How to mimic UITableView's UITableViewStylePlain section header style

Question

My application uses abbreviations in UITableView section header titles that are hard for VoiceOver to pronounce. As I need to make these titles pronounceable by

Answer 1

If anyone is still interested, I've got it looking pretty damn close with the following code (using Mark Adams images from the comment above, but I resized them slightly as my app also has landscape mode):

- (UIView *)tableView:(UITableView *)tbl viewForHeaderInSection:(NSInteger)section
{
    UIView* sectionHead = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, tbl.bounds.size.width, 18)];
    sectionHead.backgroundColor = [UIColor colorWithWhite:0 alpha:0];
    sectionHead.userInteractionEnabled = YES;
    sectionHead.tag = section;

    UIImageView *headerImage = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"PlainTableViewSectionHeader.png"]];
    headerImage.contentMode = UIViewContentModeScaleAspectFit;

    [sectionHead addSubview:headerImage];
    [headerImage release];

    UILabel *sectionText = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(10, 2, tbl.bounds.size.width - 10, 18)];
    sectionText.text = text;
    sectionText.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
    sectionText.textColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
    sectionText.shadowColor = [UIColor darkGrayColor];
    sectionText.shadowOffset = CGSizeMake(0,1);
    sectionText.font = [UIFont boldSystemFontOfSize:18];

    [sectionHead addSubview:sectionText];
    [sectionText release];

    return [sectionHead autorelease];
}

Answer 2

I would create a custom UIView class and add a UILabel to it for the section heading text. For the background, use a UIImageView and load the appropriate image for the background of the section header. Assign this UIImageView with the addSubView: method for your UIView.

In the UITableViewController you can set tableView.sectionHeaderHeight to customise the height of all section headers. Using the UITableViewDelegate method:

tableView:viewForHeaderInSection:

http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/uikit/reference/UITableViewDelegate_Protocol/Reference/Reference.html#//apple_ref/occ/intf/UITableViewDelegate

You should return an instance of your custom UIView with the text label as the heading for the section.

You should add a shadow to the UILabel and adjust all colours to suit the default style. Since section headers are also slightly transparent, you can set your UIView alpha with

self.alpha = 0.9f;

Answer 3

Here's an implementation of a UILabel subclass which mimics the background programatically:

UITableViewStandardHeaderLabel.h

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@interface UITableViewStandardHeaderLabel : UILabel

@property (nonatomic) CGFloat topInset;
@property (nonatomic) CGFloat leftInset;
@property (nonatomic) CGFloat bottomInset;
@property (nonatomic) CGFloat rightInset;

@end

UITableViewStandardHeaderLabel.m:

/*!
 * @class UITableViewStandardHeaderLabel
 * @brief Reimplementation of the UILabel used for a standard UITableView's group headers for customization purposes
 */

@implementation UITableViewStandardHeaderLabel

@synthesize topInset, leftInset, bottomInset, rightInset;

- (id)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame
{
    self = [super initWithFrame:frame];

    if (self) {
        self.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
    }

    return self;
}

- (void)drawTextInRect:(CGRect)rect
{
    UIEdgeInsets insets = {self.topInset, self.leftInset, self.bottomInset, self.rightInset};

    return [super drawTextInRect:UIEdgeInsetsInsetRect(rect, insets)];
}

- (void)drawRect:(CGRect)rect
{   
    CGContextRef context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext();

    CGGradientRef backgroundGradient;
    CGColorSpaceRef rgbColorspace;
    size_t num_locations = 2;
    CGFloat locations[2] = { 0.0f, 1.0f };
    CGFloat components[8] = { 144.0f/255.0f, 159.0f/255.0f, 171.0f/255.0f, 1.0f,
                              /* start */ 183.0f/255.0f, 192.0f/255.0f, 200.0f/255.0f, 1.0f /* end */ };

    rgbColorspace = CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceRGB();
    backgroundGradient = CGGradientCreateWithColorComponents(rgbColorspace, components, locations, num_locations);

    CGRect currentBounds = self.bounds;
    CGPoint topCenter = CGPointMake(CGRectGetMidX(currentBounds), CGRectGetMinY(currentBounds));
    CGPoint bottomCenter = CGPointMake(CGRectGetMidX(currentBounds), CGRectGetMaxY(currentBounds));

    CGContextDrawLinearGradient(context, backgroundGradient, topCenter, bottomCenter, 0);

    UIColor *topBorderLineColor = [UIColor colorWithRed:113.0f/255.0f  green:125.0f/255.0f blue:133.0f/255.0f alpha:1.0];
    UIColor *secondLineColor = [UIColor colorWithRed:165.0f/255.0f  green:177.0f/255.0f blue:187.0f/255.0f alpha:1.0];
    UIColor *bottomBorderLineColor = [UIColor colorWithRed:151.0f/255.0f  green:157.0f/255.0f blue:164.0f/255.0f alpha:1.0];

    [topBorderLineColor setFill];
    CGContextFillRect(context, CGRectMake(0, 0, CGRectGetMaxX(currentBounds), 1));

    [bottomBorderLineColor setFill];
    CGContextFillRect(context, CGRectMake(0, CGRectGetMaxY(currentBounds)-1, CGRectGetMaxX(currentBounds), 1));

    [secondLineColor setFill];
    CGContextFillRect(context, CGRectMake(0, 1, CGRectGetMaxX(currentBounds), 1));

    [super drawRect:rect];
}

@end

Answer 4

I found that the other answers either don't work or don't mimic the standard look. Here's mine, which works for iOS 5 and 6.

Note that if you're on iOS 6, you should use dequeueReusableHeaderFooterViewWithIdentifier, which makes things much easier and cleaner.

- (UIView *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView viewForHeaderInSection:(NSInteger)section
{
    if ([tableView respondsToSelector:@selector(dequeueReusableHeaderFooterViewWithIdentifier:)]) 
    {
        static NSString *headerReuseIdentifier = @"TableViewSectionHeaderViewIdentifier";
        UITableViewHeaderFooterView *sectionHeaderView = [tableView dequeueReusableHeaderFooterViewWithIdentifier:headerReuseIdentifier];
        if(sectionHeaderView == nil){
            sectionHeaderView = [[UITableViewHeaderFooterView alloc] initWithReuseIdentifier:headerReuseIdentifier];
        }

        //customise the label here:
        //[sectionHeaderView.textLabel setTextColor:[UIColor whiteColor]];

        return sectionHeaderView;
    }
    else 
    {            
        UIView* headerView = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 320, 44.0)];

        UILabel *headerLabel = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(20.0, 10, 290, 0)];
        headerLabel.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
        headerLabel.text = [self tableView:tableView titleForHeaderInSection:section];
        headerLabel.font = [UIFont boldSystemFontOfSize:17];
        headerLabel.textAlignment = NSTextAlignmentLeft;
        headerLabel.shadowColor = [UIColor clearColor];
        headerLabel.numberOfLines = 0;
        [headerLabel sizeToFit];
        [headerView setFrame:CGRectMake(headerView.frame.origin.x, headerView.frame.origin.y, headerView.frame.size.width, headerLabel.bounds.size.height)];

        //some customisation:
        headerLabel.textColor = [UIColor whiteColor];

        [headerView addSubview: headerLabel];

        return headerView;
    }
}

As the docs say, if you implement viewForHeaderInSection you must also implement heightForHeaderInSection. Implement it like this to make sure that it gets the right size for any number of lines:

-(float)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView heightForHeaderInSection:(NSInteger)section {
    return UITableViewAutomaticDimension;
}