reload table in WatchKit

Question

We have a hierarchical watch app.

The root controller is a table of menu items. That list of items is controlled by a server. The data is retrieved and stored in core data. The menu is populated the first time going into the app.

But I want this table to stay current. My thought was to add code to willActivate to check if there was changes, and reload the table. In my reload logic I call the same function I called the first time, which sets the menuTable.setNumberOfRows and creates each row. Looking at what I'm putting in the logs, it is going through this logic with a different count of rows and new labels. But the app on the watch shows the table with the old data.

How can I get this table to reload with the new information?

Answer 1

I've had this problem too and as rmp says, it still seems to be a bug in watchOS 1.0.1. The problem appears when you try to reload your tableView after run willActivate() and nothing will happen.

In my case, I reload the tableView after receive a reply from a delegate and then I reload all the content just if it's necessary. To achieve this, I remove all rows from a NSIndexSet and load again.

if isNecessary {
    self.table.removeRowsAtIndexes(NSIndexSet(indexesInRange: NSMakeRange(0, maxItems)))
    isNecessary = false
}

I've tried a lot of tricks but none has worked for me:

• Force to reload rows by table.setNumberOfRows(0, withRowType: "data")
• Setting parameters to empty text before assign new values

One thing you could do is to hide tableView before removing rows, and avoid the remove animation.

Answer 2

It is a bug in WatchKit. Seems like Apple doesn't handle the repetitive interface object correctly.

The general principle here is: Only insert or remove necessary rows after a table is created. Do not reload the whole table like what we usually do in iOS. It just doesn't work (or trigger the bug).

So specifically, you have to:

• Do this in willActivated method. This is correct.
• If this is the first load, before the table is even created, do what you are now doing – load all table rows.
• For all following times, don't reload the table, fetch the new data and check the desired number of rows.
• Compare with the current number of rows in the table, insert to or remove from the bottom of the existing table.
• Now simply re-assign the new data to all existing rows. Again, do not reload.

It should work if you follow the above steps.