EzDevInfo.com

Creating a UICollectionView programmatically

Im looking for a guide or tutorial that will show me how to set up a simple UICollectionView using only code.

Im wading through the documentation on Apples site, and Im using the reference manual as well.

But I would really benefit from a simple guide that can show me how to set up a UICollectionView without having to use Storyboards or XIB/NIB files - but unfortunately when I search about, all I can find is tutorials that feature the Storyboard.

Cell spacing in UICollectionView

How do i set cell spacing in a section of UICollectionView? I know there is a property "minimumInteritemSpacing" I have set it to 5.0 still the spacing is not appearing 5.0. I have implemented the flowout delegate method.

- (CGFloat)collectionView:(UICollectionView *)collectionView layout:(UICollectionViewLayout*)collectionViewLayout minimumInteritemSpacingForSectionAtIndex:(NSInteger)section
{

    return 5.0;
}

stil i am not getting the desired result. I think its the minimum spacing . Isnt there any way by which i can set the maximum spacing?

UICollectionView spacing margins

I have a UICollectionView which shows photos. I have created the collectionview using UICollectionViewFlowLayout. It works good but I would like to have spacing on margins. Is it possible to do that using UICollectionViewFlowLayout or must I implement my own UICollectionViewLayout?

Change UICollectionViewCell size on different device orientations

I am using an UICollectionView with UICollectionViewFlowLayout.

I set the size of each cell through the

collectionView:layout:sizeForItemAtIndexPath:

When switching from portrait to landscape, I would like to adjust the size of each cell to completely fit the size of the CollectionView, without leaving padding space between cells.

Questions:

1) How to change the size of a cell after a rotation event?

2) And, even better, how to make the layout where the cells always fit the entire size of the screen?

UICollectionView Assertion failure

I m getting this error on performing insertItemsAtIndexPaths in UICollectionView

Assertion failure in:

-[UICollectionViewData indexPathForItemAtGlobalIndex:], 
/SourceCache/UIKit/UIKit-2372/UICollectionViewData.m:442
2012-09-26 18:12:34.432  
*** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInternalInconsistencyException', 
reason: 'request for index path for global index 805306367 
when there are only 1 items in the collection view'

I have checked and my datasource contains only one element. Any insights on why this could happen? If more information is needed I can definitely provide that.

UIRefreshControl on UICollectionView only works if the collection fills the height of the container

I'm trying to add a UIRefreshControl to a UICollectionView, but the problem is that the refresh control does not appear unless the collection view fills up the height of its parent container. In other words, unless the collection view is long enough to require scrolling, it cannot be pulled down to reveal the refresh control view. As soon as the collection exceeds the height of its parent container, it is pulled down and reveals the refresh view.

I have set up a quick iOS project with just a UICollectionView inside the main view, with an outlet to the collection view so that I can add the UIRefreshControlto it in viewDidLoad. There is also a prototype cell with the reuse identifier cCell

This is all the code in the controller, and it demonstrates the issue pretty well. In this code I set the height of the cell to 100, which isn't enough to fill the display, and therefore the view cannot be pulled and the refresh control won't show. Set it to something higher to fill the display, then it works. Any ideas?

@interface ViewController () <UICollectionViewDelegateFlowLayout, UICollectionViewDataSource>
@property (strong, nonatomic) IBOutlet UICollectionView *collectionView;
@end

@implementation ViewController

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad];

    UIRefreshControl *refreshControl = [[UIRefreshControl alloc] init];
    [self.collectionView addSubview:refreshControl];
}

-(NSInteger)numberOfSectionsInCollectionView:(UICollectionView *)collectionView {
    return 1;
}

-(NSInteger)collectionView:(UICollectionView *)collectionView numberOfItemsInSection:(NSInteger)section {
    return 1;
}

-(UICollectionViewCell *)collectionView:(UICollectionView *)collectionView cellForItemAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
    return [collectionView dequeueReusableCellWithReuseIdentifier:@"cCell" forIndexPath:indexPath];
}

-(CGSize)collectionView:(UICollectionView *)collectionView layout:(UICollectionViewLayout *)collectionViewLayout sizeForItemAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
    return CGSizeMake(self.view.frame.size.width, 100);
}

UICollectionView reloadData not functioning properly in iOS 7

I've been updating my apps to run on iOS 7 which is going smoothly for the most part. I have noticed in more than one app that the reloadData method of a UICollectionViewController isn't acting quite how it used to.

I'll load the UICollectionViewController, populate the UICollectionView with some data as normal. This works great on the first time. However if I request new data (populate the UICollectionViewDataSource), and then call reloadData, it will query the data source for numberOfItemsInSection and numberOfSectionsInCollectionView, but it doesn't seem to call cellForItemAtIndexPath the proper number of times.

If I change the code to only reload one section, then it will function properly. This is no problem for me to change these, but I don't think I should have to. reloadData should reload all visible cells according to the documentation.

Has anyone else seen this?

Fatal error: unexpectedly found nil while unwrapping an Optional values

I was using an UICollectionView in Swift but I get when I try to change the text of the cell's label.

    func collectionView(collectionView: UICollectionView!, numberOfItemsInSection section: Int) -> Int
{
    return 5
}

func collectionView(collectionView: UICollectionView!, cellForItemAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath!) -> UICollectionViewCell!
{
    var cell = collectionView.dequeueReusableCellWithReuseIdentifier("title", forIndexPath: indexPath) as TitleCollectionViewCell
    // Next line: fatal error: unexpectedly found nil while unwrapping an Optional value
    cell.labelTitle.text = "This is a title"
    return cell
}

Does anyone know about this?

UICollectionView flowLayout not wrapping cells correctly (iOS)

I have a UICollectionView with a FLowLayout. It will work as I expect most of the time, but every now and then one of the cells does not wrap properly. For example, the the cell that should be on in the first "column" of the third row if actually trailing in the second row and there is just an empty space where it should be (see diagram below). All you can see of this rouge cell is the left hand side (the rest is cut off) and the place it should be is empty.

This does not happen consistently; it is not always the same row. Once it has happened, I can scroll up and then back and the cell will have fixed itself. Or, when I press the cell (which takes me to the next view via a push) and then pop back, I will see the cell in the incorrect position and then it will jump to the correct position.

The scroll speed seems to make it easier to reproduce the problem. When I scroll slowly, I can still see the cell in the wrong position every now and then, but then it will jump to the correct position straight away.

The problem started when I added the sections insets. Previously, I had the cells almost flush against the collection bounds (little, or no insets) and I did not notice the problem. But this meant the right and left of the collection view was empty. Ie, could not scroll. Also, the scroll bar was not flush to the right.

I can make the problem happen on both Simulator and on an iPad 3.

I guess the problem is happening because of the left and right section insets... But if the value is wrong, then I would expect the behavior to be consistent. I wonder if this might be a bug with Apple? Or perhaps this is due to a build up of the insets or something similar...

Any solutions/workarounds are appreciated.

Follow up: I have been using this answer below by Nick for over 6 months 12 months 2 years now without a problem (in case people are wondering if there are any holes in that answer - I have not found any yet). Well done Nick.

Dynamically setting layout on UICollectionView causes inexplicable contentOffset change

According to Apple's documentation (and touted at WWDC 2012), it is possible to set the layout on UICollectionView dynamically and even animate the changes:

You normally specify a layout object when creating a collection view but you can also change the layout of a collection view dynamically. The layout object is stored in the collectionViewLayout property. Setting this property directly updates the layout immediately, without animating the changes. If you want to animate the changes, you must call the setCollectionViewLayout:animated: method instead.

However, in practice, I've found that UICollectionView makes inexplicable and even invalid changes to the contentOffset, causing cells to move incorrectly, making the feature virtually unusable. To illustrate the problem, I put together the following sample code that can be attached to a default collection view controller dropped into a storyboard:

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@interface MyCollectionViewController : UICollectionViewController
@end

@implementation MyCollectionViewController

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad];
    [self.collectionView registerClass:[UICollectionViewCell class] forCellWithReuseIdentifier:@"CELL"];
    self.collectionView.collectionViewLayout = [[UICollectionViewFlowLayout alloc] init];
}

- (NSInteger)collectionView:(UICollectionView *)collectionView numberOfItemsInSection:(NSInteger)section
{
    return 1;
}

- (UICollectionViewCell *)collectionView:(UICollectionView *)collectionView cellForItemAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    UICollectionViewCell *cell = [self.collectionView dequeueReusableCellWithReuseIdentifier:@"CELL" forIndexPath:indexPath];
    cell.backgroundColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
    return cell;
}

- (void)collectionView:(UICollectionView *)collectionView didSelectItemAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    NSLog(@"contentOffset=(%f, %f)", self.collectionView.contentOffset.x, self.collectionView.contentOffset.y);
    [self.collectionView setCollectionViewLayout:[[UICollectionViewFlowLayout alloc] init] animated:YES];
    NSLog(@"contentOffset=(%f, %f)", self.collectionView.contentOffset.x, self.collectionView.contentOffset.y);
}

@end

The controller sets a default UICollectionViewFlowLayout in viewDidLoad and displays a single cell on-screen. When the cells is selected, the controller creates another default UICollectionViewFlowLayout and sets it on the collection view with the animated:YES flag. The expected behavior is that the cell does not move. The actual behavior, however, is that the cell scroll off-screen, at which point it is not even possible to scroll the cell back on-screen.

Looking at the console log reveals that the contentOffset has inexplicably changed (in my project, from (0, 0) to (0, 205)). I posted a solution for the solution for the non-animated case (i.e. animated:NO), but since I need animation, I'm very interested to know if anyone has a solution or workaround for the animated case.

As a side-note, I've tested custom layouts and get the same behavior.

UICollectionView effective drag and drop

I am currently trying to implement the UITableView reordering behavior using UICollectionView.

Let's call a UItableView TV and a UICollectionView CV (to clarify the following explanation)

I am basically trying to reproduce the drag&drop of the TV, but I am not using the edit mode, the cell is ready to be moved as soon as the long press gesture is triggered. It works prefectly, I am using the move method of the CV, everything is fine.

I update the contentOffset property of the CV to handle the scroll when the user is dragging a cell. When a user goes to a particular rect at the top and the bottom, I update the contentOffset and the CV scroll. The problem is when the user stop moving it's finger, the gesture doesn't send any update which makes the scroll stop and start again as soon as the user moves his finger.

This behavior is definitely not natural, I would prefer continu to scroll until the user release the CV as it is the case in the TV. The TV drag&drop experience is awesome and I really want to reproduce the same feeling. Does anyone know how they manage the scroll in TV during reordering ?

• I tried using a timer to trigger a scroll action repeatedly as long as the gesture position is in the right spot, the scroll was awful and not very productive (very slow and jumpy).
• I also tried using GCD to listen the gesture position in another thread but the result is even worst.

I ran out of idea about that, so if someone has the answer I would marry him!

Here is the implementation of the longPress method:

- (void)handleLongPress:(UILongPressGestureRecognizer *)sender
{
    ReorganizableCVCLayout *layout = (ReorganizableCVCLayout *)self.collectionView.collectionViewLayout;
    CGPoint gesturePosition = [sender locationInView:self.collectionView];
    NSIndexPath *selectedIndexPath = [self.collectionView indexPathForItemAtPoint:gesturePosition];

    if (sender.state == UIGestureRecognizerStateBegan)
    {
        layout.selectedItem = selectedIndexPath;
        layout.gesturePoint = gesturePosition; // Setting gesturePoint invalidate layout
    }
    else if (sender.state == UIGestureRecognizerStateChanged)
    {
        layout.gesturePoint = gesturePosition; // Setting gesturePoint invalidate layout
        [self swapCellAtPoint:gesturePosition];
        [self manageScrollWithReferencePoint:gesturePosition];
    }
    else
    {
        [self.collectionView performBatchUpdates:^
        {
            layout.selectedItem = nil;
            layout.gesturePoint = CGPointZero; // Setting gesturePoint invalidate layout
        } completion:^(BOOL completion){[self.collectionView reloadData];}];
    }
}

To make the CV scroll, I am using that method:

- (void)manageScrollWithReferencePoint:(CGPoint)gesturePoint
{
    ReorganizableCVCLayout *layout = (ReorganizableCVCLayout *)self.collectionView.collectionViewLayout;
    CGFloat topScrollLimit = self.collectionView.contentOffset.y+layout.itemSize.height/2+SCROLL_BORDER;
    CGFloat bottomScrollLimit = self.collectionView.contentOffset.y+self.collectionView.frame.size.height-layout.itemSize.height/2-SCROLL_BORDER;
    CGPoint contentOffset = self.collectionView.contentOffset;

    if (gesturePoint.y < topScrollLimit && gesturePoint.y - layout.itemSize.height/2 - SCROLL_BORDER > 0)
        contentOffset.y -= SCROLL_STEP;
    else if (gesturePoint.y > bottomScrollLimit &&
             gesturePoint.y + layout.itemSize.height/2 + SCROLL_BORDER < self.collectionView.contentSize.height)
        contentOffset.y += SCROLL_STEP;

    [self.collectionView setContentOffset:contentOffset];
}

Specifying one Dimension of Cells in UICollectionView using Auto Layout

In iOS 8 the UICollectionViewFlowLayout supports automatically resizing cells based on their own content size. This resizes the cells in both width and height according to their content.

Is it possible to specify a fixed value for the width (or height) of all the cells and allow the other dimensions to resize?

For a simple example consider a multi-line label in a cell with constraints positioning it to the sides of the cell. The multi-line label could be resized different ways to accommodate the text. The cell should fill the width of the collection view and adjust it's height accordingly. Instead, the cells are sized haphazardly and it even causes a crash when the cell size is larger than the non-scrollable dimension of the collection view.

iOS 8 introduces the method systemLayoutSizeFittingSize: withHorizontalFittingPriority: verticalFittingPriority: For each cell in the collection view the layout calls this method on the cell, passing in the estimated size. What would make sense to me would be to override this method on the cell, pass in the size that is given and set the horizontal constraint to required and a low priority to the vertical constraint. This way the horizontal size is fixed to the value set in the layout and the vertical size can be flexible.

Something like this:

- (UICollectionViewLayoutAttributes *)preferredLayoutAttributesFittingAttributes:(UICollectionViewLayoutAttributes *)layoutAttributes {
    UICollectionViewLayoutAttributes *attributes = [super preferredLayoutAttributesFittingAttributes:layoutAttributes];
    attributes.size = [self systemLayoutSizeFittingSize:layoutAttributes.size withHorizontalFittingPriority:UILayoutPriorityRequired verticalFittingPriority:UILayoutPriorityFittingSizeLevel];
    return attributes;
}

The sizes given back by this method, however, are completely strange. The documentation on this method is very unclear to me and mentions using the constants UILayoutFittingCompressedSize UILayoutFittingExpandedSize which just represent a zero size and a pretty large one.

Is the size parameter of this method really just a way to pass in two constants? Is there no way to achieve the behavior I expect of getting the appropriate height for a given size?

Alternate Solutions

1) Adding constraints that will be specify a specific width for the cell achieves the correct layout. This is a poor solution because that constraint should be set to the size of the cell's collection view which it has no safe reference to. The value for that constraint could be passed in when the cell is configured, but that also seems completely counterintuitive. This is also awkward because adding constraints directly to a cell or it's content view is causing many problems.

2) Use a table view. Table views work this way out of the box as cells have a fixed width, but this would not accommodate other situations like an iPad layout with fixed width cells in multiple columns.

UICollectionView Self Sizing Cells with Auto Layout

I'm trying to get self sizing UICollectionViewCells working with Auto Layout, but I can't seem to get the cells to size themselves to the content. I'm having trouble understanding how the cell's size is updated from the contents of what's inside the cell's contentView.

Here's the setup I've tried:

• Custom UICollectionViewCell with a UITextView in its contentView.
• Scrolling for the UITextView is disabled.
• The contentView's horizontal constraint is: "H:|[_textView(320)]", i.e. the UITextView is pinned to the left of the cell with an explicit width of 320.
• The contentView's vertical constraint is: "V:|-0-[_textView]", i.e. the UITextView pinned to the top of the cell.
• The UITextView has a height constraint set to a constant which the UITextView reports will fit the text.

Here's what it looks like with the cell background set to red, and the UITextView background set to Blue:

I put the project that I've been playing with on GitHub here.

How to determine height of UICollectionView with FlowLayout

I've got an UICollectionView with an UICollectionViewFlowLayout, and i want to calculate its content size (for return in intrinsicContentSize needed for adjusting its height via AutoLayout).

The problems is: Even if I have a fixed and equal height for all cells, I don't know how many "rows"/lines I have in the UICollectionView. I also can't determine that count by the number of items in my data source, since the cells representing the data items vary in width, so does consequently the number of items I have in one line of the UICollectionView.

Since I couldn't find any hints on this topic in the official documentation and googling didn't bring me any further, any help and ideas would be appreciated very much.

How to make Supplementary View float in UICollectionView as Section Headers do in UITableView plain style

I'm struggling to achieve a "floating section header" effect with UICollectionView. Something that's been easy enough in UITableView (default behavior for UITableViewStylePlain) seems impossible in UICollectionView without lots of hard work. Am I missing the obvious?

Apple provides no documentation on how to achieve this. It seems that one has to subclass UICollectionViewLayout and implement a custom layout just to achieve this effect. This entails quite a bit of work, implementing the following methods:

Methods to Override

Every layout object should implement the following methods:

collectionViewContentSize
layoutAttributesForElementsInRect:
layoutAttributesForItemAtIndexPath:
layoutAttributesForSupplementaryViewOfKind:atIndexPath: (if your layout supports supplementary views)
layoutAttributesForDecorationViewOfKind:atIndexPath: (if your layout supports decoration views)
shouldInvalidateLayoutForBoundsChange:

However its not clear to me how to make the supplementary view float above the cells and "stick" to the top of the view until the next section is reached. Is there a flag for this in the layout attributes?

I would have used UITableView but I need to create a rather complex hierarchy of collections which is easily achieved with a collection view.

Any guidance or sample code would be greatly appreciated!