Creating and Using Custom UITableViewCell Template in Storyboard

Question

I have a UITableView where I'd like to have multiple types of UITableViewCells. The different types of cells have a lot of similar properties, but have a few key differences, so I was hoping to create a template UITableViewCell class (TemplateCell) that the different cell types could extend.

I've tried doing this by creating a the TemplateCell class and having an associated .xib file. I then tried to go to my UITableView storyboard file and created my various cell types that subclassed my template. However, when I added those cell types to the storyboard file, they showed up as blank and didn't have any of the properties I had in the template file.

Is there an better way to create UITableViewCell templates?

Answer 1

You can create a TemplateCell class and separate classes for every other Cell (inherited from TemplateCell). Then you could assign common IBOutlets of EVERY subclassed cell to it TemplateCell class. Or you could operate with them by looking for the views with specific tags if you don't want to bother with outlets for base class.

Answer 2

Unfortunately you can't draw views in IB respecting some base view, so you should draw each cell separately, but you can use common outlets declared in the base class, and those outlets (properties) that differ, put into inherited cell classes. Without 3d-parties IB doesn't support loading views from xib to a storyboard or another xib. You can use XXNibBridge for that.