Is there a way to load a prototype cell, along with any IBOutlet connections as defined within a storyboard?
Update
I want to unit test the cell (a UICollectionViewCell for that mater), hence would like to load it outside of a UIViewController context.
Effectively, in the same way that you can load a custom view from a nib, specifying its file's owner and have its IBOutlet(s) set.
I haven't tried this with unit tests yet but you can easily put your custom UITableViewCell
into a separate nib.
For using it in your view controllers you need to register the cell with your tableViews.
UINib *nib = [UINib nibWithNibName:@"ABCNameOfYourNibCell" bundle:nil];
[self.tableView registerNib:nib forCellReuseIdentifier:@"myCustomCell"];
Then use the cell like this in cellForRowAtIndexPath:
static NSString *CellIdentifier = @"myCustomCell";
ABCNameOfYourNibCell *cell =
[tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier forIndexPath:indexPath];
For your testing purposes you should be able to go with:
ABCNameOfYourNibCell *testCell =
[[ABCNameOfYourNibCell alloc] initWithStyle: UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:nil];
If you need to test reuse-behaviour, you should set a reuseIdentifier here and call prepareForReuse
on the cell.