not sure why my loadmatcheswithmatchdata isn't working - ios

Question

I'm creating a public method to return all of my matches from my gamecenterhelper.m
I have this:
+(NSArray *)retrieveMatchesWithMatchData {
__block NSArray *myMatches = nil;
[GKTurnBasedMatch loadMatchesWithCompletionHandler:^(NSArray *matches, NSError *error) {
if (error) {
NSLog(#"There was an error loading matches");
}
else {
myMatches = matches;
}
}];
return myMatches;
}
but this returns null when I call it, even though I have active matches. the call method looks like this:
NSLog(#"My matches: %#",[GameCenterHelper retrieveMatchesWithMatchData]);
Thanks for your time!

Answer 1

Thats the nature of blocks. Your block is executed asynchronously. You cannot load Game Center matches synchronously. Let's make this an instance method:
-(void)retrieveMatchesWithMatchData {
[GKTurnBasedMatch loadMatchesWithCompletionHandler:^(NSArray *matches, NSError *error) {
if (error) {
NSLog(#"There was an error loading matches");
}
else {
[self matchesLoaded:matches];
}
}];
}
Then you process the matches in this method:
-(void)matchesLoaded:(NSArray *)matches {
//do something with your matches
}
EDIT:
There is an easy way to do what you want. You can use Apples standard view controller to show current matches:
GKMatchRequest *request = [[GKMatchRequest alloc] init];
request.minPlayers = minPlayers;
request.maxPlayers = maxPlayers;
GKTurnBasedMatchmakerViewController *mmvc =
[[GKTurnBasedMatchmakerViewController alloc]
initWithMatchRequest:request];
mmvc.turnBasedMatchmakerDelegate = self;
mmvc.showExistingMatches = YES;
[self presentViewController:mmvc animated:NO completion:nil];