Diffable Data Source: Mixing static and dynamic sections with fetched results controller?

@nemecek-filip

Nov '20

Hi all!

I am working on a somewhat complex screen which is backed by UICollectionView and I wondering if it is possible (and a good idea) to mix static sections with dynamic sections that are driven by NSFetchedResultsController. Basically my two first sections are static and both have just one cell.

The rest of the sections is dynamic. Here is my "pro" illustration:

Diffable question

The "S" denotes static sections and "DB" sections that display Core Data entities.

I have worked with Diffable in the past, but I had only single section. How would I go about creating snapshot for this layout? Ideally with NSFetchedResultsController so I dont have to do manual refreshes when content changes.

Thanks a ton.

@Hatsushira HWS+

Nov '20

Are you bound to UIKit or are you able to use SwiftUI for this screen? Because with SwiftUI (and CoreData) it would be a none issue.

@nemecek-filip

Nov '20

I am theoretically able to use SwiftUI but I dont want to.

Sponsor Hacking with Swift and reach the world's largest Swift community!

	@Hatsushira HWS+ Nov '20 Then I would create a new view, rebuild the design for the two static sections and one Collection View controlled by the NSFetchedResultsController. 3
	@nemecek-filip Nov '20 It turned out to be a quite easy task without the `NSFetchedResultsController`. I realized that diffable datasource and its snapshot can be composed of anything I want. So I have one `enum` for sections and another `enum` for different item types. So I am wrapping the entities into `case` with associated value and then it is just a matter of constructing the snapshot. So far seems to work great. 4
	@Hatsushira HWS+ Nov '20 Thank you for sharing your experience. This is really useful. 3
	@Gakkienl HWS+ Nov '20 Could you post your code, very curious about it! Good learning stuff! 3
	@nemecek-filip Nov '20 I think once I am a bit more comfortable with it, I can post simplified example or write a short post (so I have reference guide in the future :D) 4
	@Gakkienl HWS+ Nov '20 Great looking forward to that! And really appreciate your contributions to this community! 3
	@nemecek-filip Nov '20 So in the end I decided first to get more experience with compositional collection views and created this public repo with my experiments - https://github.com/nemecek-filip/CompositionalDiffablePlayground.ios It currently has three screens - one more complex and then two simple - list & grid. Feel free to check it out. Important note: I am still just learning this API so don't take anything there as a best practice :D 5

Sponsor Hacking with Swift and reach the world's largest Swift community!

Archived topic

This topic has been closed due to inactivity, so you can't reply. Please create a new topic if you need to.

All interactions here are governed by our code of conduct.