Show RSS pubDate in Table View Cell

Question

My app uses an RSS feed to populate the cells in a table view with the titles of articles from the feed. I'm trying to add the published date for each article to the corresponding cell but it isn't showing up. The titles show up just fine in as the textLabel but the date is not showing in the detailTextLabel. I have an NSLog that shows all of the pubDate items and a NSLog in didSelectRowAtIndexPath that shows the pubDate for the selected row. Any help?

RSSChannel.m

#import "RSSChannel.h"
#import "RSSItem.h"

@implementation RSSChannel
@synthesize items, title, infoString, parentParserDelegate, date;

- (id)init
{
    self = [super init];

    if (self)
    {
        // Create the container for the RSSItems this channel has
        items = [[NSMutableArray alloc]init];
    }

    return self;
}

- (void)parser:(NSXMLParser *)parser didStartElement:(NSString *)elementName namespaceURI:(NSString *)namespaceURI qualifiedName:(NSString *)qName attributes:(NSDictionary *)attributeDict
{
    NSLog(@"\t%@ found a %@ element", self, elementName);

    if ([elementName isEqual:@"title"])
    {
        currentString = [[NSMutableString alloc]init];
        [self setTitle:currentString];
    }
    else if ([elementName isEqual:@"pubDate"])
    {
        currentString = [[NSMutableString alloc]init];
        [self setDate:currentString];
    }
    else if ([elementName isEqual:@"description"])
    {
        currentString = [[NSMutableString alloc]init];
        [self setInfoString:currentString];
    }
    else if ([elementName isEqual:@"item"])
    {
        RSSItem *entry = [[RSSItem alloc]init];

        // Set up its parent as ourselves so we can regain control of the parser
        [entry setParentParserDelegate:self];

        // Turn the parser to the RSSItem
        [parser setDelegate:entry];

        [items addObject:entry];
    }
}

- (void)parser:(NSXMLParser *)parser foundCharacters:(NSString *)str
{
    [currentString appendString:str];
}

- (void)parser:(NSXMLParser *)parser didEndElement:(NSString *)elementName namespaceURI:(NSString *)namespaceURI qualifiedName:(NSString *)qName
{
    currentString = nil;

    if ([elementName isEqual:@"channel"])
    {
        [parser setDelegate:parentParserDelegate];
    }
}

@end

RSSItem.m

#import "RSSItem.h"

@implementation RSSItem

@synthesize title, link, date, isActionAlert, parentParserDelegate;

- (void)parser:(NSXMLParser *)parser didStartElement:(NSString *)elementName namespaceURI:(NSString *)namespaceURI qualifiedName:(NSString *)qName attributes:(NSDictionary *)attributeDict
{
    NSLog(@"\t\t%@ found a %@ element", self, elementName);
    if ([elementName isEqualToString:@"category"]) {
        NSLog(@"category");
    }
    if ([elementName isEqual:@"title"])
    {
        currentString = [[NSMutableString alloc]init];
        [self setTitle:currentString];
    }
    else if ([elementName isEqual:@"link"])
    {
        currentString = [[NSMutableString alloc]init];
        [self setLink:currentString];
    }
    else if ([elementName isEqual:@"pubDate"])
    {
        currentString = [[NSMutableString alloc]init];
        [self setDate:currentString];
    }
}

- (void)parser:(NSXMLParser *)parser foundCharacters:(NSString *)str
{
    if ([str isEqualToString:@"Action Alert"]) {
        isActionAlert = YES;
    }
    [currentString appendString:str];
}

- (void)parser:(NSXMLParser *)parser didEndElement:(NSString *)elementName namespaceURI:(NSString *)namespaceURI qualifiedName:(NSString *)qName
{
    currentString = nil;

    if ([elementName isEqual:@"item"])
    {
        [parser setDelegate:parentParserDelegate];
    }
}

@end

Table View Controller

#import "AgStoriesViewController.h"
#import "RSSChannel.h"
#import "RSSItem.h"
#import "WebViewController.h"
// #import "CustomCellBackground.h"
#import "DTCustomColoredAccessory.h"

@implementation AgStoriesViewController
{
    UIActivityIndicatorView *loadingIndicator;
}
@synthesize webViewController;

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    UIImageView *background = [[UIImageView alloc]init];
    background.image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"plain_app-background.png"];

    CGFloat width = CGRectGetWidth(self.view.bounds);
    CGFloat height = CGRectGetHeight(self.view.bounds);

    self.tableView = [[UITableView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectZero style:UITableViewStyleGrouped];
    [self.tableView setBackgroundView:background];
    self.title = @"Ag News";
    loadingIndicator = [[UIActivityIndicatorView alloc] initWithActivityIndicatorStyle:UIActivityIndicatorViewStyleGray];
    loadingIndicator.center = CGPointMake(width/2, height/2);
    loadingIndicator.hidesWhenStopped = YES;
    [self.view addSubview:loadingIndicator];
    [loadingIndicator startAnimating];
    // UIRefreshControl *refresh = [[UIRefreshControl alloc] init];
    // refresh.attributedTitle = [[NSAttributedString alloc] initWithString:@"Pull to Refresh"];
    // [refresh addTarget:self action:@selector(refreshView:)forControlEvents:UIControlEventValueChanged];
    // self.refreshControl = refresh;
}

- (void)parser:(NSXMLParser *)parser didStartElement:(NSString *)elementName namespaceURI:(NSString *)namespaceURI qualifiedName:(NSString *)qName attributes:(NSDictionary *)attributeDict
{
    NSLog(@"%@ found a %@ element", self, elementName);
    if ([elementName isEqual:@"channel"])
    {
        // If the parser saw a channel, create new instance, store in our ivar
        channel = [[RSSChannel alloc]init];

        // Give the channel object a pointer back to ourselves for later
        [channel setParentParserDelegate:self];

        // Set the parser's delegate to the channel object
        [parser setDelegate:channel];
    }
}

- (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section
{
    // return 0;
    NSLog(@"channel items %d", [[channel items]count]);
    return [[channel items]count];
}

- (CGFloat)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView heightForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    return 50;
}

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    // return nil;
    UIImageView *image = [[UIImageView alloc]init];
    image.image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"CellImage.png"];

    UIImageView *background = [[UIImageView alloc]init];
    background.image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"plain_app-background.png"];

    UIImageView *highlightedCellImage = [[UIImageView alloc]init];
    highlightedCellImage.image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"HighlightedCellImage"];

    UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:@"UITableViewCell"];
    if (cell == nil)
    {
        cell = [[UITableViewCell alloc]initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:@"UITableViewCell"];
        cell.textLabel.font=[UIFont systemFontOfSize:16.0];
    }
    RSSItem *item = [[channel items]objectAtIndex:[indexPath row]];
    [[cell textLabel]setText:[item title]];
    [[cell detailTextLabel]setText:[item date]];

    NSLog(@"Date: %@", [item date]);

    tableView.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
    // cell.backgroundView = [[CustomCellBackground alloc] init];
    // cell.selectedBackgroundView = [[CustomCellBackground alloc] init];
    cell.textLabel.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
    cell.textLabel.highlightedTextColor = [UIColor blueColor];
    cell.textLabel.font = [UIFont fontWithName:@"FranklinGothicStd-ExtraCond" size:20.0];
    cell.textLabel.textColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
    cell.detailTextLabel.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
    cell.detailTextLabel.highlightedTextColor = [UIColor blueColor];
    cell.detailTextLabel.font = [UIFont fontWithName:@"FranklinGothicStd-ExtraCond" size:16.0];
    cell.detailTextLabel.textColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
    cell.backgroundView = image;
    cell.selectedBackgroundView = highlightedCellImage;
    tableView.backgroundView = background;

    DTCustomColoredAccessory *accessory = [DTCustomColoredAccessory accessoryWithColor:cell.textLabel.textColor];
    accessory.highlightedColor = [UIColor blueColor];
    cell.accessoryView =accessory;

    return cell;
}

- (void)fetchEntries
{
    // Create a new data container for the stuff that comes back from the service
    xmlData = [[NSMutableData alloc]init];

    // Construct a URL that will ask the service for what you want -
    // note we can concatenate literal strings together on multiple lines in this way - this results in a single NSString instance
    NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:@"http://kyfbnewsroom.com/category/ag-news/feed"];

    // Put that URL into an NSURLRequest
    NSURLRequest *req = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:url];

    // Create a connection that will exchange this request for data from the URL
    connection = [[NSURLConnection alloc]initWithRequest:req delegate:self startImmediately:YES];
}

- (id)initWithStyle:(UITableViewStyle)style
{
    self = [super initWithStyle:style];

    if (self)
    {
        [self fetchEntries];
    }

    return self;
}

// This method will be called several times as the data arrives
- (void)connection:(NSURLConnection *)conn didReceiveData:(NSData *)data
{
    // Add the incoming chunk of data to the container we are keeping
    // The data always comes in the correct order
    [xmlData appendData:data];
}

- (void)connectionDidFinishLoading:(NSURLConnection *)conn
{
    /* We are just checking to make sure we are getting the XML
     NSString *xmlCheck = [[NSString alloc]initWithData:xmlData encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
     NSLog(@"xmlCheck = %@", xmlCheck);*/

    [loadingIndicator stopAnimating];

    // Create the parser object with the data received from the web service
    NSXMLParser *parser = [[NSXMLParser alloc]initWithData:xmlData];

    // Give it a delegate
    [parser setDelegate:self];

    //Tell it to start parsing - the document will be parsed and the delegate of NSXMLParser will get all of its delegate messages sent to it before this line finishes execution - it is blocking
    [parser parse];

    // Get rid of the XML data as we no longer need it
    xmlData = nil;

    // Reload the table.. for now, the table will be empty
    [[self tableView]reloadData];

    NSLog(@"%@\n %@\n %@\n", channel, [channel title], [channel infoString]);
}

- (void)connection:(NSURLConnection *)conn didFailWithError:(NSError *)error
{
    // Release the connection object, we're done with it
    connection = nil;

    // Release the xmlData object, we're done with it
    xmlData = nil;

    // Grab the description of the error object passed to us
    NSString *errorString = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"Fetch failed: %@", [error localizedDescription]];

    // Create and show an alert view with this error displayed
    UIAlertView *av = [[UIAlertView alloc]initWithTitle:@"Error" message:errorString delegate:nil cancelButtonTitle:@"OK" otherButtonTitles:nil];
    [av show];
}

- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView didSelectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    // Push the web view controller onto the navigation stack - this implicitly creates the web view controller's view the first time through
    // [[self navigationController]pushViewController:webViewController animated:YES];
    [self.navigationController pushViewController:webViewController animated:NO];

    // Grab the selected item
    RSSItem *entry = [[channel items]objectAtIndex:[indexPath row]];

    NSLog(@"Channel Items: %@", [[channel items]objectAtIndex:[indexPath row]]);

    // Construct a URL with the link string of the item
    NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:[entry link]];

    NSLog(@"Link: %@", [entry link]);

    // Construct a request object with that URL
    NSURLRequest *req = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:url];

    NSLog(@"URL: %@", url);

    // Load the request into the web view
    [[webViewController webView]loadRequest:req];
    webViewController.hackyURL = url;
    NSLog(@"Request: %@", req);

    // Set the title of the web view controller's navigation item
    // [[webViewController navigationItem]setTitle:[entry title]];

    NSLog(@"Title: %@", [entry title]);

    NSLog(@"Pub Date: %@", [entry date]);
}

@end

Answer 1

You're using UITableViewCellStyleDefault when constructing your cell. This style does not provide the detailTextLabel. You should probably take UITableViewCellStyleSubtitle.