UITableView layout messing up on push segue and return. (iOS 8, Xcode beta 5, Swift)

Question

tldr; Auto constrains appear to break on push segue and return to view for custom cells

Edit: I have provided a github example proj

Answer 1

The problem of this behavior is when you push a segue the tableView will call the estimatedHeightForRowAtIndexPath for the visible cells and reset the cell height to a default value. This happens after the viewWillDisappear call. If you come back to TableView all the visible cells are messed up..

I solved this problem with a estimatedCellHeightCache. I simply add this code snipped to the cellForRowAtIndexPath method:

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
    ...
    // put estimated cell height in cache if needed
    if (![self isEstimatedRowHeightInCache:indexPath]) {
        CGSize cellSize = [cell systemLayoutSizeFittingSize:CGSizeMake(self.view.frame.size.width, 0) withHorizontalFittingPriority:1000.0 verticalFittingPriority:50.0];
        [self putEstimatedCellHeightToCache:indexPath height:cellSize.height];
    }
    ...
}

Now you have to implement the estimatedHeightForRowAtIndexPath as following:

-(CGFloat)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView estimatedHeightForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
    return [self getEstimatedCellHeightFromCache:indexPath defaultHeight:41.5];
}

Configure the Cache

Add this property to your .h file:

@property NSMutableDictionary *estimatedRowHeightCache;

Implement methods to put/get/reset.. the cache:

#pragma mark - estimated height cache methods

// put height to cache
- (void) putEstimatedCellHeightToCache:(NSIndexPath *) indexPath height:(CGFloat) height {
    [self initEstimatedRowHeightCacheIfNeeded];
    [self.estimatedRowHeightCache setValue:[[NSNumber alloc] initWithFloat:height] forKey:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%d", indexPath.row]];
}

// get height from cache
- (CGFloat) getEstimatedCellHeightFromCache:(NSIndexPath *) indexPath defaultHeight:(CGFloat) defaultHeight {
    [self initEstimatedRowHeightCacheIfNeeded];
    NSNumber *estimatedHeight = [self.estimatedRowHeightCache valueForKey:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%d", indexPath.row]];
    if (estimatedHeight != nil) {
        //NSLog(@"cached: %f", [estimatedHeight floatValue]);
        return [estimatedHeight floatValue];
    }
    //NSLog(@"not cached: %f", defaultHeight);
    return defaultHeight;
}

// check if height is on cache
- (BOOL) isEstimatedRowHeightInCache:(NSIndexPath *) indexPath {
    if ([self getEstimatedCellHeightFromCache:indexPath defaultHeight:0] > 0) {
        return YES;
    }
    return NO;
}

// init cache
-(void) initEstimatedRowHeightCacheIfNeeded {
    if (self.estimatedRowHeightCache == nil) {
        self.estimatedRowHeightCache = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init];
    }
}

// custom [self.tableView reloadData]
-(void) tableViewReloadData {
    // clear cache on reload
    self.estimatedRowHeightCache = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init];
    [self.tableView reloadData];
}