fethica / uitableviewjson

An example of how to use AFNetworking library to load an UITableView with JSON file data from the internet.

UITableViewJSON

An example to show how to use AFNetworking library to load an UITableView with JSON file.

The JSON file

characters.json an array of objects:

[
    {
        "name": "Naruto Uzumaki",
        "thumbnail": "http://fethica.github.io/UITableViewJSON/images/thumbs/naruto.png",
        "photo": "http://fethica.github.io/UITableViewJSON/images/profile/naruto.png",
        "description": "Naruto was born as the son of the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze..."
    },
    {
        "name": "Sasuke Uchiha",
        "thumbnail": "http://fethica.github.io/UITableViewJSON/images/thumbs/sasuke.png",
        "photo": "http://fethica.github.io/UITableViewJSON/images/profile/sasuke.jpg",
        "description": "Sasuke is the second and youngest son of the Konoha Military Police Force ..."
    }
    
    ...
]

The Ninja model object

@interface Ninja : NSObject

@property (strong, nonatomic)NSString *name;
@property (strong, nonatomic)NSString *thumbnail;
@property (strong, nonatomic)NSString *photo;
@property (strong, nonatomic)NSString *desc;

- (id)initWithName:(NSString *)aName
         thumbnail:(NSString *)aThumbnail
             photo:(NSString *)aPhoto
       description:(NSString *)aDescription;

- (id)initWithDictionary:(NSDictionary *)dic;

@end

Load the data into an NSArray

• Add #import "AFHTTPSessionManager.h" to the TableViewController

• Create loadNinja function in the TableViewController

- (void)loadNinjas {
    
    AFHTTPSessionManager *manager = [AFHTTPSessionManager manager];
    
    [manager GET:@"https://fethica.github.io/UITableViewJSON/characters.json" parameters:nil progress:nil success:^(NSURLSessionTask *task, id responseObject) {
        
        NSArray *jsonArray = (NSArray *)responseObject;
        NSMutableArray *tempNinjas = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
        
        for (NSDictionary *dic in jsonArray) {
            Ninja *ninja = [[Ninja alloc] initWithDictionary:dic];
            [tempNinjas addObject:ninja];
        }
        
        self.ninjas = [[NSArray alloc] initWithArray:tempNinjas];
        tempNinjas = nil;
        
        [self.tableView reloadData];
        
    } failure:^(NSURLSessionTask *operation, NSError *error) {
        
        UIAlertView *alertView = [[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:@"Error Retrieving Ninjas"
                                                            message:[error localizedDescription]
                                                           delegate:nil
                                                  cancelButtonTitle:@"Ok"
                                                  otherButtonTitles:nil];
        [alertView show];
    }];

}

• Call the function in the viewDidLoad to initialise the NSArray property

- (void)viewDidLoad {
    [super viewDidLoad];
    // Do any additional setup after loading the view, typically from a nib.
    self.title = @"Ninjas";
    
    [self loadNinjas];
    
    // Remove empty cells
    self.tableView.tableFooterView = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectZero];
}

• Add #import "UIImageView+AFNetworking.h" a category to add an additional behaviour to UIImageView class
• Load the UITableView with the NSArray initialized in the loadNinja function

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
    UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:@"cell" forIndexPath:indexPath];
    
    cell.textLabel.text = [self.ninjas[indexPath.row] name];
    
    [cell.imageView setImageWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:[self.ninjas[indexPath.row] thumbnail]]
                   placeholderImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"50-50.jpg"]];
    
    return cell;
}