cuba / canoe

A table view helper

Canoe

Canoe simplifies table view management by wrapping it around a TableViewHelper. However Canoe doesn't force you to use custom delegates and data sources. Table view management uses existing protocols you just don't need to manage index paths anymore.

Installation

SPM

PiuPiu supports SPM. Not sure what else to say :)

Usage

1. Import Canoe on your UIViewController

import Canoe

2. Define a Section and Row

/// Object representing simple rows on a table view
struct SimpleRow: TableViewHelperSection {
    // Add anything you like here.
    // ....
}

/// Object representing simple sections on a table view
/// Must conform to `TableViewHelperSection`
struct SimpleSection: TableViewHelperSection {
    // Title is not required for the protocol but its usually useful
    let title: String?
    
    // The rows of the section
    var rows: [SimpleRow]
}

All you need to do is define is a TableViewHelperSection which in turn needs to have rows. Rows can be an array of anything: enums, structs, classes, integers, etc.

In this example we used a struct for both the section and row. Did we need to use a struct? No! We just decided to use a struct. It fit our needs better.

3. Add TableViewHelper to our UIViewController

class ViewController: UIViewController {
    private lazy var tableViewHelper: TableViewHelper<SimpleSection> = {
        return TableViewHelper(tableView: self.tableView)
    }()
    
    ...
}

4. Use Add your UITableViewDataSource and UITableViewDelegate

extension ViewController: UITableViewDataSource {
    func numberOfSections(in tableView: UITableView) -> Int {
        return tableViewHelper.sections.count
    }

    func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
        return tableViewHelper.sections[section].rows.count
    }

    func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, titleForHeaderInSection section: Int) -> String? {
        return tableViewHelper.sections[section].title
    }

    func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
        let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: cellReuseIdentifier, for: indexPath)
        let row = tableViewHelper.row(for: indexPath)
        
        // Configure your cell based based the row.
        // It may be a good idea to even use an enum for our rows if we're supporting different types of cells
        
        return cell
    }
}

extension ViewController: UITableViewDelegate {
    func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, didSelectRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) {
        tableView.deselectRow(at: indexPath, animated: true)
        let row = tableViewHelper.row(for: indexPath)
        
        // Do something after selecting this row
    }

    func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, canMoveRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> Bool {
        return true
    }

    func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, moveRowAt sourceIndexPath: IndexPath, to destinationIndexPath: IndexPath) {
        // Here we can see an example of where tableViewHelper does some common things for us
        tableViewHelper.moveRow(at: sourceIndexPath, to: destinationIndexPath)
    }

    func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, commit editingStyle: UITableViewCell.EditingStyle, forRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) {
        switch editingStyle {
        case .delete:
            // Here is another common table view helper operation
            tableViewHelper.removeRow(at: indexPath)
            
        case .insert, .none:
            break

        @unknown default:
            break
        }
    }
}

Most of what we do here is pretty straightforward: configure a cell, move cells, delete cells. In a simple example, it's difficult how truly useful this is. But even with these basic examples, TableViewHelper made it much easier and quicker to do these operations. Imagine a much much much more complex screen with different row types and different types of interactions.

Advanced example

TODO

Dependencies

Canoe includes...nothing. This is a light-weight library.

Credits

Canoe is owned and maintained by Jacob Sikorski.

License

Canoe is released under the MIT license. See LICENSE for details