How can I add a delay before it continues - ios

Is there a way in the normal obj-c or cocos2d to make a delay inside a if-else block?
Like
if ([self isValidTileCoord:cTileCoord] && ![self isWallAtTileCoord:cTileCoord])
{
[self addChild:circle0];
//wait two seconds
//perform another task
}
Just a simple lag to wait between two tasks, or stalling an action. Is there any simple way to do this?

There are many ways to do this. I would use GCD
if ([self isValidTileCoord:cTileCoord] && ![self isWallAtTileCoord:cTileCoord])
{
[self addChild:circle0];
//wait two seconds
dispatch_after(dispatch_time(DISPATCH_TIME_NOW, 2 * NSEC_PER_SEC), dispatch_get_current_queue(), ^{
//perform another task;
});
}

You can use the performSelector: withObject: afterDelay: method to delay tasks:
if ([self isValidTileCoord:cTileCoord] && ![self isWallAtTileCoord:cTileCoord])
{
[self addChild:circle0];
//wait two seconds
[self performSelector:#selector(continueTask) withObject:nil afterDelay:2.0];
}
And in the selector method:
-(void)continueTask
{
//perform another task
}

Inside the cocos2d you can also run an Action on the node like,
[self runAction:[CCSequence actions:[CCDelayTime actionWithDuration:2.0],[CCCallFunc actionWithTarget:self selector:#selector(anothertaks)],nil]];
Perform selector will also work but the problem is that all the schedulers of cocos2D get paused when the app go to background but on the other side perform selector will still count the time, so some time it create task,animation,etc syncing problems.
Perform selector:
[self performSelector:#selector(continueTask) withObject:nil afterDelay:2.0];

Related

Cancel completion block after delay

There is block that discovering CBServices of some CBPeripheral (CoreBluetooth). But how can I cancel this block after some time has passed?
For example, if it has not discover CBServices after 10 seconds my block must be cancel.
You can use performSelector for delay action
[self performSelector:#selector(cancelAction:) withObject:self afterDelay:10];
-(void)cancelAction:(id)sender {
//What ever you want try here
}
Just call stopScan function of CBCentralManager.
[self performSelector:#selector(stopScan:) withObject:self afterDelay:10];
- (void)stopScan:(id)sender {
[self.centralManager stopScan];
}

Delay a method call in objective-c

I know this can be done by using:
[self performSelector:#selector(myMethod) withObject:nil afterDelay:3.0]
However, the problem is that I want only 1 method call do be done.
With this function the calls will stack on top of each other. I want to make a call and if another call is made the first one will be dismissed. Ideas?
Once the method is executing then there is no way of stopping it.
But you can cancel if it is not fired. You can do something like this
//.... your code
[NSObject cancelPreviousPerformRequestsWithTarget:self selector:#selector(myMethod) object:nil];
[self performSelector:#selector(myMethod) withObject:nil afterDelay:3.0];
//.... your code
In this way you can cancel previous perform request only if the myMethod is not being fired.
In the Code Snippet Library in Xcode you can find one called GCD: Dispatch After, which looks like this:
double delayInSeconds = 2.0;
dispatch_time_t popTime = dispatch_time(DISPATCH_TIME_NOW, (int64_t)(delayInSeconds * NSEC_PER_SEC));
dispatch_after(popTime, dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^(void){
<#code to be executed on the main queue after delay#>
});
Pretty self-explanatory.
EDIT: Now that I know that you want to only use the most recent, you could instead use:
[self cancelPreviousPerformRequestsWithTarget:self selector:#selector(myMethod) object:nil];
See this link for more info.
ORIGINAL POST:
You could just have a BOOL that is set to NO when it reaches that section and is then reset to YES after the method is performed.
So, for example, it would look something like:
if (boolVal) {
boolVal = NO;
[self performSelector:#selector(myMethod) withObject:nil afterDelay:3.0];
}
then in your myMethod, have:
boolVal = YES;
You should perform this selector in some other thread to avoid stack as you asked.
use
[self performSelector:(SEL) onThread:(NSThread *) withObject:(id) waitUntilDone:(BOOL)];
In that selector you can add delay what ever you want. As this process will run in separate thread so will not stop others for the delay

Dealing with two screens and one activity indicator in iOS

I have 3 screens on my app.First is login. Second is search and third is process the task.
On login i retrieve data from a web service. It returns data in XML format. So the data is considerably large. So i am doing that task on a background thread like this to stop Mainthread freezing up on me:
-(BOOL)loginEmp
{
.....some computation
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_DEFAULT,
(unsigned long)NULL), ^(void) {
[self getAllCustomerValues];
});
}
-(void)getAllCustomerValues
{
....more computation.Bring the data,parse it and save it to CoreData DB.
//notification - EDIT
NSNotification *notification =[NSNotification notificationWithName:#"reloadRequest"
object:self];
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] postNotification : notification];
}
//EDIT
//SearchScreenVC.m
- (void)viewDidLoad
{
....some computation
[self.customerActIndicator startAnimating];
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self
selector:#selector(stopActivityIndicator)
name:#"reloadRequest"
object:nil];
}
- (void)stopActivityIndicator
{
[self.customerActIndicator stopAnimating];
self.customerActIndicator.hidesWhenStopped = YES;
self.customerActIndicator.hidden =YES;
NSLog(#"HIt this at 127");
}
So on condition that login was successful, i move to screen 2. But the background thread is still in process( i know because i have logs logging values) . I want an activity indicator showing up here (2nd screen)telling user to wait before he starts searching. So how do i do it?How can i make my activity indicator listen/wait for background thread. Please let me know if you need more info.Thanks
EDIT: so I edited accordingly but the notification never gets called. I put a notification at the end of getAllCustomerValues and in viewDidLoad of SearchScreen i used it. That notification on 2nd screen to stop animating never gets called. What is the mistake i am doing.?Thanks
EDIT 2: So it finally hits the method. I dont know what made it to hit that method. I put a break point. I wrote to stop animating but it wouldn't. I wrote hidesWhenStoppped and hidden both to YES. But it still keeps animating.How do i get it to stop?
Ok, if it is not the main thread, put the following in and that should fix it.
- (void)stopActivityIndicator
{
if(![NSThread isMainThread]){
[self performSelectorOnMainThread:#selector(stopActivityIndicator) withObject:nil waitUntilDone:NO];
return;
}
[self.customerActIndicator stopAnimating];
self.customerActIndicator.hidesWhenStopped = YES;
self.customerActIndicator.hidden =YES;
NSLog(#"HIt this at 127");
}
Could you put your background operation into a separate class and then set a delegate on it so you can alert the delegate once the operation has completed?
I havent tried this, its just an idea :)
You could use a delegate pointing to your view controller & a method in your view controller like:
- (void) updateProgress:(NSNumber*)percentageComplete {
}
And then in the background thread:
float percentComplete = 0.5; // for example
NSNumber *percentComplete = [NSNumber numberWithFloat:percentComplete];
[delegate performSelectorOnMainThread:#selector(updateProgress:) withObject:percentageComplete waitUntilDone:NO];

iOS - Thread and alertiview

i've an app that when start control updates and other things. If the app find some updates they will ask user if this updates have to be done. If user select YES i want that a spinner appear on main screen until update finish. But when i tap YES my alert view doesn't disappear and remain on screen until update is finished.
Is it possible to create a thread that run on the main thread and stop when update in finished?
Thanks
-(void)alertView:(UIAlertView *)alertView clickedButtonAtIndex:(NSInteger)buttonIndex {
if (buttonIndex==1) {
[self showActivityViewer];
[self downloadControlAndUpdatePoi];
[self downloadControlAndUpdateItinerari];
[self downloadControlAndUpdateArtisti];
[self downloadControlAndUpdateEventi];
[self hideActivityViewer];
NSLog(#"AGGIORNA");
} else {
NSLog(#"NON AGGIORNARE");
return;
}
}
If the methods
[self downloadControlAndUpdatePoi];
[self downloadControlAndUpdateItinerari];
[self downloadControlAndUpdateArtisti];
[self downloadControlAndUpdateEventi];
are executed synchronously (that means that they return only after having processed completely), so:
[self hideActivityViewer];
is executed only at the very end.
A simple approach to this is scheduling the execution of your methods on the main thread:
[self performSelector:#selector(downloadControlAndUpdatePoi) withObject:nil afterDelay:0];
....
[self hideActivityViewer];
so that those methods are executed only after control has returned to the main loop and the UI has been updated.
Otherwise, you could use:
+ detachNewThreadSelector:toTarget:withObject:
from NSThread, to do more or less the same. In this case I would suggest creating a wrapper method for all of your dowloadAndUpdate... methods, but keep in mind that you can't update the UI from a secondary thread.
In both cases, you should take some care about synchronizing the download... operations with the rest of your workflow after removing the alert view.

Grand Central Dispatch, viewWillAppear, viewDidAppear order of execution confusion

I'm using GCD for background downloading in my Tab Bar app.
First step is to do some background downloading in -viewWillAppear: (to setup some basic data before the view is loaded).
Second step is to the rest of the background downloading in -viewDidAppear:
For some reason, the dispatch block in -viewDidAppear: gets called before the dispatch block in -viewWillAppear:.
This only happens once after loading the application for the first time switching to the tab with the GCD background methods. Switching to another tab and then switching back to the tab with the GCD background methods. The third (and all the rest subsequent times) time I'm switching back it's works as expected (-viewWillAppear: firing first and then -viewDidAppear:).
Here are excerpts of my code (-viewWillAppear: and -viewDidAppear:):
-viewWillAppear:
- (void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated {
DLog(#"viewWillAppear method running");
[super viewWillAppear:animated];
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_DEFAULT, 0), ^{
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] setNetworkActivityIndicatorVisible:YES];
[self setDiskCareerIds:[CareersParser idsFrom:#"disk"]];
[self setDownloadedCareerIds:[CareersParser idsFrom:#"web"]];
DLog(#"diskCareerIds after being set in viewWillAppear: %#", [self diskCareerIds])
DLog(#"downloadedCareerIds after being set in viewWillAppear: %#", [self downloadedCareerIds])
if ([[self downloadedCareerIds] isEqualToArray:[self diskCareerIds]]) {
DLog(#"viewWillAppear: ids equal, loading careers from disk.");
self.careers = [CareersParser loadCareersFromDisk];
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
[self.table reloadData];
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] setNetworkActivityIndicatorVisible:NO];
});
}
});
//[self downloadData];
}
-viewDidAppear:
- (void)viewDidAppear:(BOOL)animated {
DLog(#"viewDidAppear method running");
[super viewDidAppear:animated];
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_DEFAULT, 0), ^{
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] setNetworkActivityIndicatorVisible:YES];
if (![[self downloadedCareerIds] isEqualToArray:[self diskCareerIds]]) {
DLog(#"ids not equal, saving careers to disk.");
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
[self showLoadingView];
});
[CareersParser saveCareersToDisk];
self.careers = [CareersParser loadCareersFromDisk];
}
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
[self.table reloadData];
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] setNetworkActivityIndicatorVisible:NO];
[self removeLoadingView];
});
});
//[self download3];
//[self downloadData];
}
Check the debug log at Pastie.
Well, you're printing that log message in that first block (the one scheduled in viewWillAppear:) after it has done a bunch of parsing, not when it actually starts executing.
The thing is that global queue is a concurrent queue. So even though you are scheduling that first block first, it's not surprising that it sometimes falls behind the other block which is executing concurrently with it.
One simple answer would be to create a serial queue, and then you'll be sure the first block completes before the second one is executed. That seems to be what you want, right?

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