Comments on: Don’t use UITableViewController. Really.

By: Rafael

Rafael — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 23:27:25 +0000

Hi I have find one case where we just can use the UITableViewController, when we have a UIViewController and inside a UIScrollViewController and try to add a UIViewController with UITableView inside the UIScrollView we hack a crash, in this case we have just one option: use UITableViewController

If you have any other option to this case, i will be very glad.

Best.

PS: I comment two because the first my email is wrong, if you answer please use this email

By: Andrea

Andrea — Thu, 13 May 2010 09:48:56 +0000

Hi Will Homer,
I’ve tried as you said but it doesn’t work in my case.
I’ve initialized the tableViewController in my AppDelegate and passed it to the TabController with the method -initWithRootController.
I’ve tried to add the NavBar both in -viewWillAppear and -viewDidLoad. In the first case I obtain a full screen navbar, in the second just the tableView.
Tried also with the system here but the navbar scroll within the tableView :http://dlinsin.blogspot.com/2010/01/adding-uinavigationbar-to-uitableview.html

By: Will Homer

Will Homer — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 03:35:12 +0000

While i agree with not liking UITableViewControllers I recently was doing a project where it was much easier to use one. During this project though that some of the things you suggested are possible. For example if you want a view that does not scroll with the table you can simply add it to the superview, for example:

[self.view addSubview:datePickerView];

Will scroll with the table but,

[self.view.superview addSubview:datePickerView];

Won’t scroll with the and then you just resize the table frame so it does not hide any cells.

[[self tableView] setFrame:CGRectMake(0,0,320,200)];

The same may also apply to things like background colour also although I have not tested it. I’m not sure if this would work in Interface Builder though as I do not own a Mac so all my UI’s are written programmatically using Linux.

By: Skylar

Skylar — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 05:36:54 +0000

Of course, this talk about table backgrounds is almost moot, what with 3.2’s newly added UITableView API. Regardless, you’ll want to keep this in mind if you want to back apps that are compatible with older versions of the OS.

By: Skylar

Skylar — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 06:21:06 +0000

Pierre, there are two issues with your work around. First of all, you are setting the background of the parent view controller. Often times, this is a navigation or tab bar controller. While this certainly is acceptable for this table, it may cause ill suited backgrounds for any other tables presented.

The second, and arguably more important, reason has to do with the drawing. What you are essentially doing is telling the device to draw two controllers: the one with the image, and the one that’s transparent. If you use a view controller with a background image, which is by default opaque, then the device won’t (or shouldn’t, I haven’t experimented) draw what’s hidden by the colored background image. Effectively reducing draw time and increasing performance.

By: Pierre

Pierre — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 02:31:02 +0000

Great article!
I tend to agree with you, your approach allows much more options.It’s worth mentioning though tha there actually is a way to have a background image with a UITable ViewController:
self.tableView.backgroundColor =[UIColor clearColor];

self.tableView.separatorColor = [UIColor clearColor];

self.parentViewController.view.backgroundColor = [UIColor colorWithPatternImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"default.png"]];

Pierre

By: Craig

Craig — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 20:20:35 +0000

Good points, except, the only reason people use a UITableViewController is because it gives automatic scrolling of the table when using UITextFields within the table…a very common scenario in iPhone development…

Try it without and the keyboard will obscure the lower fields… and so the decision is made for you.. if you have a form page with more than say 5 elements, you’ll need UITableViewController… period.

By: Paul

Paul — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 02:40:07 +0000

This is working for for everything but the keyboard. I have a UITextView in one or two of the cells and when the keyboard appears and disappears, I can’t get the animation to come out perfect. I spent a day or two over the holidays trying to figure it out and ended up going back to the UITableViewController.

By: James

James — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:09:10 +0000

Thanks for this post. very insightful and ive often wondered the same reason for using a tableviewcontroller, when a viewcontroller is much easier to customize