Joomla Development Publish / unpublish not working - joomla2.5

Question

I have a simple component following the hello world tutorial for the most part, and everything works except i've added a publish / unpublish icons to the toolbar and to the list itself (the small green / red circles).
The toolbar icons work and they can change the state no problem, but the small icons do not, here is the code I have:
view.html.php:
protected function addToolBar()
{
JToolBarHelper::title(JText::_('COM_MADS_MANAGER_OBJECTS'));
JToolBarHelper::publishList($task = 'objects.publish', $alt = 'Publish');
JToolBarHelper::unpublishList($task = 'objects.unpublish', $alt = 'Unpublish');
JToolBarHelper::deleteListX('', 'objects.delete');
JToolBarHelper::editListX('object.edit');
JToolBarHelper::addNewX('object.add');
}
tmpl > body:
<?php
// No direct access to this file
defined('_JEXEC') or die;
?>
<?php foreach($this->items as $i => $item): ?>
<tr class="row<?php echo $i % 2; ?>">
<td><?php echo $item->id; ?></td>
<td><?php echo JHtml::_('grid.id', $i, $item->id); ?></td>
<td><?php echo $item->title; ?></td>
<td><?php echo $item->description; ?></td>
<td align="center"><?php $published = JHTML::_('grid.published', $item, $i); echo $published;?></td>
</tr>
<?php endforeach; ?>
I am using the built in publish / unpublish function and did not create one of my own.
Tables:
<?php
// No direct access to this file
defined('_JEXEC') or die;
jimport('joomla.database.table');
class MAdsTableObjects extends JTable
{
var $id = null;
var $title = null;
var $description = null;
var $published = 0;
function __construct(&$db)
{
parent::__construct('#__mads_objects', 'id', $db);
}
}
?>

Answer 1

I figured it out after A LOT OF FREKIN HEADACHE and wasted time, it should be:
<?php echo JHtml::_('jgrid.published', $item->published, $i, 'objects.',true); ?>
where objects. is the name of my view / controller / model for the listing.

Answer 2

I think you should have a state field in the db, to store the status
state tinyint(3)
Than try using:
echo JHtml::_('grid.sort', 'JSTATUS', 'a.state', $listDirn, $listOrder);