No Results when showing search results in TableView - swift

Question

I am trying to implement search in UITableViewController, but not based on filtering existing array, but rather calling my API to search values in remote database.

I thought I implemented everything correctly, because my textDidChange and cellForRowAtIndexPath methods are called in proper time and my data array has all the data I need. BUT - nothing shows up in my TableView! It always says "No Results". I can't find any existing solutions on SO since many classes were deprecated in iOS 8 and I'm struggling with implementing recent ones. Any help appreciated! My code:

class QuestionsController: UITableViewController, UISearchResultsUpdating, UISearchBarDelegate {

    @IBOutlet weak var searchBar: UISearchBar!
    var searchController = UISearchController()
    var searchText: String?
    var areSearchResultsExhausted: Bool = false

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        self.searchController = UISearchController(searchResultsController: self)
        self.searchBar.delegate = self
        self.searchController.searchResultsUpdater = self
        self.searchController.hidesNavigationBarDuringPresentation = false
        self.searchController.dimsBackgroundDuringPresentation = false
        self.searchController.searchBar.sizeToFit()
        self.getQuestionsData(0, searchText: nil)
    }

    var questionsDataObjects = [Question]()

    // MARK: - Get data from API
    func getQuestionsData(startFromQuestionId: Int, searchText: String?) {
        // Getting data from API stuff like:
        let task = session.dataTaskWithRequest(req) { ... }
        questionsDataObjects.append(...)
        self.tableView.reloadData()
     }

    override func numberOfSectionsInTableView(tableView: UITableView) -> Int {
        return 1
    }

    override func tableView(tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
        return questionsDataObjects.count
    }

    override func tableView(tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
        let cell = self.tableView.dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier("QuestionCell", forIndexPath: indexPath) as! BasicQuestionCell

        // Populate the table view cells
        let questionCell = questionsDataObjects[indexPath.row]
        cell.titleLabel.text = questionCell.content

        // Load more results when user scrolled to the end
        if (indexPath.row == questionsDataObjects.count-1
            && questionsDataObjects.count > indexPath.row
            && !areSearchResultsExhausted) {
            print("qDO.count: \(questionsDataObjects.count) ; indexPath.row: \(indexPath.row)")
            self.getQuestionsData(indexPath.row + 1, searchText: self.searchText)
        }

        return cell
    }

    // Handle searching
    func searchBar(searchBar: UISearchBar, textDidChange searchText: String) {
        self.searchText = searchText
        self.areSearchResultsExhausted = false
        questionsDataObjects.removeAll()
        self.getQuestionsData(0, searchText: searchText)
        tableView.reloadData()
    }

    func searchBarCancelButtonClicked(searchBar: UISearchBar) {
        self.searchText = nil
        self.areSearchResultsExhausted = false
        questionsDataObjects.removeAll()
        self.getQuestionsData(0, searchText: searchText)
    }

    func updateSearchResultsForSearchController(searchController: UISearchController) {

    }

Two more important things:

1) updateSearchResultsForSearchController never gets called!

2) I have an error in console that says: Attempting to load the view of a view controller while it is deallocating is not allowed and may result in undefined behavior (<UISearchController...>) but when I tried to solve this, my search bar stopped working COMPLETELY...

Answer 1

Got it. The problem was: when I dragged the search bar into Storyboard, I selected "Search Bar and Search Display Controller" instead of "Search Bar" itself. Search Display Controller, which is deprecated in iOS8 and later, made the code not work.

So, I had to delete the Search Display Controller from Document Outline, reconnect the outlets to new Search Bar and it worked. Hope it helps somebody.