How to select a cell in a tableview to open a new view controller?

Question

Im using Xcode 4.3.2 with storyboards as i'm a newbie so code knowledge is not very good. I have so far created by main view controller which links to my tableview which contains data. However i dont know how to link this to a new view controller, i.e. if i drag a new view controller onto the storyboard page i want to be able to select the cell in the tableview and then opens a new page which contains the details. my code so far with the help of tutorials is:-

Viewcontroller.h

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@interface ViewController : UIViewController <UITabBarDelegate, UITableViewDataSource, UISearchBarDelegate>
    {
    IBOutlet UITableView * tableView;
    IBOutlet UISearchBar * searchBar;

        NSArray * allItems;
        NSMutableArray * displayItems;
}

@end

Viewcontroller.m

#import "ViewController.h"

@interface ViewController ()

@end

@implementation ViewController

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad];
    allItems = [[NSArray alloc] initWithObjects:@"K12", @"K14", @"K16", @"K18", @"K42", @"K43", @"K46", @"K53", @"K60", @"K68", @"K81", @"K83", nil];
    displayItems = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithArray:allItems];

}

- (NSInteger)numberOfSectionsInTableView:(UITableView *)tableView {
    return  1;    
}

- (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section {
    return [displayItems count];
}

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)atableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
    UITableViewCell * cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:@"Cell"];
    if (!cell) {
        cell = [[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:@"Cell"];
    }
    cell.textLabel.text = [displayItems objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];
    return cell;
}

- (void)searchBar:(UISearchBar *)searchBar textDidChange:(NSString *)searchText {
    if ([searchText length] == 0) {
        [displayItems removeAllObjects];
        [displayItems addObjectsFromArray:allItems];
    } else {
        //here
        [displayItems removeAllObjects];
        for (NSString * string in allItems) {
            NSRange r = [string rangeOfString:searchText options:NSCaseInsensitiveSearch];
            if (r.location != NSNotFound) {
                [displayItems addObject:string];
        }
    }
}

    [tableView reloadData];
}

- (void)searchBarSearchButtonClicked:(UISearchBar *)aSearchBar {
    [searchBar resignFirstResponder];
}

- (void)viewDidUnload
{
    [super viewDidUnload];
    // Release any retained subviews of the main view.
}

- (BOOL)shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)interfaceOrientation
{
    return (interfaceOrientation != UIInterfaceOrientationPortraitUpsideDown);
}

@end

I feel comfortable working out the rest of the app just stuck on this bit and searched tutorials looked at various code but because my knowledge is very limited I just need a dummies guide or better still if someone can tell me what code to add that will be great.

Thanks Guys and help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Okay, I will assume that you will use the same nib to display the information, regardless of which row is selected. First, right-click or ctrl-click on your "Views" folder, and select "New File". Create a new UIViewController class, with .xib. My view controller will have a label (for the name of the car), a UIImageView (of the car, populated by an image that has the same name as the car, with a .jpg appendix), and a textView populated by a dictionary. The textView will display information about the car, and I have pre-loaded the dictionary with that information, keyed to the name of the car, like so:

[dictionary setObject:@"This is a car." forKey:@"Ford Taurus"];

The dictionary is a singleton, so every class can access it (see https://stackoverflow.com/a/10093449/542400 for how to implement that). Now that I have my new viewController (let's call it "NewVC"), with a synthesized string (so my first viewController can access it), I will make sure my first viewController will respond when a row is selected:

- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView didSelectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath{
    NewVC *new = [[NewVC alloc] init];
    //assuming you have no array from which you populated your table
    new.myString = [[[myTable cellForRowAtIndexPath:indexPath] textLabel] text];

    //assuming you have a navigationController
    [self.navigationController pushViewController:new animated:YES]; 
}

Now in my NewVC's -viewWillAppear method, I implement the following:

-(void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated{
    [myLabel setText:myString];
    NSString *string = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@.jpg", myString];
    UIImage *image = [UIImage imageNamed:string];
    [myImageView setImage:image];
    //see above for sharedDictionary info
    [myTextView setText: [[MainDictionary sharedDictionary]getStringForKey:myString]];
    [super viewWillAppear:YES];
}

This is a very basic implementation, but I hope it will make the process clear. By instituting a simple naming convention for the dictionary keys and image names, you will be making your job a lot easier.