UITableView made simple 🙌

TableViewLiaison is 🔨 with ❤️ by 📱 @ Shine Labs.

Requirements

• Xcode 10.2+
• iOS 10.0+

Installation

CocoaPods

The preferred installation method is with CocoaPods. Add the following to your Podfile:

pod 'TableViewLiaison'

Example

To run the example project, clone the repo, and run pod install from the Example directory first.

Usage

TableViewLiaison allows you to more easily populate and manipulate UITableView rows and sections.

Getting Started

To get started, all you need to do is liaise an instance of UITableView to with a TableViewLiaison:

let liaison = TableViewLiaison()
let tableView = UITableView()

liaison.liaise(tableView: tableView)

By liaising your UITableView with the TableViewLiaison, the TableViewLiaison becomes its UITableViewDataSource, UITableViewDelegate, and UITableViewDataSourcePrefetching. In the event you would like to remove the UITableView from the TableViewLiaison, simply invoke liaison.detach().

TableViewLiaison implements a bunch of helper methods to help you manage your UITableView.

TableViewLiaison populates sections and rows using two main types:

Section

struct TableViewSection

To create a section for our UITableView, create an instance of TableViewSection and add it to the TableViewLiaison.

let one = TableViewSection()
let two = TableViewSection(id: "ID")


let liaison = TableViewLiaison(sections: [one, two])

or

let section = TableViewSection()

liaison.append(section: section)

Supplementary Section Views

To notify the TableViewLiaison that your TableViewSection will display a header and/or footer view, you must provide an instance of TableViewSectionComponentDisplayOption during initialization.

TableViewSectionComponentDisplayOption is an enumeration that notfies the liaison which supplementary views should be displayed for a given section. A header/footer view is represented by:

class TableViewSectionComponent<View: UITableViewHeaderFooterView>

let header = TableViewSectionComponent<UITableViewHeaderFooterView>()
let section = TableViewSection(option: .header(component: header))

You can set a static height of a TableViewSectionComponent by using either a CGFloat value or closure:

header.set(.height, 55)

header.set(.height) {
	// Some arbitrary user you pass into the closure...
    return user.username == "dylan" ? 100 : 75
}

header.set(.estimatedHeight, 125)

In the event a height is not provided for a TableViewSectionComponent, the TableViewLiaison will assume the supplementary view is self sizing and return a .height of UITableView.automaticDimension. Make sure you provide an .estimatedHeight to avoid layout complications.

The TableViewSectionComponent views can be customized using func set(_ command: TableViewSectionComponentCommand, with closure: @escaping (View, Int) -> Void) at all the following lifecycle events:

• configuration
• didEndDisplaying
• willDisplay

header.set(.configuration) { view, section in
    view.textLabel?.text = "Section \(section)"
}

header.set(.willDisplay) { view, section in
    print("Header: \(view) will display for Section: \(section)")
}

Rows

class TableViewRow<Cell: UITableViewCell, Data>

To add a row for a section, create an instance of TableViewRow and pass it to the initializer for a TableViewSection or if the row is added after instantiation you can perform that action via the TableViewLiaison:

let row = TableViewRow<RowTableViewCell, Int>(data: 1)
let statelessRow = StatelessTableViewRow<RowTableViewCell>()
let section = TableViewSection(rows: [row, statelessRow])
liaison.append(section: section)

or

let row = TableViewRow()
let section = TableViewSection()
liaison.append(section: section)
liaison.append(row: row)

TableViewRow heights are similarly configured to TableViewSection:

row.set(.height, 300)

row.set(.estimatedHeight, 210)

row.set(.height) { data in
	switch data.type {
	case .large:
		return 400
	case .medium:
		return 200
	case .small:
		return 50
	}
}

In the event a height is not provided, the TableViewLiaison will assume the cell is self sizing and return UITableView.automaticDimension.

The TableViewRow can be customized using func set(_ command: TableViewRowCommand, with closure: @escaping (TableViewLiaison, Cell, Data, IndexPath) -> Void) at all the following lifecycle events:

• accessoryButtonTapped
• configuration
• delete
• didDeselect
• didEndDisplaying
• didEndEditing
• didHighlight
• didSelect
• didUnhighlight
• insert
• move
• reload
• willBeginEditing
• willDeselect
• willDisplay
• willSelect

row.set(.configuration) { liaison, cell, data, indexPath in
	cell.label.text = "Cell: \(cell) at IndexPath: \(indexPath) with \(data)"
	cell.label.font = .systemFont(ofSize: 13)
	cell.contentView.backgroundColor = .blue
	cell.selectionStyle = .none
}

row.set(.didSelect) { liaison, cell, data, indexPath in
	print("Cell: \(cell) selected at IndexPath: \(indexPath) with \(data)")
}

TableViewRow can also utilize UITableViewDataSourcePrefetching by using func set(prefetchCommand: TableViewPrefetchCommand, with closure: @escaping (IndexPath) -> Void)

row.set(.prefetch) { cellViewModel, indexPath in
	cellViewModel.downloadImage()
}

row.set(.cancel) { cellViewModel, indexPath in
    cellViewModel.cancelImageDownload()
}

Cell/View Registration

TableViewLiaison handles cell & view registration for UITableView view reuse on your behalf utilizing your sections/rows TableViewRegistrationType<T>.

TableViewRegistrationType tells the liaison whether your reusable view should be registered via a Nib or Class.

By default, TableViewRow is instantiated with TableViewRegistrationType<Cell>.defaultClassType.

TableViewSection supplementary view registration is encapsulated by itsTableViewSectionComponentDisplayOption. By default, TableViewSection option is instantiated with .none.

Pagination

TableViewLiaison comes equipped to handle your pagination needs. To configure the liaison for pagination, simply set its paginationDelegate to an instance of TableViewLiaisonPaginationDelegate.

TableViewLiaisonPaginationDelegate declares three methods:

func isPaginationEnabled() -> Bool, notifies the liaison if it should show the pagination spinner when the user scrolls past the last cell.

func paginationStarted(indexPath: IndexPath), passes through the indexPath of the last TableViewRow managed by the liaison.

func paginationEnded(indexPath: IndexPath), passes the indexPath of the first new TableViewRow appended by the liaison.

To update the liaisons results during pagination, simply use append(sections: [AnyTableViewSection]) or func append(rows: [AnyTableViewRow]) and the liaison will automatically handle the removal of the pagination spinner.

To use a custom pagination spinner, you can pass an instance AnyTableViewRow during the initialization of your TableViewLiaison. By default it uses PaginationTableViewRow provided by the framework.

Tips & Tricks

Because TableViewSection and TableViewRow utilize generic types and manage view/cell type registration, instantiating multiple different configurations of sections and rows can get verbose. Leveraging type aliases and/or implementing static factories may be useful.

public typealias ImageRow= TableViewRow<ImageTableViewCell, UIImage>

static func imageRow(with image: UIImage) -> AnyTableViewRow {
	let row = ImageRow(data: image)

	row.set(.height, 225)

	row.set(.configuration) { liaison, cell, image, indexPath in
		cell.contentImageView.image = image
		cell.contentImageView.contentMode = .scaleAspectFill
	}

	return row
}

Contribution

TableViewLiaison is a framework in its infancy. It's implementation is not perfect. Not all UITableView functionality has been liaised just yet. If you would like to help bring TableViewLiaison to a better place, feel free to make a pull request.

Authors

✌️ Dylan Shine, [email protected]

License

TableViewLiaison is available under the MIT license. See the LICENSE file for more info.