I am trying to implement the uikit content unavailable when no items are in a table view. The configuration seems straight forward enough but I am confused where to place it so it shows when a table has no objects have been added.

I tried placing the configuration in my viewWillAppear both in a conditional and without one. When placed in the conditional no objects appear in the list when added. If I remove the conditional the objects are added but the content unavailable info is still there.

I also tried doing the same in the table view but got the same results.

This app is very simple and mostly for practice. I have a two viewcontrollers, the initial one should have the content unavailable. the second view controller has an array of objects presented in the tableview. if a user increments the stepper, those objects are then passed to the initial viewcontroller and the content unavailable should disappear. Any help on this is appreciated.

First view controller

class KitViewController: UIViewController {
    
    let user = User()
    
    
    @IBOutlet weak var tableView: UITableView!
    
    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        initializeTable()
        title = "Gear"
    }
    // initialize a new empty array of essential objects assigned to tableItems
    var tableItems = [Essential]()
    
    override func viewWillAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
        super.viewWillAppear(animated)
        if tableItems.count == 0 {
            var config = UIContentUnavailableConfiguration.empty()
            
            config.image = UIImage(systemName: "figure.hiking")
            config.text = "You don't have any gear"
            config.secondaryText = "Add items and get hiking"
            self.contentUnavailableConfiguration = config
        } else {
            // assign the users table items to table items
            tableItems = User.userTableItems(user: user)
            tableView.reloadData()
        }
  
    }
    
    @IBSegueAction func plusButtonTapped(_ coder: NSCoder) -> ListViewController? {
        return ListViewController(coder: coder, user: user)
    }
    
    func initializeTable() {
        tableView.delegate = self
        tableView.dataSource = self
    }
    
}


extension KitViewController: UITableViewDataSource, UITableViewDelegate {
    func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
        
        // if the no table items are in the essential array no table cells will appear
        return tableItems.count
        
    }
    
    func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
        let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: K.categoryReuseID, for: indexPath)
        // setup the table cell
        
            let kitItem = tableItems[indexPath.row]
            var content = cell.defaultContentConfiguration()
            
            content.text = "(kitItem.count) (kitItem.itemName)"
            cell.contentConfiguration = content
            
            
        return cell
    }
    
}

second view controller

import UIKit

class ListViewController: UIViewController {
    
    @IBOutlet weak var tableView: UITableView!
    @IBOutlet weak var addCustomButton: UIBarButtonItem!
    // pass the user to the list view
    var user: User
    
    init(coder: NSCoder, user: User) {
        self.user = user
        
        super.init(coder: coder)!
    }
    
    required init?(coder: NSCoder) {
        fatalError("init(coder:) has not been implemented")
    }
    
    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        
        tableView.dataSource = self
        tableView.delegate = self
        tableView.register(UINib(nibName: K.cellNibName, bundle: nil), forCellReuseIdentifier: K.categoryReuseID)
        title = "Select Gear"
    }

extension ListViewController: UITableViewDataSource {
    func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
        // returns the users datasource essential objects array
        return user.datasource.count
    }
    
    func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
        let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCell(withIdentifier: K.categoryReuseID, for: indexPath) as! MessageCell
        let item = user.datasource[indexPath.row]

        cell.item = item
        cell.cellLabel.text = item.itemName
        cell.cellStepper.value = Double(item.count)
        cell.countLabel.text = String(item.count)

        return cell
    }
    
    
}