Creating a custom UITableViewCell

Question

I'm trying to create a custom UITableViewCell.

From XCode 4.6 interface builder, I've set the Style property of the cell to Custom. And added controls to the cell using drag and drop. 2 UILables and a UIButton. It looks like this.

I created a separate class deriving from UITableViewCell to assign the properties of the 3 UI elements and make the changes there. I've set the cell's custom class as DashboardCell from the Identity Inspector as well.

DashboardCell.h

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@interface DashboardCell : UITableViewCell

@property (weak, nonatomic) IBOutlet UILabel *numberOfMails;
@property (weak, nonatomic) IBOutlet UILabel *mailType;
@property (weak, nonatomic) IBOutlet UIButton *numberOfOverdueMails;

@end

DashboardCell.m

#import "DashboardCell.h"

@implementation DashboardCell

- (id)initWithStyle:(UITableViewCellStyle)style reuseIdentifier:(NSString *)reuseIdentifier
{
    self = [super initWithStyle:style reuseIdentifier:reuseIdentifier];
    if (self) {
        [self.numberOfOverdueMails setBackgroundColor:[UIColor colorWithRed:244/255.0f green:119/255.0f blue:125/255.0f alpha:1.0f]];
        [self.numberOfOverdueMails setTitle:@"lol" forState:UIControlStateNormal];
    }
    return self;
}

- (void)setSelected:(BOOL)selected animated:(BOOL)animated
{
    [super setSelected:selected animated:animated];

    // Configure the view for the selected state
}

@end

In the TableViewController, I have modified the following method to return my custom cell.

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    static NSString *CellIdentifier = @"Cell";
    DashboardCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier forIndexPath:indexPath];
    if (cell == nil) {
        cell = [[DashboardCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
    }

    return cell;
}

My problem is even though the custom button shows up, the changes I've done (changing the background color of the button, changing the title of one UILabel) aren't showing up. What seems to be the mistake here?

Answer 1

The method initWithStyle:reuseIdentifier: will not be called because you're using interface builder to create a cell.

You can set the background color and title by overriding the method awakeFromNib.

You can also set these in the method tableView:cellForRowAtIndexPath:

Answer 2

If you get your cell from a xib or storyboard, dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:forIndexPath: will always return a cell -- if one exists it will reuse it, if not it will create one from the template in IB. Therefore, your if(cell ==nil) clause will never be satisfied, and in fact is no longer needed. If you want to use an init method, then use initWithCoder: