How can a create a automatically resizing table cell for entering texts like in the iPhone's “mail” app?

Question

I\'m try to emulated something just like the \"new message\" page in Apple\'s mail app on the iphone. I\'ve implemented it with a tableview and I\'ve successfully gotten the \"T

Answer 1

You could try my answer to a question similar to this...the key is to use

[self.tableView beginUpdates];
[self.tableView endUpdates];

To do this without reloading the data.

First off, of course, you're going to want to create your UITextView and add it to your cell's contentView. I created an instance variable of UITextView called "cellTextView" Here is the code that I used:

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView fileNameCellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    UITableViewCell *cell = [[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:@"Cell"];

    if (!cellTextView) {
        cellTextView = [[UITextView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(5.0, 5.0, cell.bounds.size.width - 30.0, cell.bounds.size.height - 10.0)]; // I use these x and y values plus the height value for padding purposes.
    }
    [cellTextView setBackgroundColor:[UIColor clearColor]];
    [cellTextView setScrollEnabled:FALSE];
    [cellTextView setFont:[UIFont boldSystemFontOfSize:13.0]];
    [cellTextView setDelegate:self];
    [cellTextView setTextColor:[UIColor blackColor]];
    [cellTextView setContentInset:UIEdgeInsetsZero];
    [cell.contentView addSubview:cellTextView];

    return cell;
}

Then, create an int variable called numberOfLines and set the variable to 1 in your init method. Afterwards, in your textViewDelegate's textViewDidChange method, use this code:

- (void)textViewDidChange:(UITextView *)textView
{
    numberOfLines = (textView.contentSize.height / textView.font.lineHeight) - 1;

    float height = 44.0;
    height += (textView.font.lineHeight * (numberOfLines - 1));

    CGRect textViewFrame = [textView frame];
    textViewFrame.size.height = height - 10.0; //The 10 value is to retrieve the same height padding I inputed earlier when I initialized the UITextView
    [textView setFrame:textViewFrame];

    [self.tableView beginUpdates];
    [self.tableView endUpdates];

    [cellTextView setContentInset:UIEdgeInsetsZero];
}    

Finally, paste this code into your heightForRowAtIndexPath method:

- (CGFloat)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView heightForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    float height = 44.0;
    if (cellTextView) {
        height += (cellTextView.font.lineHeight * (numberOfLines - 1));
    }
    return height;
}

Answer 2

Mail.app doesn't seem to use UITableView. It looks like there custom items (labels and text fields) with UITextView on bottom.

Answer 3

I would recommend using a UIScrollView yourself instead of a UITableView. UITableView isn't really built to support such a thing.