ipad: predictive search in a popover - xcode

Question

I want to implement this
1) when user start typing in a textfield a popOver flashes and shows the list of items in a table view in the popover as per the string entered in textfield.
2) Moreover this data should be refreshed with every new letter entered.
kind of predictive search.
Please help me with this and suggest possible ways to implement this.

Answer 1

UISearchDisplayController does most of the heavy lifting for you.
Place a UISearchBar (not a UITextField) in your view, and wire up a UISearchDisplayController to it.
// ProductViewController.h
#property IBOutlet UISearchBar *searchBar;
#property ProductSearchController *searchController;
// ProductViewController.m
- (void) viewDidLoad
{
[super viewDidLoad];
searchBar.placeholder = #"Search products";
searchBar.showsCancelButton = YES;
self.searchController = [[[ProductSearchController alloc]
initWithSearchBar:searchBar
contentsController:self] autorelease];
}
I usually subclass UISearchDisplayController and have it be it's own delegate, searchResultsDataSource and searchResultsDelegate. The latter two manage the result table in the normal manner.
// ProductSearchController.h
#interface ProductSearchController : UISearchDisplayController
<UISearchDisplayDelegate, UITableViewDelegate, UITableViewDataSource>
// ProductSearchController.m
- (id)initWithSearchBar:(UISearchBar *)searchBar
contentsController:(UIViewController *)viewController
{
self = [super initWithSearchBar:searchBar contentsController:viewController];
self.contents = [[NSMutableArray new] autorelease];
self.delegate = self;
self.searchResultsDataSource = self;
self.searchResultsDelegate = self;
return self;
}
Each keypress in the searchbar calls searchDisplayController:shouldReloadTableForSearchString:. A quick search can be implemented directly here.
- (BOOL) searchDisplayController:(UISearchDisplayController*)controller
shouldReloadTableForSearchString:(NSString*)searchString
{
// perform search and update self.contents (on main thread)
return YES;
}
If your search might take some time, do it in the background with NSOperationQueue. In my example, ProductSearchOperation will call showSearchResult: when and if it completes.
// ProductSearchController.h
#property INSOperationQueue *searchQueue;
// ProductSearchController.m
- (BOOL) searchDisplayController:(UISearchDisplayController*)controller
shouldReloadTableForSearchString:(NSString*)searchString
{
if (!searchQueue) {
self.searchQueue = [[NSOperationQueue new] autorelease];
searchQueue.maxConcurrentOperationCount = 1;
}
[searchQueue cancelAllOperations];
NSInvocationOperation *op = [[[ProductSearchOperation alloc]
initWithController:self
searchTerm:searchString] autorelease];
[searchQueue addOperation:op];
return NO;
}
- (void) showSearchResult:(NSMutableArray*)result
{
self.contents = result;
[self.searchResultsTableView
performSelectorOnMainThread:#selector(reloadData)
withObject:nil waitUntilDone:NO];
}

Answer 2

It sounds like you have a pretty good idea of an implementation already. My suggestion would be to present a UITableView in a popover with the search bar at the top, then simply drive the table view's data source using the search term and call reloadData on the table view every time the user types into the box.