Question

What is the best way to customize the first cell in a table to display like the Netflix application (i.e. bigger/different)? For ease of future use, I have been asked to use IB as much as possible to make it easier for future editing.

Here is a photo of the Netflix table. http://cl.ly/3j1d473d1j160502160t

Answer 1

Use the table header view. Drag a view to the top of the table view and it will become the “table header view”.

If you have other such “cells” which are essentially constant (and might be switched on/off) you can consider putting UITableViewCell objects in your xib, and returning them from the tableView:cellForRowAtIndexPath: delegate method. Also implement the tableView:heightForRowAtIndexPath: method.

Both can have the same general outline, like:

-(UITableViewCell*)tableView:(UITableView*)tv cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath*)ip
{
    if ( ip.section==0 ) return headerCell;
    // ...handle regular cells
}

-(CGFloat)tableView:(UITableView*)tv heightForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath*)ip
{
    if ( ip.section==0 ) return headerCell.frame.size.height;
    // ...handle regular cells
    return 44;
}