Question

Ive a project close to doing everything I need it to do. Its got a Main page which has four buttons that allow you to choose an option. Then a tableview page is launched from those options and displays a parsed XML feed from a website. You can then select one of the options in the table to see a detail view of the item, enquire about it, etc.

My problem is I need to add more elements to the TableViewController page, other than the tableview itself. I want a customized back button (not the navigation controller standard) plus some labels, images, etc.

In the TableViewController xib, the tableview itself fills the page. I cant resize it to add more elements above it. I can add a ‘view’ window seemingly above the tableview and put things in it. But it seems to add the view to the tableview. This means that when I scroll the table, the other elements like new back button, scroll away as part of the table.

So I’m led to wonder whether I need this page not to be a tableviewcontroller, but a viewcontroller, with a tableview inside it, as well as my other view with buttons, etc. Is that the right way to go? But if thats the case, then how do I instantiate the tableviewcontroller within code? Because my page will not be of that type anymore – it will be just a viewcontroller. But in code Im making a tableviewcontroller .. slightly scared by that route tbh.

Any illumination on this would be much appreciated, as various searches have left me none the wiser. Thanks.

Answer 1

To customize it, this is the way to go:

• Change your class to be a view controller instead, which implements the TableViewDelegate and TableViewData Source protocols.

• In the view didLoad of you controller, create the table view, set its delegate, data source, and any other properties you wish and add it as a subview to your view.

  tableView = [[[UITableView alloc] init] autorelease];
  tableView.delegate = self;
  tableView.dataSource = self;
  // .. Other customization
  [self.view addSubview:tableView];
  

I suggest doing this programatically rather than IB.