How do I add storyboard-based Header and CustomTab

PRESENTATION

Mine is a simple project: It consists of a NavigationController, ViewController, and a “Search Bar and Search Display Controller”

My .h file is

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@interface ViewController : UIViewController <UISearchDisplayDelegate, UITableViewDataSource, UITableViewDelegate>

@end

and my .m file is

#import "ViewController.h"

@interface ViewController ()
@property(nonatomic,strong)NSMutableArray *data;
@end

@implementation ViewController

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad];
    // Do any additional setup after loading the view, typically from a nib.
    self.searchDisplayController.displaysSearchBarInNavigationBar = YES;
    self.data=[[NSMutableArray alloc]init];
}

- (void)didReceiveMemoryWarning
{
    [super didReceiveMemoryWarning];
    // Dispose of any resources that can be recreated.
}


#pragma mark - data source

- (NSInteger)numberOfSectionsInTableView:(UITableView *)aTableView {
    // Return the number of sections.
    return 1;
}

- (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)aTableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section {
    // Return the number of rows in the section.
    return [_data count];
}

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {

    static NSString *CellIdentifier = @"CellIdentifier";

    // Dequeue or create a cell of the appropriate type.
    UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
    if (cell == nil) {
        cell = [[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleDefault reuseIdentifier:CellIdentifier] ;
        cell.accessoryType = UITableViewCellAccessoryNone;
    }

    // Configure the cell.
    cell.textLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"Row %d", indexPath.row];
    cell.textLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"Row %d: %@", indexPath.row, [_data objectAtIndex:indexPath.row]];
    return cell;
}

#pragma mark - delegate

- (BOOL)searchDisplayController:(UISearchDisplayController *)controller shouldReloadTableForSearchString:(NSString *)searchString
{
    [NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval:2 target:self selector:@selector(mockSearch:) userInfo:searchString repeats:NO];
    return NO;
}

- (void)mockSearch:(NSTimer*)timer
{
    [_data removeAllObjects];
    int count = 1 + random() % 20;
    for (int i = 0; i < count; i++) {
        [_data addObject:timer.userInfo];
    }
    [self.searchDisplayController.searchResultsTableView reloadData];
}

@end

And that’s the entire program. What does it do? User makes a search and the data is displayed in a TableView (similar to a google search).

PROBLEM

I need to use a CustomTableViewCell for my table. And I need to build the TableViewCell from the storyboard (easy to visualize). I am stuck with the storyboard part. How do I place a TableViewCell on the storyboard without a TableView to place it in? I had an idea, I tried it, but it didn’t work. Here is what I did. I placed a “never-to-be-used” TableViewController in the storyboard whose sole purpose is to hold my CustomTableViewCell. Then in code I subclass TableViewCell and use IBOutlet to link the sub-views of the storyboard TableViewCell to my CustomTableViewCell . And then I used my cell as CustomTableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier forIndexPath:indexPath];. This didn’t work. The tableView remained blank. And my guess for the failure is that CustomTableViewCell does not belong to the tableView being dequeued from.
I need the UISearchBar to always stay inside the NavigationBar. But so far self.searchDisplayController.displaysSearchBarInNavigationBar = YES; is not doing it. When I first start the app the searchBar is inside the NavigationBar. But as soon as I click on it, it smacks itself right in the middle of my scene/screen and never leaves.
I need to add a Header to my TableView. Which I thought of doing the same way as the CustomTableViewCell, but with a UIView parent class. But again, the CustomTableViewCell portion failed.

PLEA

Thank you for any help you can provide me.

UPDATE

All I am trying to do is allow my users to launch a server side search and view the results in a tableView. This is such a basic thing, I image many people here have done this a number of times. Being new to iOS, I am stuck. But at this point, I have posted my entire project (anyone can reconstruct it), and I have explained in details all the ways I tried to solve the problem. So if someone has a sample project they don’t mind sharing, it would help very much. Or if you know of a git project please put a link to it. Thanks.

If you want to make a stand-alone view (not in a view controller) in IB, then you should do it in a xib file, not a storyboard. You can have as many storyboard and xib files in an app as you want; they can be mixed freely. To make a new cell in a xib file, just go to New File --> User Interface --> Empty then drag in a UITableViewCell. Add any subviews you want, and in your table view controller (or whatever class is your table view data source), register the xib file with, registerNib:forIdentifier: (usually, you do this in viewDidLoad).