CODEWITHSUNDEEP
objective-cios5storyboard
KnightHawk
KnightHawk

Reputation: 336

Storyboard - Multiple UITableViewControllers with the same custom cell

I occasionally find myself copy/pasting custom cells between UITableViews in my storyboard which is slowly becoming a maintenance nightmare (i.e., a simple change must now be made to each custom cell across several UITableViews).

Is it possible to create one custom cell in a storyboard or xib file and then reference it from multiple UITableViews? I'm thinking there's got to be a way to specify a NIB name for a static/prototype cell similar to how you can specify a NIB name for a UIViewController when editing a normal xib.

BTW... I know how to do this via code. What I'm looking for is a way to do this from within the storyboard editor itself.

Upvotes: 5

Views: 503

Answers (2)

Victor P
Victor P

Reputation: 1612

Actually, you don't have to create a custom class. If you're coding for version 4.0 and up, you can use a UINib to create it. You can also cache it to improve performance.

UIViewController.h

@property (nonatomic, retain) UINib *cellNib;
@property (nonatomic, retain) IBOutlet MyCustomTableViewCell *customCell;

UIViewController.m

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad];

    // Cache the tableviewcell nib
    self.cellNib = [UINib nibWithNibName:@"MyCustomTableViewCell" bundle:nil];
}

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    static NSString *CellIdentifier = @"MyCustomTableViewCell";

    MyCustomTableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
    if (cell == nil) {
        [self.cellNib instantiateWithOwner:self options:nil];
        cell = customCell;
        self.customCell = nil;
    }
    // Set title and such
}

Don't forget about releasing it in dealloc if not using ARC

Upvotes: 0

Mr. Berna
Mr. Berna

Reputation: 10645

I know of a way, but it does require a little code in a custom class. Make a subclass of UITableViewCell that loads itself from a nib. Then just set the class of your cells to this subclass. For a good method of having a view replace itself with a different version loaded from a nib see this blog post.

Upvotes: 1

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