Problem with displaying Contacts like App on iPhone

Question

Hi,

I am trying to create a contacts like app for iphone where the name of contact is displayed on the top (to do this I am writing code in viewForHeaderInSection) and then the details follows in the grouped section. The problem is I am retrieving the values from database and if the first name is null it is displayed on the table. I want to delete the null values and display the fields which has values in it. The names are saved in an array. I am trying to get the following fields from the database to display on the table.

NSMutableArray *nameSectionDetails=[[NSMutableArray alloc]initWithObjects:[eachContact objectAtIndex:0], [eachContact objectAtIndex:1], [eachContact objectAtIndex:2],[eachContact objectAtIndex:3],[eachContact objectAtIndex:4],[eachContact objectAtIndex:19],nil];

NSMutableDictionary *nameSection = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc]initWithObjectsAndKeys: nameSectionDetails, @"name", nil]; self.labelSection=nameSection;

eachContact has all the details of a particular contact.

This is where I am trying to display

- (UIView *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView viewForHeaderInSection:(NSInteger)section {
 if(section == 0) {
  // create the parent view that will hold 1 or more buttons
  UIView* buttonView = [[[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(10.0, 0.0, 300.0, 100.0)]autorelease];

  UILabel *updateDeletedLabel = [[[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(10.0, 0.0, 300.0, 60.0)] autorelease];
  /*updateDeletedLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@\n%@ %@\n%@\n%@",[eachContact objectAtIndex:1],[eachContact objectAtIndex:3],[eachContact objectAtIndex:2],[eachContact objectAtIndex:3],[eachContact objectAtIndex:4],[eachContact objectAtIndex:19]];*/
  /*for(int i=1;i<[[labelSection objectForKey:@"name"]count];i++)
  {
   if([[[labelSection objectForKey:@"name"]objectAtIndex:i] isEqualToString:@"(null)"])
    [[labelSection objectForKey:@"name"]removeObjectAtIndex:i];
   //i+=i*i;

  }*/


  updateDeletedLabel.text=[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@ %@ %@\n%@\n%@\n%@",[[labelSection objectForKey:@"name"]objectAtIndex:1],[[labelSection objectForKey:@"name"]objectAtIndex:3],[[labelSection objectForKey:@"name"]objectAtIndex:5],[[labelSection objectForKey:@"name"]objectAtIndex:7],[[labelSection objectForKey:@"name"]objectAtIndex:9],[[labelSection objectForKey:@"name"]objectAtIndex:11]];

  updateDeletedLabel.font = [UIFont systemFontOfSize:12];
  updateDeletedLabel.numberOfLines = 0;
  updateDeletedLabel.lineBreakMode = UILineBreakModeWordWrap;
  updateDeletedLabel.backgroundColor = [UIColor colorWithRed:0.0 green:0.0 blue:0.0 alpha:0.0];
  [updateDeletedLabel setTextAlignment: UITextAlignmentCenter];

  // add the button to the parent view

  [buttonView addSubview:updateDeletedLabel];

  return buttonView;
 }
 return nil;
}

Can anyone please help me in this regard. I am a newbie learning iphone applications and if you can suggest any other method, I am glad to know that. Thanks!!!

Answer 1

You should learn about customizing UITableCells

see http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/TableView_iPhone/AboutTableViewsiPhone/AboutTableViewsiPhone.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40007451

especially this code: http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/samplecode/TableViewSuite/Introduction/Intro.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/DTS40007318

edit after clarification in comments

Still you should go the the mentioned documentation, as you are using the tableview wrong.

In the headerview for section 0 you would only return a view, that displays the photo and the name. (probably using a custom view loaded from a nib file)

the cells you would create in –tableView:cellForRowAtIndexPath:

edit

I was curious, what it does really take to do an app like that. Here are the results

THIS IS NOT READY FOR PRODUCTION — if name, familyname or pictureurl won't be provided, the DetailView will crash

          By using this code, you agree in doing your 
          homework and study the mentioned documentation!