Swift: DispatchQueue.global - ios

I am writing an app that always use dispatchQueue to help me handle packet received from another devices.
Hence, in my code, depends on the packet received, it will trigger codes like:
if (// condition fulfilled) {
let queue = DispatchQueue.global(qos: DispatchQoS.QoSClass.default)
queue.async { () -> Void in
self.handlePacket(packet: packet) {
DispatchQueue.main.async {
// do something.
}
}
}
}
Then I found that when one part of the code with the same variable "queue" is executed, another part code can be triggered without calling. And the app crash at the line queue.async { () -> Void in
Is that I cannot use the same name for the queue? Or my code actually mess up those queues?
Please advise.

First of all, you should ask yourself, what exactly are you trying to achieve? Is handlePacket(_) too heavy to process it on current queue?
Concurrency is hard, and you should try to avoid it, until you realize how does concurrency and queues work in iOS.

Related

How to pause operation queue in Swift

I have a couple of operations to perform on the IoT device from iOS App. So All my operations are in OperationsQueue with serial operations.
Here I want to perform one operation at a time and each operation needs to wait until I get a response from the IoT device.
Here IoT device response will take time to send back. so how to wait for the current operation in operation queue until I get a response from IoT.
So is there any way to pause current running operation until getting a response from IoT and then I will resume it so that the next operation in operation queue will start.
I tried with Sleep operation But it required time, but we can not guarantee about IoT device response.
Any suggestions would appreciate it. Thank you in advance.
The basic idea is that you don’t pause (or wait, or sleep), but rather you define a “concurrent” operation (see discussion of concurrent operations in the documentation) that doesn’t trigger the isFinished KVO until the device responds.
A simple way to do this is to write a concurrent operation class, like the one shown in this answer. Then your IoT operation can subclass that AsynchronousOperation class, and just call finish() when the device responds.
Then your operation queue (which presumably has a maxConcurrentOperationCount of 1, or perhaps is using dependencies), will not start an operation until the prior operation has finished.
As Rob said, you can implement Asynchronous Operation class and subclass from it your IoT operation. For me it looks like the most preferred way to implement yr case.
As an alternative, in cases where you need to continue the process only after some asynchronous event in another thread completed, you can use NSCondition. This is a mechanism from obj-c that provide an easy way to wait for a condition to occur.
Here is example:
let cond = NSCondition()
var available = false
var sharedString = ""
class WriterThread: Thread {
override func main() {
for _ in 0..<5 {
cond.lock()
sharedString = "😅"
available = true
cond.signal() // Notify and wake up the waiting thread/s
cond.unlock()
}
}
}
class PrinterThread: Thread {
override func main(){
for _ in 0..<5 { //Just do it 5 times
cond.lock()
while(!available) { //Protect from spurious signals
cond.wait()
}
print(SharedString)
sharedString = ""
available = false
cond.unlock()
}
}
}
let writet = WriterThread()
let printt = PrinterThread()
printt.start()
writet.start()
You could use a DispatchQueue and call .suspend() when you send the operation, and have the code that gets the response call .resume(). Then wherever you want to wait for the response before continuing, just put a dummy queue.sync({ print("done waiting")}) and it will automatically wait until .resume() has been called before printing and continuing.
import Dispatch
var queue = DispatchQueue(label: "queue")
func sendOperationToIoTDevice(){
//send the operation
//...
queue.suspend()
}
...
//whatever code gets the response:
//get response
//...
queue.resume()
...
//main code
sendOperationToIoTDevice()
queue.sync { print("done waiting") } // will hang here until .resume() is called

NSAsynchronousFetchRequest - should update be explicitly done on main thread

I am creating an NSAsynchronousFetchRequest which has a completion block inside it.
I have seen various examples where some include using dispatch queue on the main thread and others don't. For example the Ray Wenderlich core data book doesn't call the result on the main thread.
Should I go back on the main thread when executing the result. Initially I thought I had to but now I don't. Some definitive clarity would be great.
fun exampleFetch(_ completionHandler: #escaping () -> () {
let fetchRequest = NSFetchRequest<NSDictionary>(entityName: "Example")
let asyncFetchRequest = NSAsynchronousFetchRequest<NSDictionary>(fetchRequest: fetchRequest) { result in
// DispatchQueue.main.async { // is this needed
completion()
//}
}
managedContext.performChanges {
do {
try self.managedContext.execute(asyncFetchRequest)
} catch let error {
print("error trying to fetch saving objects:", error.localizedDescription)
}
}
}
You should not explicitly call the completion handler on the main queue. Let the caller decide how to handle it. If anything, document that the completion handler will be called on an arbitrary queue. Then the client calling your exampleFetch method knows that it is their responsibility to be sure that process the result on whatever queue it needs.
This gives the client more control.
This also prevents a lot of needless thread switching. A client may call exampleFetch from a background queue and it may want to process the results in the background. If you explicitly put the completion on the main queue, the client then needs to explicitly switch back to a background queue to process the result. That's two needless queue switches and it's wasted effort on the main queue.

API calls blocks UI thread Swift

I need to sync web database in my coredata, for which I perform service api calls. I am using Alamofire with Swift 3. There are 23 api calls, giving nearly 24k rows in different coredata entities.
My problem: These api calls blocks UI for a minute, which is a long time for a user to wait.
I tried using DispatchQueue and performing the task in background thread, though nothing worked. This is how I tried :
let dataQueue = DispatchQueue.init(label: "com.app.dataSyncQueue")
dataQueue.async {
DataSyncController().performStateSyncAPICall()
DataSyncController().performRegionSyncAPICall()
DataSyncController().performStateRegionSyncAPICall()
DataSyncController().performBuildingRegionSyncAPICall()
PriceSyncController().performBasicPriceSyncAPICall()
PriceSyncController().performHeightCostSyncAPICall()
// Apis which will be used in later screens are called in background
self.performSelector(inBackground: #selector(self.performBackgroundTask), with: nil)
}
An API call from DataSyncController:
func performStateSyncAPICall() -> Void {
DataSyncRequestManager.fetchStatesDataWithCompletionBlock {
success, response, error in
self.apiManager.didStatesApiComplete = true
}
}
DataSyncRequestManager Code:
static func fetchStatesDataWithCompletionBlock(block:#escaping requestCompletionBlock) {
if appDelegate.isNetworkAvailable {
Util.setAPIStatus(key: kStateApiStatus, with: kInProgress)
DataSyncingInterface().performStateSyncingWith(request:DataSyncRequest().createStateSyncingRequest() , withCompletionBlock: block)
} else {
//TODO: show network failure error
}
}
DataSyncingInterface Code:
func performStateSyncingWith(request:Request, withCompletionBlock block:#escaping requestCompletionBlock)
{
self.interfaceBlock = block
let apiurl = NetworkHttpClient.getBaseUrl() + request.urlPath!
Alamofire.request(apiurl, parameters: request.getParams(), encoding: URLEncoding.default).responseJSON { response in
guard response.result.isSuccess else {
block(false, "error", nil )
return
}
guard let responseValue = response.result.value else {
block (false, "error", nil)
return
}
block(true, responseValue, nil)
}
}
I know many similar questions have been already posted on Stackoverflow and mostly it is suggested to use GCD or Operation Queue, though trying DispatchQueues didn't work for me.
Am I doing something wrong?
How can I not block UI and perform the api calls simultaneously?
You can do this to run on a background thread:
DispatchQueue.global(qos: .background).async {
// Do any processing you want.
DispatchQueue.main.async {
// Go back to the main thread to update the UI.
}
}
DispatchQueue manages the execution of work items. Each work item submitted to a queue is processed on a pool of threads managed by the system.
I usually use NSOperationQueue with Alamofire, but the concepts are similar. When you set up an async queue, you allow work to be performed independently of the main (UI) thread, so that your app doesn't freeze (refuse user input). The work will still take however long it takes, but your program doesn't block while waiting to finish.
You really have only put one item into the queue.
You are adding to the queue only once, so all those "perform" calls wait for the previous one to finish. If it is safe to run them concurrently, you need to add each of them to the queue separately. There's more than one way to do this, but the bottom line is each time you call .async {} you are adding one item to the queue.
dataQueue.async {
DataSyncController().performStateSyncAPICall()
}
dataQueue.async {
DataSyncController(). performRegionSyncAPICall l()
}

Synchronization of multiple tasks on single thread

How can I prevent a block of code to be repeatedly accessed from the same thread?
Suppose, I have the next code:
func sendAnalytics() {
// some synchronous work
asyncTask() { _ in
completion()
}
}
I want to prevent any thread from accessing "// some synchronous work", before completion was called.
objc_sync_enter(self)
objc_sync_exit(self)
seem to only prevent accessing this code from multiple threads and don't save me from accessing this code from the single thread. Is there a way to do this correctly, without using custom solutions?
My repeatedly accessing, I mean calling this sendAnalytics from one thread multiple times. Suppose, I have a for, like this:
for i in 0...10 {
sendAnalytics()
}
Every next call won't be waiting for completion inside sendAnalytics get called (obvious). Is there a way to make the next calls wait, before completion fires? Or the whole way of thinking is wrong and I have to solve this problem higher, at the for body?
You can use a DispatchSemaphore to ensure that one call completes before the next can start
let semaphore = DispatchSemaphore(value:1)
func sendAnalytics() {
self.semaphore.wait()
// some synchronous work
asyncTask() { _ in
completion()
self.semaphore.signal()
}
}
The second call to sendAnalytics will block until the first asyncTask is complete. You should be careful not to block the main queue as that will cause your app to become non-responsive. It is probably safer to dispatch the sendAnalytics call onto its own serial dispatch queue to eliminate this risk:
let semaphore = DispatchSemaphore(value:1)
let analyticsQueue = DispatchQueue(label:"analyticsQueue")
func sendAnalytics() {
analyticsQueue.async {
self.semaphore.wait()
// some synchronous work
asyncTask() { _ in
completion()
self.semaphore.signal()
}
}
}

Is it normal that CPU usage exceeds 100% using dispatch async in Xcode 7

I'm a beginner in swift 2, and I'm trying to make my program blocks while showing only a progress spinner until some operation finishes, I made that code snippet in a button with the action "touch up inside", my problem is that while debugging,Xcode 7 CPU usage jumps to 190 % once I tap my button and keeps high until the flag changes its value, Is it normal that CPU usage jumps like that?, also Is it a good practice to use the following snippet or shud i use sleep or some other mechanism inside my infinite loop?
let queue2 = dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_DEFAULT, 0)
dispatch_async(self.queue2) { () -> Void in
while(flag == true)
{
//wait until flag sets to false from previous func
}
self.dispatch_main({
//continue after the flag became false
})
This is a very economical completion handler
func test(completion:() -> ())
{
// do hard work
completion()
}
let queue2 = dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_DEFAULT, 0)
dispatch_async(queue2) {
test() {
print("completed")
}
}
or with additional dispatch to the main queue to update the UI
let queue2 = dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_DEFAULT, 0)
dispatch_async(queue2) {
test() {
print("completed")
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue()) {
// update UI
}
}
}
This is totally wrong approach as you are using while loop for waiting. You should use Completion Handler to achieve this kind of stuff.
Completion handlers are callbacks that allow a client to perform some action when a framework method or function completes its task. Often the client uses a completion handler to free state or update the user interface. Several framework methods let you implement completion handlers as blocks (instead of, say, delegation methods or notification handlers).
Refer Apple documentation for more details.
I suppose you have a sort of class which manages these "some operation finishes".
When you finish your operations you can comunicate by completion handler or delegation. In the meanwhile you can disable the user interaction of your UI until the end of these operations.
If you provide more informations about your background operations I can add some snippets of code.

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