Transparent Sticky Header UI Collectionview Don't Show Cells Underneath

UICollectionView with a sticky header

Fix by Todd Laney to handle Horizontal and Vertical scrolling and to take into account the sectionInsets:

https://gist.github.com/evadne/4544569

@implementation StickyHeaderFlowLayout

- (NSArray *) layoutAttributesForElementsInRect:(CGRect)rect {

    NSMutableArray *answer = [[super layoutAttributesForElementsInRect:rect] mutableCopy];

    NSMutableIndexSet *missingSections = [NSMutableIndexSet indexSet];
    for (NSUInteger idx=0; idx<[answer count]; idx++) {
        UICollectionViewLayoutAttributes *layoutAttributes = answer[idx];

        if (layoutAttributes.representedElementCategory == UICollectionElementCategoryCell) {
            [missingSections addIndex:layoutAttributes.indexPath.section];  // remember that we need to layout header for this section
        }
        if ([layoutAttributes.representedElementKind isEqualToString:UICollectionElementKindSectionHeader]) {
            [answer removeObjectAtIndex:idx];  // remove layout of header done by our super, we will do it right later
            idx--;
        }
    }

    // layout all headers needed for the rect using self code
    [missingSections enumerateIndexesUsingBlock:^(NSUInteger idx, BOOL *stop) {
        NSIndexPath *indexPath = [NSIndexPath indexPathForItem:0 inSection:idx];
        UICollectionViewLayoutAttributes *layoutAttributes = [self layoutAttributesForSupplementaryViewOfKind:UICollectionElementKindSectionHeader atIndexPath:indexPath];
        if (layoutAttributes != nil) {
            [answer addObject:layoutAttributes];
        }
    }];

    return answer;
}

- (UICollectionViewLayoutAttributes *)layoutAttributesForSupplementaryViewOfKind:(NSString *)kind atIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
    UICollectionViewLayoutAttributes *attributes = [super layoutAttributesForSupplementaryViewOfKind:kind atIndexPath:indexPath];
    if ([kind isEqualToString:UICollectionElementKindSectionHeader]) {
        UICollectionView * const cv = self.collectionView;
        CGPoint const contentOffset = cv.contentOffset;
        CGPoint nextHeaderOrigin = CGPointMake(INFINITY, INFINITY);

        if (indexPath.section+1 < [cv numberOfSections]) {
            UICollectionViewLayoutAttributes *nextHeaderAttributes = [super layoutAttributesForSupplementaryViewOfKind:kind atIndexPath:[NSIndexPath indexPathForItem:0 inSection:indexPath.section+1]];
            nextHeaderOrigin = nextHeaderAttributes.frame.origin;
        }

        CGRect frame = attributes.frame;
        if (self.scrollDirection == UICollectionViewScrollDirectionVertical) {
            frame.origin.y = MIN(MAX(contentOffset.y, frame.origin.y), nextHeaderOrigin.y - CGRectGetHeight(frame));
        }
        else { // UICollectionViewScrollDirectionHorizontal
            frame.origin.x = MIN(MAX(contentOffset.x, frame.origin.x), nextHeaderOrigin.x - CGRectGetWidth(frame));
        }
        attributes.zIndex = 1024;
        attributes.frame = frame;
    }
    return attributes;
}

- (UICollectionViewLayoutAttributes *)initialLayoutAttributesForAppearingSupplementaryElementOfKind:(NSString *)kind atIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
    UICollectionViewLayoutAttributes *attributes = [self layoutAttributesForSupplementaryViewOfKind:kind atIndexPath:indexPath];
    return attributes;
}
- (UICollectionViewLayoutAttributes *)finalLayoutAttributesForDisappearingSupplementaryElementOfKind:(NSString *)kind atIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
    UICollectionViewLayoutAttributes *attributes = [self layoutAttributesForSupplementaryViewOfKind:kind atIndexPath:indexPath];
    return attributes;
}

- (BOOL) shouldInvalidateLayoutForBoundsChange:(CGRect)newBound {
    return YES;
}

@end

UICollectionView sticky header in swift

The final solution I found:

Using this custom flow layout it was possible to fix this sticky header:

class StickyHeaderCollectionViewFlowLayout: UICollectionViewFlowLayout {

    override func layoutAttributesForElementsInRect(rect: CGRect) -> [AnyObject]? {

        var superAttributes: [UICollectionViewLayoutAttributes]? = super.layoutAttributesForElementsInRect(rect) as? [UICollectionViewLayoutAttributes]

        if superAttributes == nil {
            // If superAttributes couldn't cast, return
            return super.layoutAttributesForElementsInRect(rect)
        }

        let contentOffset = collectionView!.contentOffset
        var missingSections = NSMutableIndexSet()

        for layoutAttributes in superAttributes! {
            if (layoutAttributes.representedElementCategory == .Cell) {
                if let indexPath = layoutAttributes.indexPath {
                    missingSections.addIndex(layoutAttributes.indexPath.section)
                }
            }
        }

        for layoutAttributes in superAttributes! {
            if let representedElementKind = layoutAttributes.representedElementKind {
                if representedElementKind == UICollectionElementKindSectionHeader {
                    if let indexPath = layoutAttributes.indexPath {
                        missingSections.removeIndex(indexPath.section)
                    }
                }
            }
        }

        missingSections.enumerateIndexesUsingBlock { idx, stop in
            let indexPath = NSIndexPath(forItem: 0, inSection: idx)
            if let layoutAttributes = self.layoutAttributesForSupplementaryViewOfKind(UICollectionElementKindSectionHeader, atIndexPath: indexPath) {
                superAttributes!.append(layoutAttributes)
            }
        }

        for layoutAttributes in superAttributes! {
            if let representedElementKind = layoutAttributes.representedElementKind {
                if representedElementKind == UICollectionElementKindSectionHeader {
                    let section = layoutAttributes.indexPath!.section
                    let numberOfItemsInSection = collectionView!.numberOfItemsInSection(section)

                    let firstCellIndexPath = NSIndexPath(forItem: 0, inSection: section)!
                    let lastCellIndexPath = NSIndexPath(forItem: max(0, (numberOfItemsInSection - 1)), inSection: section)!

                    let (firstCellAttributes: UICollectionViewLayoutAttributes, lastCellAttributes: UICollectionViewLayoutAttributes) = {
                        if (self.collectionView!.numberOfItemsInSection(section) > 0) {
                            return (
                                self.layoutAttributesForItemAtIndexPath(firstCellIndexPath),
                                self.layoutAttributesForItemAtIndexPath(lastCellIndexPath))
                        } else {
                            return (
                                self.layoutAttributesForSupplementaryViewOfKind(UICollectionElementKindSectionHeader, atIndexPath: firstCellIndexPath),
                                self.layoutAttributesForSupplementaryViewOfKind(UICollectionElementKindSectionFooter, atIndexPath: lastCellIndexPath))
                        }
                        }()

                    let headerHeight = CGRectGetHeight(layoutAttributes.frame)
                    var origin = layoutAttributes.frame.origin

                    origin.y = min(contentOffset.y, (CGRectGetMaxY(lastCellAttributes.frame) - headerHeight))
                    // Uncomment this line for normal behaviour:
                    // origin.y = min(max(contentOffset.y, (CGRectGetMinY(firstCellAttributes.frame) - headerHeight)), (CGRectGetMaxY(lastCellAttributes.frame) - headerHeight))

                    layoutAttributes.zIndex = 1024
                    layoutAttributes.frame = CGRect(origin: origin, size: layoutAttributes.frame.size)
                }
            }
        }

        return superAttributes
    }

    override func shouldInvalidateLayoutForBoundsChange(newBounds: CGRect) -> Bool {
        return true
    }

}

To create a layout where the headers are sticky like traditional, change this line:

origin.y = min(contentOffset.y, (CGRectGetMaxY(lastCellAttrs.frame) - headerHeight))

to this line:

origin.y = min(max(contentOffset.y, (CGRectGetMinY(firstCellAttrs.frame) - headerHeight)), (CGRectGetMaxY(lastCellAttrs.frame) - headerHeight))

Hoping this is useful for others!

Update

Updated to fix a crash (thanks to Robert Atkins!) and some updates to Swift 1.2

tvOS & iOS 9

tvOS and iOS 9 introduced the property sectionHeadersPinToVisibleBounds which can be used

UICollectionView section headers flicker issue

I solved my issue. It turns out that under iOS 7 inside

- (UICollectionReusableView *)collectionView:(UICollectionView *)collectionView viewForSupplementaryElementOfKind:(NSString *)kind atIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{

You MUST NOT EVER set the frame of your Supplementary View. Leave that for the appropriate delegate methods.

My goodness. 17 hours later, I'm going to bed.

Optional UICollectionView Header

The docs say: This method must always return a valid view object. If you do not want a supplementary view in a particular case, your layout object should not create the attributes for that view. Alternatively, you can hide views by setting the isHidden property of the corresponding attributes to true or set the alpha property of the attributes to 0. To hide header and footer views in a flow layout, you can also set the width and height of those views to 0.

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