Question

I’m using the example on page 210 of Beginning iPhone Development (Exploring the iPhone SDK) book and it’s similar to what I want to do but that specific example is complicated by using sections in the TableView. I have a specific hierarchy in my plist…

Root  ---- Dictionary
        Rows  ---- Array
                Item 0- Dictionary
                        fullName  ---- String
                        address   ---- String
                Item 1   ---- Dictionary
                        fullName  ---- String
                        address   ---- String

So I have a UITableView that takes up a small portion of the view on that “screen” The rest of the view has other elements so I chose nut to use a navigation template.

The code I’m using doesn’t match up because I’m really not clear on calling which fields.

Can someone show me a VERY simple example how I could list all the “firstNames” in that table. If something is wrong with my plist please let me know specifically what to change.

In a nutshell I want to loop through all the Item # dictionaries to list all the first names. My design is similar to a contact list, but not exactly a contact list.

Right now I’m using this code which simply displays the word “Rows” I changed the word rows to Rows1 in my plist and that shows up so it’s grabbing that “array item”. I hope I said that right.

-(void)viewDidLoad {    
    NSString *path = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"data" ofType:@"plist"];

    NSDictionary *dict = [[NSDictionary alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:path];
    self.names = dict;
    [dict release];

    NSArray *array = [[names allKeys] sortedArrayUsingSelector:@selector(compare:)];
    self.listData = array;

    [super viewDidLoad];
}

 

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

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView
         cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {

    static NSString *SimpleTableIdentifier = @"Identifier";

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

    NSUInteger row = [indexPath row];
    cell.textLabel.text = [listData objectAtIndex:row];
    return cell;
}

I’ve scoured the web for days trying to find a simple example that uses a plist hierarchy to list items in a table that is not part of a navigation template.

Thanks So Much

Answer 1

I wrote an example code, that is an address book. It reads the data from a plist.

the plist:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<array>
    <dict>
        <key>name</key>
        <string>Vikingo</string>
        <key>familyname</key>
        <string>Segundo</string>
        <key>street</key>
        <string>Avenida Roca y Coranado</string>
        <key>number</key>
        <integer>20</integer>
        <key>city</key>
        <string>Santa Cruz de la Sierra</string>
        <key>province</key>
        <string>Santa Cruz</string>
        <key>country</key>
        <string>Bolivia</string>
        <key>pictureurl</key>
        <string>vikingosegundo.png</string>
    </dict>
    <dict>
        <key>name</key>
        <string>Santa</string>
        <key>familyname</key>
        <string>Claus</string>
        <key>street</key>
        <string>Avenida Roca y Coranado</string>
        <key>number</key>
        <integer>20</integer>
        <key>city</key>
        <string>Santa Cruz de la Sierra</string>
        <key>province</key>
        <string>Santa Cruz</string>
        <key>country</key>
        <string>Finland</string>
        <key>pictureurl</key>
        <string>robot-santa.png</string>
    </dict>
</array>
</plist>

read the plist:

NSString* plistPath = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"contacts" ofType:@"plist"];
contacts = [[NSArray arrayWithContentsOfFile:plistPath] retain];

display contacts in tableview:

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


// Customize the number of rows in the table view.
- (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section {
    return [contacts count];
}


// Customize the appearance of table view cells.
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {

    static NSString *CellIdentifier = @"Cell";

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

    NSDictionary *dict = [contacts objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];
    cell.textLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@ %@", [dict objectForKey:@"name"], [dict objectForKey:@"familyname"]];

    return cell;
}

- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView didSelectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {


    DetailContactViewController *detailViewController = [[DetailContactViewController alloc] initWithNibName:@"DetailContactView" bundle:nil];
    detailViewController.contact = [contacts objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];
    // ...
    // Pass the selected object to the new view controller.
    [self.navigationController pushViewController:detailViewController animated:YES];

    [detailViewController release];

}