Change the text colors of all UITableViewCells using UIAppearance

Question

I am not able to change the text colors of a UITableViewCell using UIAppearance mechanism.

Here is my code with comments showing what is working for me and what is not:

UITableViewCell *cell = [UITableViewCell appearance];
cell.backgroundColor = [UIColor blueColor]; // working
cell.textLabel.textColor = [UIColor whiteColor]; // NOT WORKING
cell.detailTextLabel.textColor = [UIColor redColor]; // NOT WORKING

UILabel *cellLabel = [UILabel appearanceWhenContainedIn:[UITableViewCell class], nil];
cellLabel.textColor = [UIColor whiteColor]; // working

As you can see, the second way is working, but I cannot set different colors to normal text and detail text.

Is there something that I am doing wrong?

P.S. Defining stuff statically in Interface Builder will not work for me - I have themes which can be changed dynamically during run time.

Les

Answer 1

You're doing the right thing, but there's no way for iOS to distinguish between those two labels using UIAppearance. You should either set the text colour in willDisplayCell, or, if you really want to use UIAppearance, create custom UILabel subclasses that you can target more accurately.

If you want to use willDisplayCell, it would look something like this:

- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView willDisplayCell:(UITableViewCell *)cell forRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
    cell.textLabel.textColor = [UIColor blackColor];
    cell.detailTextLabel.textColor = [UIColor redColor];
}

Alternatively, you might also find this answer has some other ideas.

Disherison

I need a small clarification - I created only one UILabel subclass for detailed text, say MyLabel. Then I tried to color UILabel appearance and MyLabel appearance, giving both the same class hierarchy. The problem is that the UILabel color is always "winning" and MyLabel color is never applied. Any thoughts on how are the conditions evaluated? – Les

Answer 2

you can set the the text colour like this.

[cell.textLabel setTextColor:[UIColor whiteColor]];
[cell.detailTextLabel setTextColor:[UIColor redColor]];

Saire

As I mentioned in my post - it is not working. I guess there is no difference between [cell.textLabel setTextColor:[UIColor whiteColor]]; and cell.textLabel.textColor = [UIColor whiteColor]; // NOT WORKING – Les

you can try to get the label from view UILabel *label=(UILabel *)[cell.contentView viewWithTag:yourLabelTag]; then set the text color. – Saire

It is an appearance proxy, it doesn't have any contentView. – Les