KJMenuTableViewController Library

Overview

KJMenuTableViewController is an Xcode project that contains set of classes that simplifies the creation of "menus" in iOS applications using UITableViewController.

The UITableViewController class is a generic mechanism for presenting a scrollable list of rows of items. It is powerful and extensible, but it can be a chore to present a simple list of button-like objects that react when tapped. One must provide implementations of several methods of the UITableViewDataSource and UITableViewDelegate classes, each of which will probably have a case statement to handle each of the individual items.

The KJMenuTableViewController classes simplify this usage case. One simply defines a subclass of KJMenuTableViewController and overrides the viewDidLoad method to create sections and row items. KJMenuTableViewController implements the table view delegate and data source methods to appropriately display the sections and rows, and will take action when a row is tapped.

The code to be executed when an item is tapped are written as a block. When the block is invoked, a KJMenuItemInvocation structure is passed to it. This structure contains pointers to the menu item, cell, and controller, so there is no reason for the block to retain any of these objects itself. (Beware of retain cycles if the block does reference the menu item, cell, or controller.)

Usage

Someday, this will be a proper library, but right now the library is distributed as a demo application that contains reusable classes.

To make use of the reusable classes, copy the following source files from the demo project into your own application:

• KJMenuTableViewController.h and KJMenuTableViewController.m
• KJMenuSection.h and KJMenuSection.m
• KJMenuItem.h and KJMenuItem.m

Example

In this example snippet, the controller is a subclass of KJMenuTableViewController, which is itself a subclass of UITableViewController. In the viewDidLoad method, we add a first section with two items, each of which displays its text in an alert box, and a second section that has an item that pushes a new controller onto the navigation stack.

- (void)viewDidLoad {
    [super viewDidLoad];

    // Add first section

    KJMenuSection *section = [KJMenuSection sectionWithHeaderTitle:@"First Section"];
    section.footerTitle = @"Select item above to display alert";
    [self addSection:section];    

    KJMenuItem *item;

    item = [KJMenuItem itemWithTitle:@"First"];
    item.detailText = @"This is the first item";
    item.block = ^(KJMenuItemInvocation inv) {
        RootViewController *controller = (RootViewController *)inv.controller;
        NSString *title = inv.item.titleText;
        NSString *message = inv.item.detailText;
        [controller displayAlertWithTitle:title message:message];
    };
    [section addItem:item];

    item = [KJMenuItem itemWithTitle:@"Second"];
    item.detailText = @"This is the second item";
    item.block = ^(KJMenuItemInvocation inv) {
        RootViewController *controller = (RootViewController *)inv.controller;
        NSString *title = inv.item.titleText;
        NSString *message = inv.item.detailText;
        [controller displayAlertWithTitle:title message:message];
    };
    [section addItem:item];

    // Add second section

    section = [KJMenuSection sectionWithHeaderTitle:@"Second Section"];
    [self addSection:section];

    item = [KJMenuItem itemWithTitle:@"Push view"
                       accessoryType:UITableViewCellAccessoryDisclosureIndicator];
    item.autoDeselectAfterSelect = NO;
    item.block = ^(KJMenuItemInvocation inv) {
        MyViewController *subcontroller = [[MyViewController alloc]
                                           initWithNibName:@"MyViewController" bundle:nil];
        [inv.controller.navigationController pushViewController:subcontroller animated:YES];
    };
    [section addItem:item];
}

For a complete example, see the demo application's RootViewController.m.

Future Directions

The following features are planned:

• Add convenience methods to reduce the verbosity of setting up a menu.
• Make it possible to add/remove menu items and change their attributes after menu has already been displayed. (As-is, you need to call the table view's reloadData method if you change anything after viewDidLoad.)
• Provide a mechanism so that only one item within a section has a checkmark, and when user selects another item the originally checked item is unchecked.
• Provide the ability to define a menu hierarchy that is handled by a single view controller.
• Add support for compilation with ARC enabled

License

Copyright (C) 2011 Kristopher Johnson

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.