The way I separate those concerns in my projects, is by creating a class to keep track of the state of the app and do the required operations on data. This class is responsible for getting the actual data (either creating it hard-coded or getting it from the persistent store). This is a real example:
import Foundation
class CountriesStateController {
private var countries: [Country] = [
Country(name: "United States", visited: true),
Country(name: "United Kingdom", visited: false),
Country(name: "France", visited: false),
Country(name: "Italy", visited: false),
Country(name: "Spain", visited: false),
Country(name: "Russia", visited: false),
Country(name: "Moldova", visited: false),
Country(name: "Romania", visited: false)
]
func toggleVisitedCountry(at index: Int) {
guard index > -1, index < countries.count else {
fatalError("countryNameAt(index:) - Error: index out of bounds")
}
let country = countries[index]
country.visited = !country.visited
}
func numberOfCountries() -> Int {
return countries.count
}
func countryAt(index: Int) -> Country {
guard index > -1, index < countries.count else {
fatalError("countryNameAt(index:) - Error: index out of bounds")
}
return countries[index]
}
}
Then, I create separate classes that implement the UITableViewDataSource and UITableViewDelegate protocols:
import UIKit
class CountriesTableViewDataSource: NSObject {
let countriesStateController: CountriesStateController
let tableView: UITableView
init(stateController: CountriesStateController, tableView: UITableView) {
countriesStateController = stateController
self.tableView = tableView
self.tableView.register(UITableViewCell.self, forCellReuseIdentifier: "UITableViewCell")
super.init()
self.tableView.dataSource = self
}
}
extension CountriesTableViewDataSource: UITableViewDataSource {
func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
// return the number of items in the section(s)
return countriesStateController.numberOfCountries()
}
func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
// return a cell of type UITableViewCell or another subclass
let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: "UITableViewCell", for: indexPath)
let country = countriesStateController.countryAt(index: indexPath.row)
let countryName = country.name
let visited = country.visited
cell.textLabel?.text = countryName
cell.accessoryType = visited ? .checkmark : .none
return cell
}
}
import UIKit
protocol CountryCellInteractionDelegate: NSObjectProtocol {
func didSelectCountry(at index: Int)
}
class CountriesTableViewDelegate: NSObject {
weak var interactionDelegate: CountryCellInteractionDelegate?
let countriesStateController: CountriesStateController
let tableView: UITableView
init(stateController: CountriesStateController, tableView: UITableView) {
countriesStateController = stateController
self.tableView = tableView
super.init()
self.tableView.delegate = self
}
}
extension CountriesTableViewDelegate: UITableViewDelegate {
func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, didSelectRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) {
print("Selected row at index: \(indexPath.row)")
tableView.deselectRow(at: indexPath, animated: false)
countriesStateController.toggleVisitedCountry(at: indexPath.row)
tableView.reloadRows(at: [indexPath], with: .none)
interactionDelegate?.didSelectCountry(at: indexPath.row)
}
}
And this is how easy is to use them from the ViewController class now:
import UIKit
class ViewController: UIViewController, CountryCellInteractionDelegate {
public var countriesStateController: CountriesStateController!
private var countriesTableViewDataSource: CountriesTableViewDataSource!
private var countriesTableViewDelegate: CountriesTableViewDelegate!
private lazy var countriesTableView: UITableView = createCountriesTableView()
func createCountriesTableView() -> UITableView {
let tableViewOrigin = CGPoint(x: 0, y: 0)
let tableViewSize = view.bounds.size
let tableViewFrame = CGRect(origin: tableViewOrigin, size: tableViewSize)
let tableView = UITableView(frame: tableViewFrame, style: .plain)
return tableView
}
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
// Do any additional setup after loading the view, typically from a nib.
guard countriesStateController != nil else {
fatalError("viewDidLoad() - Error: countriesStateController was not injected")
}
view.addSubview(countriesTableView)
configureCountriesTableViewDelegates()
}
func configureCountriesTableViewDelegates() {
countriesTableViewDataSource = CountriesTableViewDataSource(stateController: countriesStateController, tableView: countriesTableView)
countriesTableViewDelegate = CountriesTableViewDelegate(stateController: countriesStateController, tableView: countriesTableView)
countriesTableViewDelegate.interactionDelegate = self
}
func didSelectCountry(at index: Int) {
let country = countriesStateController.countryAt(index: index)
print("Selected country: \(country.name)")
}
}
Note that ViewController didn't create the countriesStateController object, so it must be injected. We can do that from the Flow Controller, from the Coordinator or Presenter, etc. I did it from AppDelegate like so:
class AppDelegate: UIResponder, UIApplicationDelegate {
var window: UIWindow?
let countriesStateController = CountriesStateController()
func application(_ application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplication.LaunchOptionsKey: Any]?) -> Bool {
// Override point for customization after application launch.
if let viewController = window?.rootViewController as? ViewController {
viewController.countriesStateController = countriesStateController
}
return true
}
/* ... */
}
If it's never injected - we get a runt-time crash, so we know we must fix it straight away.
This is the Country class:
import Foundation
class Country {
var name: String
var visited: Bool
init(name: String, visited: Bool) {
self.name = name
self.visited = visited
}
}
Note how clean and slim the ViewController class is. It's less than 50 lines, and if create the table view from Interface Builder - it becomes 8-9 lines smaller.
ViewController above does what it's supposed to do, and that's to be a mediator between View and Model objects. It doesn't really care if the table displays one type or many types of cells, so the code to register the cell(s) belongs to CountriesTableViewDataSource class, which is responsible to create each cell as needed.
Some people combine CountriesTableViewDataSource and CountriesTableViewDelegate in one class, but I think it breaks the Single Responsibility Principle. Those two classes both need access to the same DataProvider / State Controller object, and ViewController needs access to that as well.
Note that View Controller had now way to know when didSelectRowAt was called, so we needed to create an additional protocol inside UITableViewDelegate:
protocol CountryCellInteractionDelegate: NSObjectProtocol {
func didSelectCountry(at index: Int)
}
And we also need a delegate property to make the communication possible:
weak var interactionDelegate: CountryCellInteractionDelegate?
Note that neither CountriesTableViewDataSource not CountriesTableViewDelegate class knows about the existence of the ViewController class. Using Protocol-Oriented-Programming - we could even remove the tight-coupling between those two classes and the CountriesStateController class.
