadData] and while it gets called, the changes aren’t reflected to the UITableView.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I am happy to post code, but am unsure what to post.

Update: the table is updated and refreshed properly only the 1st time it is displayed. Subsequent displays simply show the original contents.

Background:
The tableview gets filled from a dictionary: appDelegate.currentFave. The tableview should get refreshed each time the ViewController is invoked by the TabBarController.

- (void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
    NSLog(@"in viewWillAppear");

    [super viewWillAppear:animated];

    [self loadFavesFile];
    [self.tableView reloadData];
}

// load the Favorites file from disk
- (void) loadFavesFile 
{   
// get location of file
NSString *path = [self getFavesFilePath];

// The Favorites .plist data is different from the Affirmations in that it will never be stored in the bundle. Instead,
// if it exists, then use it. If not, no problem.
if ([[NSFileManager defaultManager] fileExistsAtPath:path]) {

    // read Faves file and store it for later use...
    NSMutableDictionary *tempDict = [NSMutableDictionary dictionaryWithContentsOfFile:path];
    appDelegate.sharedData.dictFaves = tempDict;    

    // grab the latest quote. Append it to the list of existing favorites
    NSString *key = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%d", appDelegate.sharedData.dictFaves.count + 1];

    NSString *newFave = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@", appDelegate.currentFave];
    [appDelegate.sharedData.dictFaves setObject:newFave forKey:key];

} else {
    NSLog(@"Favorites file doesn't exist");
    appDelegate.sharedData.dictFaves = nil;     
}
}


// this gets invoked the very first call. Only once per running of the App.
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
// reuse or create the cell
static NSString *cellID = @"cellId";
UITableViewCell *cell = [self.tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:cellID];  
if (cell == nil) {
    cell = [[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:cellID];
}

// allow longer lines to wrap
cell.textLabel.numberOfLines = 0; // Multiline
cell.textLabel.lineBreakMode = UILineBreakModeWordWrap;
cell.textLabel.font = [UIFont fontWithName:@"Chalkduster" size:(16)];
cell.textLabel.textColor = [UIColor yellowColor];   

// NOTE: for reasons unknown, I cannot set either the cell- or table- background color. So it must be done using the Label.

// set the text for the cell
NSString *row = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%d", indexPath.row + 1];
cell.textLabel.text = [appDelegate.sharedData.dictFaves objectForKey:row];
return cell;    
}

Answer 1

I found the problem. I was not properly initializing and assignng the TableView in my view controller. See below

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
   [super viewDidLoad];

   tableView = [[UITableView alloc] initWithFrame:[[UIScreen mainScreen] applicationFrame]     style:UITableViewStylePlain];

   tableView.dataSource = self;
   tableView.delegate = self; 
   tableView.backgroundColor=[UIColor blackColor];
   self.view = tableView;
}