Custom cell for iOS app: XIB or coding?. Issues with height and frames positions

Question 1

The best way to make custom cells with different heights is:

make a NSMutableArray for cells:

@property (nonatomic,retain)NSMutableArray* cellsArray;

then in m.:

the first method which call is

-(float)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView heightForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath{

make your cell here:

        -(float)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView heightForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath{
            if (!self.cellsArray) {

                self.cellsArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc]init];

            }

            ListCell* cell = [[ListCell alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0,, 50)];


           // IMPLEMENT your custom cell here, with custom data, with custom,different height:

           // after add this cell to your array:
            [self.cellsArray addObject:cell];

           // IMPORTANT STEP:  set your cell height for the new height:

            cell.frame = CGRectMake(cell.frame.origin.x, cell.frame.origin.y, 303, yourLastItemInCell.frame.origin.y + yourLastItemInCell.frame.size.height);


            return cell.frame.size.height;
        }

after you got the custom cells with different heights :

#pragma mark - conform to delegates

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

- (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section {

    return 10;
}

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {


    return self.cellsArray[indexPath.row];

}

I hope it helps !

Question 2

Thanks to all. I tried yours solutions and they work but no completely. The problem with the height is almost solved but I'm experiencing an issue with cell visualization because, when they are a little bit longer, they are not shown completely (images neither texts). The screenshots show first and second rows. You can see that until you scroll down a bit the second row is not visible and, in order to see it, you should scroll down until image is only displayed partially. This is not being so easy as I thought in the beginning. Thank you for your comments and help.

enter image description here

Talking about code, I have used incmiko's solution but I still have a problem downloading images because I should do it asynchronously and after that Table View must be redrawn to fit image sizes but I'm not sure how to do it.

Custom Cell:

@interface NewsFeedCell : UITableViewCell<UITextViewDelegate>
{
    UIImageView *picView;
    UITextView *postContent;
    float cellHeight;
}

@property  (nonatomic, retain) UIImageView *picView;
@property (nonatomic, retain) UITextView *postContent;
@property  (nonatomic) float cellHeight;

//-(id)initWithImageUrlString:(NSString *)imgUrl AndText:(NSString *)postText;
-(void)setPostImage:(NSString *)imgUrl;
-(void) setPostContenText:(NSString *)postText;
-(void) setcontentHeight;
-(float) getCellHeight;

@end

Custom cell is iniatilized only with a TextView since some of the future content won't have any image (I know I will have to take care about this while calculating height and Content View size).

- (id)initWithStyle:(UITableViewCellStyle)style reuseIdentifier:(NSString *)reuseIdentifier
{
    self = [super initWithStyle:style reuseIdentifier:reuseIdentifier];
    if (self) {
        // Initialization code
        [self setFrame:CGRectMake(CELL_LEFT_MARGIN, 0, CELL_TOTAL_WIDTH, 50)];


        postContent = [[UITextView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(CELL_LEFT_MARGIN, 0, CELL_TOTAL_WIDTH, 100)];
        [self.contentView addSubview:postContent];
    }
    return self;
}

I'm using AFNetworking to download images:

-(void)setPostImage:(NSString *)imgUrl
{
    picView =[[UIImageView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0,0, 50, 50)];
    [picView setImageWithURLRequest:[NSURLRequest requestWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:imgUrl]] placeholderImage:nil success:^(NSURLRequest *request , NSHTTPURLResponse *response , UIImage *pic )
     {
        //NSLog(@"Loaded successfully: %d", [response statusCode]);

         [picView setImage:pic];
         [self.contentView addSubview:picView];

         CGRect frame = CGRectMake((self.bounds.size.width/2-pic.size.width/2), 0, pic.size.width, pic.size.height);

         [picView setFrame:frame];

         frame = self.contentView.frame;
         frame.size.height = picView.frame.size.height;
         self.contentView.frame = frame;


    }
    failure:^(NSURLRequest *request, NSHTTPURLResponse *response, NSError *error){
        NSLog(@"failed loading: %@", error);
    }
    ];


}

-(void)setPostContenText:(NSString *)postText
{
    CGSize stringSize = [self calculateTextHeight:postText];

    CGRect frame = postContent.frame;
    frame = CGRectMake(CELL_LEFT_MARGIN, picView.frame.origin.y+picView.frame.size.height, CELL_TOTAL_WIDTH, stringSize.height);
    postContent.frame = frame;
    postContent.autoresizingMask = UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleHeight;
    postContent.font = [UIFont systemFontOfSize:POST_CONTENT_FONT_SIZE];
    postContent.text= postText;
    postContent.textColor=[UIColor blackColor];
    [postContent setContentInset:UIEdgeInsetsZero];
    [postContent setBackgroundColor:[UIColor whiteColor]];
    [postContent setEditable:NO];

    frame.size.height = stringSize.height + 5.0f;


}

-(void) setcontentHeight
{
    if(self)
    {
    CGRect frame = self.contentView.frame;
    frame = self.contentView.frame;
    frame.size.height = postContent.frame.size.height + picView.frame.size.height;
    self.contentView.frame = frame;
    self.cellHeight = self.contentView.frame.size.height + 10;

    NSLog(@"picView height: %f", picView.frame.size.height);
    NSLog(@"textview height: %f", postContent.frame.size.height);
    }
    else
        self.cellHeight = 44.0f;

}

And Controller that calls Custom cells:

- (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section
{
    if (self.cellsArray && self.cellsArray.count) {
        return self.cellsArray.count;
    } else {
        return 0;
    }
}

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

-(CGFloat)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView heightForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    return [self.cellsArray[indexPath.row] getCellHeight];
}


- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
   return self.cellsArray[indexPath.row];
}

#pragma mark -
-(void)createCellArray
{
    static NSString *simpleTableIdentifier = @"PostCell";
    if (!self.cellsArray) {
        self.cellsArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc]init];
    }

    for(NSDictionary *post in posts)
    {
        NSString *postText = [post objectForKey:@"longDescription"];//[posts objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];
        NewsFeedCell *cell= [[NewsFeedCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:simpleTableIdentifier];
        if(cell)
        {
            [cell setPostImage:[post objectForKey:@"artworkUrl100"]];
            [cell setPostContenText:postText];
            [cell setcontentHeight];            
            [cellsArray addObject:cell];
        }

    }
}