How to initWithNib to a derived subclass

Question

I've got the following class hierarchy:

FruitCell : UITableViewCell (with associated .xib)
    ----------------------------
   |                            |
BananaCell : FruitCell       PeachCell : FruitCell

How do I init FruitCell.xib but ensure it is kindOfClass PeachCell.m or BananaCell.m without having 2 copies of FruitCell.xib? Right now the .view in FruitCell.xib is of class FruitCell.

I'm not sure what to do other than try assign every IBOutlet from my FruitCell instance to my BananaCell or PeachCell but then the IBAction's aren't handled.

========EDIT Just to add, this is how I'm loading the nib and finding the right class

NSArray *topLevelObjects = [bundle loadNibNamed: nibNameOrNil owner: self options:nil];
for (id object in topLevelObjects) {
    if ([object isKindOfClass: [FruitCell class]]) {
        // need to somehow change before loadNibNamed this to Banana or Peach
        return object;
    }
}

Thanks!

Answer 1

I would suggest one of the following options:

1) Have two copies of FruitCell.xib (this is really not that bad)

2) Instead of FruitCell.xib, create your PeachCell and BananaCell instances in code and load a FruitCellContents.xib which just contains a subview you can add to your already-created cell's contentView.

3) This is more complex perhaps not worth the trouble, but you can get what you want by keeping your current FruitCell.xib and overriding initWithCoder: in your FruitCell class to return an instance of either a BananaCell or PeachCell instead. Something like:

static Class substituteClass;
+ (void)prepareToLoadWithClass:(Class)c {
   substituteClass = c;
}

- (instancetype)initWithCoder:(NSCoder *)aCoder {
    if (substituteClass) { 
        substituteClass = Nil; // because the next line will call this method again as its superclass
        self = [[substituteClass alloc] initWithCoder:aCoder];
    } else {
        self = [super initWithCoder:aCoder];
    }
    return self;
}

The catch is deciding which class to initialize there. I don't really have an idea better than a global or thread-local that you set before loading the nib and clear afterwards. So, you'd call [FruitCell prepareToLoadWithClass:[PeachCell class]] first, then load the nib.