UITableView inside of UITableViewCell

Question

I have a tableView of music albums. For each cell of tableView I'd like to display the music album cover art and also the list of music tracks of the corresponding album.

So basically, in each music albums UITableViewCell there will be the music album cover art on the top half, and a UITableView on the bottom half.

UITableViewCell example:

I'm as far as adding the music album cover art on the top half, and a blank UITableView on the bottom half.

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
    AlbumsTableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:@"Cell" forIndexPath:indexPath];
    MPMediaItem *rowItem = [[albumsArrayForTVC objectAtIndex:indexPath.row] representativeItem];
    MPMediaItemArtwork *artwork = [rowItem valueForProperty:MPMediaItemPropertyArtwork];
    inputImage = [artwork imageWithSize: CGSizeMake (1024, 1024)];
    if (inputImage) {
        cell.backgroundImageView.image = inputImage;
    } else {
        cell.backgroundImageView.image = nil;
    }

    UITableViewCell *songCell = [cell.songTableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:@"OtherCell"];
    songCell.textLabel.text = @"This text doesn't show up yet";
    return cell;
}

I can't figure out inside cellForIndexPath how to fill in the UITableView of songs. I'm just trying to use a static textLabel.text right now, even though I'll eventually fill it in via the actual NSArray of songs.

I know this is a confusing thing to do, and stylistically it wouldn't make sense in most cases, but is there anyone that knows how this can be done?

Answer 1

You should use sections. Each section header should display album cover and each cell in section should display the song name. Don't add a table view inside cell view...

in numberOfSections method return the number of albums, inside the viewForHeaderInSection add album cover, and in cellForRow... check which section is and display song name....