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I have a program that basically just queries a webservice, and if any data is returned it will show that information to the user, but if there is nothing to display it will just wait until the next scheduled time and run.

Right now it just puts a table in front of the user, there is nothing in the status bar that they can then select and see the actual information.

So, I have two questions.

  1. Is there a better way to show notification information to a user that is less intrusive?
  2. Should the View, with a UITable, have a button to dismiss the view when they are finished?

UPDATE:

It seems my question isn't clear enough, so I have the data showing up in the table properly.

My problem is before I display the data.

Currently, periodically the timer will fire off my method, and if there is any events pending for the user the table will show up right in front of them.

That is bad design, IMO, so what I would like is some simple way to let them know that there is something pending and they can look at it when they get a moment.

Ideally I would have something in the status bar to show that they have some events, but it appears that isn't an option that I can see.

One option is to see if I can have the table come up minimized and have some sound or vibration go off, but again that can be bothersome to the user, as it may interrupt what they are doing.

James Black
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  • how much information are we talking? A "title"? An entire paragraph? I think how you show it, depends on the amount of info, as well as the type of info itself. – Louie Jul 05 '11 at 20:52
  • @Louie - I am showing it in a table, as it can be potentially two or three screen fulls, but, the problem is that it appears I can't just put some icon on the status bar and have them select it to get more information, when they are ready. – James Black Jul 05 '11 at 23:24
  • oh I see what you are needing, I saw a tutorial on how to expand a table cell upon clicking it, and then closing it back up when any other one was selected. Let me see if I can find that again. – Louie Jul 05 '11 at 23:50
  • take a look at this post while I try and find that tutorial. See if this helps.. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3066167/accordion-table-cell-how-to-dynamically-expand-contract-uitableviewcell – Louie Jul 05 '11 at 23:51
  • @Louie - I have the data in the table showing fine, just set the number of lines to 0 in the cell. I will update my answer. – James Black Jul 06 '11 at 10:42

1 Answers1

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The proper solution appears to be that while in the background just put up a notification if there is any new information, so the user can close the notification or switch to view the details.

This isn't the ideal solution, but appears to be the best choice on the iPhone.

James Black
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