collectionView:cellForItemAtIndexPath: doesn't get called - objective-c

Question

I want to add new cells in my collection view, but nothing shows up when I add data.
I have a custom UICollectionViewLayout class, which has been working just fine, and I've been keeping dummy data in my datasource to adjust the layout. Now that I got rid of the dummy data, nothing's showing up.
Since the app didn't break and there weren't any warnings, it was difficult to track down where the problem was, and here's where I found a clue:
(UICollectionViewLayout class)
-(NSArray *)layoutAttributesForElementsInRect:(CGRect)rect
{
NSLog(#"ElementsInRect: – Visible cells info: %#", [self.collectionView.visibleCells description]);
...
}
Here, -visibleCells returns an empty array, even when I add data, call -reloadData and invalidate the layout. So I placed a breakpoint in -collectionView:cellForItemAtIndexPath:, and it turns out this method is not called at all. How did the cells show up before?
Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

The data source method, collectionView:numberOfItemsInSection:, has to return a non-zero number for collectionView:cellForItemAtIndexPath: to be called. When you had dummy data in your data source, it was. Now that you removed that dummy data, that method is probably returning 0. When you add data, it should put items into your data source, and then a call to reloadData should work. You should put a log in collectionView:numberOfItemsInSection:, and see what it's returning.

Answer 2

Okay, it turns out the issue was in UICollectionViewLayout. I doubt anyone else will be having this problem, but I'll write my answer for the sake of completeness:
I'd been tweaking my custom UICollectionViewLayout class, and after I'd thought that it was working well, I made the code look neat by deleting old code that was commented out, move methods, etc.
While doing that, I recalled having read somewhere that it's good practice to create attributes in -prepareLayout method, and return those attributes when -layoutAttributesForItemAtIndexPath: or -layoutAttributesForElementsInRect: is called. For me, it was a matter of moving a block of code, so I thought no biggie. And during this "cleaning process" I must have made a mistake.
What's really frustrating is that the code itself actually works regardless of where the attributes are created, and I can't tell what went wrong for the last few days.
The following is a snippet of code that I used to create the attributes objects. My initial question was asking why -collectionView:cellForItemAtIndexPath: was not called while executing the 3rd line. I did not change this part of the code, other than moving it around.
for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
NSIndexPath *indexPath = [NSIndexPath indexPathForItem:i inSection:self.topLayer];
UICollectionViewCell *cell = [self.collectionView cellForItemAtIndexPath:indexPath];
if (cell) {
UICollectionViewLayoutAttributes *attributes = [self layoutAttributesForItemAtIndexPath:indexPath];
[self.array addObject:attributes];
} else {
NSLog(#"prepLayout: the cell doesn't exist for the index path {%d – %d}", indexPath.section, indexPath.item);
}
}

Answer 3

Number of Rows in Section - the count that can be used will determine if the cellForItemAtIndexPath gets called.
Initially when the view loads this will be called. Within the numberOfItemsInSection, if you have an array, the [array count] might return a nil value.
Complete the procedure where the array is populated, then reload the data in the collection view which will re-assess the numberOfItemsInSection. This can be done with the following code:
[self.myCollectionView reloadData];
"myCollectionView is the name given to the collection view item in your view"