ios - UISearchDisplayController - how to preload searchResultTableView

Question

I want to show some default content when the user taps the Searchbar, but before any text is entered.

I have a solution working using settext:

- (void) searchDisplayControllerDidBeginSearch:(UISearchDisplayController *)controller {

   [searchDisplayController.searchBar setText:@" "];

}

This works but it's not elegant and the hint text in the Searchbar disappears.

Is there a better way to preload data to the SearchResultTableView in a UISearchDisplayController, without having to implement the whole UISearch functionality yourself in a custom controller?

For a demo of the desired effect, look at Safari's search box, if you tap it, the search interface opens with previous searches showing.

Answer 1

OK, I have it. Preload your dataSource with some data and do the following hack (nothing illegal) and you'll get the tableView to show up. Note that there may be some clean-up to do, but this will get your default data to display.

In viewDidLoad of the view controller than owns the UISearchBar:

[super viewDidLoad];
[self.searchDisplayController.searchResultsTableView reloadData];
// whatever you named your search bar - mine is property named searchBar
CGRect testFrame = CGRectMake(0, 20, self.searchBar.frame.size.width, 100);
self.searchDisplayController.searchResultsTableView.frame = testFrame;
[self.searchBar.superview addSubview:self.searchDisplayController.searchResultsTableView];

Here's what's happening:
The UISearchBar doesn't want to show the searchResultsTableView until you start editing. If you touch the tableView (e.g. reloadData) it will load and be there, sitting in memory with frame = CGRectZero. You give it a proper frame and then add it to the superview of the searchBar, et voila.

I verified this is correct by displaying the superview of the searchBar and the superview of the tableView after a proper load of the tableView - they have the same superview. So, I go back and add the tableView to the superview early, and sure enough it shows up. For me, it showed up dimmed (maybe another view above it? alpha set lower?), but was still clickable. I didn't go any further, but that definitely gets you your tableView displaying without any user interaction.

Enjoy,

Damien