Activity Indicator in a list - ios

I am creating a real estate app. I have a screen which displays a listing of all entries with a thumbnail and a little text on the side. These I have loaded from the server when the app launched. Each entry can have up to 5 photos, which I do not pre-load for obvious reasons. My issue is this… when the user selects an entry, the app downloads the larger photos from the server. Depending on circumstances this can take a few seconds. Right now the app just hangs for those few seconds. I don't know of any practical way to use an activity indicator in a list. A header space just seems like wasted space to use only to display"Loading…". Anyone have any ideas on what I can do to let the user know that loading is in progress?
Clarification: Once an entry is selected from the list, I load up another Table View Controller which has the photos in its list of selections. I currently load the photos in the ViewDidLoad using
NSData *myPhoto = [[NSData alloc] initWithContentsOfURL:[NSURL URLWithString:myURL]];

You can:
Use UIActivityIndicatorView to show a spinning activity indicator in the precise spot where the image will eventually be loaded.
In a separate queue download the image. While the below code uses GCD, it's actually much better to use NSOperationQueue because on a slow network, using GCD can consume all of the available worker threads, detrimentally affecting performance on the app. A NSOperationQueue with a reasonable maxConcurrentOperationCount (such as 4 or 5) is much better.
When the download is complete, dispatch the updating of the UI back to the main queue (e.g. turn off the activity indicator and set the image).
This is sample code from a gallery app that shows how you might do it. This is probably more complicated than you need and might be hard to repurpose via cut-and-paste, but the loadImage method shows the basic elements of the solution.
#interface MyImage : NSObject
#property (nonatomic, strong) NSString *urlString;
#property (nonatomic, strong) UIImageView *imageView;
#property (nonatomic, strong) UIActivityIndicatorView *activityIndicator;
#property (nonatomic, strong) UIView *view;
#property BOOL loading;
#property BOOL loaded;
#end
#implementation MyImage
// I find that I generally can get away with loading images in main queue using Documents
// cache, too, but if your images are not optimized (e.g. are large), or if you're supporting
// older, slower devices, you might not want to use the Documents cache in the main queue if
// you want a smooth UI. If this is the case, change kUseDocumentsCacheInMainQueue to NO and
// then use the Documents cache only in the background thread.
#define kUseDocumentsCacheInMainQueue NO
- (id)init
{
self = [super init];
if (self)
{
_view = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0.0, 0.0, IMAGE_WIDTH, IMAGE_HEIGHT)];
_imageView = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0.0, 0.0, IMAGE_WIDTH, IMAGE_HEIGHT)];
_imageView.contentMode = UIViewContentModeScaleAspectFill;
_imageView.clipsToBounds = YES;
[_view addSubview:_imageView];
_loading = NO;
_loaded = NO;
}
return self;
}
- (void)loadImage:(dispatch_queue_t)queue
{
if (self.loading)
return;
self.loading = YES;
ThumbnailCache *cache = [ThumbnailCache sharedManager];
if (self.imageView.image == nil)
{
// I've implemented a caching system that stores images in my Documents folder
// as well as, for optimal performance, a NSCache subclass. Whether you go through
// this extra work is up to you
UIImage *imageFromCache = [cache objectForKey:self.urlString useDocumentsCache:kUseDocumentsCacheInMainQueue];
if (imageFromCache)
{
if (self.activityIndicator)
{
[self.activityIndicator stopAnimating];
self.activityIndicator = nil;
}
self.imageView.image = imageFromCache;
self.loading = NO;
self.loaded = YES;
return;
}
// assuming we haven't found it in my cache, then let's see if we need to fire
// up the spinning UIActivityIndicatorView
if (self.activityIndicator == nil)
{
self.activityIndicator = [[UIActivityIndicatorView alloc] initWithActivityIndicatorStyle:UIActivityIndicatorViewStyleGray];
self.activityIndicator.center = CGPointMake(self.view.frame.size.width / 2.0, self.view.frame.size.height / 2.0);
[self.view addSubview:self.activityIndicator];
}
[self.activityIndicator startAnimating];
// now, in the background queue, let's retrieve the image
dispatch_async(queue, ^{
if (self.loading)
{
UIImage *image = nil;
// only requery cache for Documents cache if we didn't do so in the main
// queue for small images, doing it in the main queue is fine, but apps
// with larger images, you might do this in this background queue.
if (!kUseDocumentsCacheInMainQueue)
image = [cache objectForKey:self.urlString useDocumentsCache:YES];
// if we haven't gotten the image yet, retrieve it from the remote server
if (!image)
{
NSData *data = [[NSData alloc] initWithContentsOfURL:[NSURL URLWithString:self.urlString]];
if (data)
{
image = [UIImage imageWithData:data];
// personally, I cache my image to optimize future access ... you might just store in the Documents folder, or whatever
[cache setObject:image forKey:self.urlString data:data];
}
}
// now update the UI in the main queue
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
if (self.loading)
{
[self.activityIndicator stopAnimating];
self.activityIndicator = nil;
self.imageView.image = image;
self.loading = NO;
self.loaded = YES;
}
});
}
});
}
}
// In my gallery view controller, I make sure to unload images that have scrolled off
// the screen. And because I've cached the images, I can re-retrieve them fairly quickly.
// This sort of logic is critical if you're dealing with *lots* of images and you want
// to be responsible with your memory.
- (void)unloadImage
{
// remove from imageview, but not cache
self.imageView.image = nil;
self.loaded = NO;
self.loading = NO;
}
#end
By the way, if the image you're downloading is in a UIImageView in a UITableViewCell the final update back to the table might want to do something about checking to see if the cell is still on screen (to make sure it wasn't dequeued because the UITableViewCell scrolled off the screen). In that case, the final UI update after successful download of the image might do something like:
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
// if the cell is visible, then set the image
UITableViewCell *cell = [self.tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:indexPath];
if (cell)
{
cell.imageView.image = image;
}
});
Note, this is using the UITableView method cellForRowAtIndexPath, which should not be confused with the UITableViewController method tableView:cellForRowAtIndexPath.

For one of my projects i used this custom class for UIImageView:
https://github.com/nicklockwood/AsyncImageView
Small tutorial is located here: http://www.markj.net/iphone-asynchronous-table-image/
With just few lines of code i managed to implement asynchronous loading of images, caching etc. Just give it a look.

Related

Async UIView content not showing up when coming back to main thread

When loading my UIViewController, I basically put a spinner in the middle of the page until the content loads, then come back on the main thread to add the subviews :
- (void)viewDidLoad {
[super viewDidLoad];
UIActivityIndicatorView *aiv_loading = ... // etc
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_DEFAULT, 0), ^{
// Load content
NSString *s_checkout = [[BRNetwork sharedNetwork] getCheckoutInstructionsForLocation:self.locBooking.location];
UIView *v_invoice_content = [[BRNetwork sharedNetwork] invoiceViewForBooking:locBooking.objectId];
// Display the content
dispatch_sync(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
if (s_checkout && v_invoice_content) {
[aiv_loading removeFromSuperview];
[self showContentWithText:s_checkout AndInvoice:v_invoice_content];
} else {
NSLog(#"No data received!"); // is thankfully not called
}
});
});
}
- (void) showContentWithText:(NSString *)s_checkout AndInvoice:(UIView *)v_invoice {
[self.view addSubview:[self checkoutTextWithText:s_checkout]]; // Most of the time displayed text
[self.view addSubview:[self completeCheckout]]; // always Displayed UIButton
[self.view addSubview:[self divider]]; // always displayed UIImageView
// Summary title
UILabel *l_summary = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, [self divider].frame.origin.y + 6 + 10, self.view.bounds.size.width, 20)];
l_summary.text = NSLocalizedString(#"Summary", nil);
[self.view addSubview:l_summary];
CGRect totalRect = CGRectMake([self divider].frame.origin.x, [self divider].frame.origin.y + 6 + 30, self.view.bounds.size.width - [self divider].frame.origin.x, 90);
_v_invoice = v_invoice;
_v_invoice.frame = totalRect;
[self.view addSubview:[self v_invoiceWithData:v_invoice]]; // THIS Pretty much never displayed
UITextView *l_invoice = [[UITextView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, _v_invoice.frame.origin.y + _v_invoice.frame.size.height + offset, 320.0, 50)];
l_invoice.text = NSLocalizedString(#"summary_emailed", nil);
[self.view addSubview:l_invoice]; // Always displayed
}
However, not all the content is displayed. The invoice is never there at first, but gets displayed after a couple of minutes. The other async-created string, s_content is sometimes not displayed.
This seems to be random with the content creation. The end result is pretty neat, but not reliable for a production version.
I used the undocumented [self.view recursiveDescription] to check if everything was there, and even if I don't see it, they are all there with what seems to be correct frames.
Any pointers?
- layoutSubviews did not help!
- putting a background color to the invoice view is showing the background color
I suspect this line is your problem:
UIView *v_invoice_content = [[BRNetwork sharedNetwork] invoiceViewForBooking:locBooking.objectId];
As you are calling this in a background dispatch queue. Any work involving UIKit should be done on the main queue/thread. Either move that into the main thread block, or if building the view is dependent on data from a network call, change your invoiceViewForBooking method to return the data first, and build your view in the main thread with that data.
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_DEFAULT, 0), ^{
// Load content
NSString *s_checkout = [[BRNetwork sharedNetwork] getCheckoutInstructionsForLocation:self.locBooking.location];
id someData = [[BRNetwork sharedNetwork] invoiceDataForBooking:locBooking.objectId];
// Display the content
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
UIView *v_invoice_content = [invoiceViewWithData:someData];
});
});
I'd also suggest using dispatch_async instead of dispatch_sync on the main queue.
Solved! I ended up removing the dispatch_async(dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_DEFAULT, 0)
To only leave the async block on the main queue:
// Display the content from a new async block on the main queue.
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
[aiv_loading removeFromSuperview];
NSString *s_checkout = [[BRNetwork sharedNetwork] getCheckoutInstructionsForLocation:self.locBooking.location];
[self showContentWithText:s_checkout AndInvoice:[[BRNetwork sharedNetwork] invoiceViewForBooking:locBooking.objectId]];
});
which did the trick, viewcontroller's view can appear without waiting for the view to load the remote data!
You should put your code in viewDidAppear instead of viewDidLoad. Whatever is related to display (even launching async blocks) should always be in viewWillAppear or viewDidAppear.
Also, I recommend you to use dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{}) instead of your dispatch_sync since you still want your block to be performed async (but on main thread).
Dont forget to call super methods in your viewDidAppear.

I need a good way to discard image views in my iOS game

I have about 10 draggable objects in my game that need to be removed entirely from the game at certain points, no use of these objects is required until a new game is started...
currently i say self.imageView = nil
However, the more images i discard this way, the slower the game becomes. I believe it is because the images are not completely gone and they are all being put at (0, 0) even though they are out of the view.
How else can i get rid of these image views in order to increase my performance?
Here is how I add the images to my view:
#interface GameView : UIView
{
UIImage *ball;
}
#property UIImageView *redBall;
-(id)initWithBallImage:(UIImageView *)ball;
#implementation GameView
-(id)initWithBallImage:(UIImageView *)ball
{
self = [super init]
if (self)
{
_redBall = ball;
return self;
}
return nil;
}
-(void)spawnBallWithColor:(BallColor)ballColor intoArray:(NSMutableArray *)array atPoint:(CGPoint)point
{
switch (ballColor) {
case kRedBall:
ball = [UIImage imageNamed:#"redBall.png"];
self.redBall = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:ball];
self.redBall.center = point;
[array addObject:self.redBall];
[self addSubview:self.redBall];
break;
}
//I use the above method in an initWithLevel: method...
Then to remove the object from the view...
[self.redBall removeFromSuperview];
[self.redBall removeFromSuperview];
You also need
self.redBall = nil;
And you need to remove it from that array you added it to.
Additionally
self.redBall = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:ball];
Is leaking memory if you aren't using automatic reference counting.

showing progress on imageview on customcell on uitableview

I followed the codes here https://stackoverflow.com/a/7212943/711837 to get me started to show an indicator my app trying to download images from a particular website. The scenario is:
i have a tableview with many custom cells, the custom cells has 2 labels and a imageview.
i have a NSURL to download the contents that will fill up the labels and then a separate class that will download the images to be filled into the UIImageView. The code for the spinner and the downloading of images are:
resultArray = [[NSArray alloc] initWithArray:response];
[self downloadImageFromInternet:#"http://static.colourlovers.com/images/shapes/0/7/7090/50x50.png"];
//spinner for the download
spinner = [[UIActivityIndicatorView alloc] initWithActivityIndicatorStyle:UIActivityIndicatorViewStyleGray];
spinner.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, 24, 24);
custcell.accessoryView = spinner;
[spinner startAnimating];
///[spinner release];
[self.thetableView reloadData];
and then i call the [spinner stopAnimating] at the finish downloading method of the class but somehow, the spinners just don't animate, or appear for the matter! am i missing something? or is there somewhere i can refer to? my aim is to show the UIIndicatorView at the place of the UIImageView then after loading, the imageview takes over the same position and this is on every cell.
UPDATED added the methods
-(void) downloadImageFromInternet:(NSString*)urlToImage{
// Create a instance of InternetImage
asynchImage = [[DownloadThumb alloc] initWithUrl:urlToImage];
// Start downloading the image with self as delegate receiver
[asynchImage downloadImage:self];
}
-(void) internetImageReady:(DownloadThumb*)downloadedImage{
// The image has been downloaded. Put the image into the UIImageView
[arrayImg addObject:downloadedImage.Image];
[spinner stopAnimating];
[self.thetableView reloadData];
}
-(void)downloadImage:(id)delegate{
m_Delegate = delegate;
NSURLRequest *imageRequest = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:ImageUrl]
cachePolicy:NSURLRequestReturnCacheDataElseLoad timeoutInterval:60.0];
imageConnection = [[NSURLConnection alloc] initWithRequest:imageRequest delegate:self];
if(imageConnection)
{
workInProgress = YES;
m_ImageRequestData = [[NSMutableData data] retain];
}
}
You should really initiate the spinner when you create the cell.
Then you should check in cellForRowAtIndexPath if it should be visible or not.
Finally, when you need to display it, you can use [tableView reloadData] to display or remove it.

Asynchronously loading sound resources in viewDidLoad crashes

All,
I am attempting to load a set of sounds asynchronously when I load a UIViewController. At about the same time, I am (occasionally) also placing a UIView on the top of my ViewController's hierarchy to present a help overlay. When I do this, the app crashes with a bad exec. If the view is not added, the app does not crash. My ViewController looks something like this:
- (void)viewDidLoad
{
[super viewDidLoad];
__soundHelper = [[SoundHelper alloc] initWithSounds];
// Other stuff
}
- (void)viewDidAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
// ****** Set up the Help Screen
self.coachMarkView = [[FHSCoachMarkView alloc] initWithImageName:#"help_GradingVC"
coveringView:self.view
withOpacity:0.9
dismissOnTap:YES
withDelegate:self];
[self.coachMarkView showCoachMarkView];
[super viewDidAppear:animated];
}
The main asynchronous loading method of SoundHelper (called from 'initWithSounds') looks like this:
// Helper method that loads sounds as needed
- (void)loadSounds {
// Run this loading code in a separate thread
NSOperationQueue *operationQueue = [[NSOperationQueue alloc] init];
NSBlockOperation *loadSoundsOp = [NSBlockOperation blockOperationWithBlock:^{
// Find all sound files (*.caf) in resource bundles
__soundCache = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc]initWithCapacity:0];
NSString * sndFileName;
NSArray *soundFiles = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathsForResourcesOfType:STR_SOUND_EXT inDirectory:nil];
// Loop through all of the sounds found
for (NSString * soundFileNamePath in soundFiles) {
// Add the sound file to the dictionary
sndFileName = [[soundFileNamePath lastPathComponent] lowercaseString];
[__soundCache setObject:[self soundPath:soundFileNamePath] forKey:sndFileName];
}
// From: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7334647/nsoperationqueue-and-uitableview-release-is-crashing-my-app
[self performSelectorOnMainThread:#selector(description) withObject:nil waitUntilDone:NO];
}];
[operationQueue addOperation:loadSoundsOp];
}
The crash seems to occur when the block exits. The init of FHSCoachMarkView looks like this:
- (FHSCoachMarkView *)initWithImageName:(NSString *) imageName
coveringView:(UIView *) view
withOpacity:(CGFloat) opacity
dismissOnTap:(BOOL) dismissOnTap
withDelegate:(id<FHSCoachMarkViewDelegate>) delegateID
{
// Reset Viewed Coach Marks if User Setting is set to show them
[self resetSettings];
__coveringView = view;
self = [super initWithFrame:__coveringView.frame];
if (self) {
// Record the string for later reference
__coachMarkName = [NSString stringWithString:imageName];
self.delegate = delegateID;
UIImage * image = [[UIImage alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:[[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:imageName ofType:#"png"]];
// ****** Configure the View Hierarchy
UIImageView *imgView = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:image];
[self addSubview:imgView];
[__coveringView.superview insertSubview:self aboveSubview:__coveringView];
// ****** Configure the View Hierarchy with the proper opacity
__coachMarkViewOpacity = opacity;
self.hidden = YES;
self.opaque = NO;
self.alpha = __coachMarkViewOpacity;
imgView.hidden = NO;
imgView.opaque = NO;
imgView.alpha = __coachMarkViewOpacity;
// ****** Configure whether the coachMark can be dismissed when it's body is tapped
__dismissOnTap = dismissOnTap;
// If it is dismissable, set up a gesture recognizer
if (__dismissOnTap) {
UITapGestureRecognizer * tapGesture = [[UITapGestureRecognizer alloc] initWithTarget:self
action:#selector(coachMarkWasTapped:)];
[self addGestureRecognizer:tapGesture];
}
}
return self;
}
I have tried invoking the asynchronous block using both NSBlockOperation and dispatch_async and both have had the same results. Additionally, I've removed the aysnch call altogether and loaded the sounds on the main thread. That works fine. I also tried the solution suggested by #Jason in: NSOperationQueue and UITableView release is crashing my app but the same thing happened there too.
Is this actually an issue with the view being added in FHSCoachMarkView, or is it possibly related to the fact that both access mainBundle? I'm a bit new to asynch coding in iOS, so I'm at a bit of a loss. Any help would be appreciated!
Thanks,
Scott
I figured this out: I had set up a listener on the SoundHelper object (NSUserDefaultsDidChangeNotification) that listened for when NSUserDefaults were changed, and loaded the sounds if the user defaults indicated so. The FHSCoachMarkView was also making changes to NSUserDefaults. In the SoundHelper, I was not properly checking which defaults were being changed, so the asynch sound loading method was being called each time a change was made. So multiple threads were attempting to modify the __soundCache instance variable. it didn't seem to like that.
Question: Is this the correct way to answer your own question? Or should I have just added a comment to the question it self?
Thanks.

How to clean memory after UIImageView animation

Here is my code:
Header:
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#interface ViewController : UIViewController {
UIImageView *imageView;
NSMutableArray *arrayWithImages;
}
- (IBAction)startAnimation:(id)sender;
- (IBAction)cleanMemory:(id)sender;
#end
Implementation:
#import "ViewController.h"
#implementation ViewController
......
- (IBAction)startAnimation:(id)sender {
imageView = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 768, 1024)];
arrayWithImages = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithObjects:
[UIImage imageNamed:#"pic1"],
[UIImage imageNamed:#"pic2"],
[UIImage imageNamed:#"pic3"],
[UIImage imageNamed:#"pic4"],
[UIImage imageNamed:#"pic5"],
[UIImage imageNamed:#"pic6"],
[UIImage imageNamed:#"pic7"],
[UIImage imageNamed:#"pic8"],nil];
imageView.animationImages = arrayWithImages;
imageView.animationDuration = 3;
imageView.animationRepeatCount = 1;
[self.view addSubview:imageView];
[imageView startAnimating];
}
- (IBAction)cleanMemory:(id)sender {
[arrayWithImages removeAllObjects];
[arrayWithImages release];
arrayWithImages= nil;
[imageView removeFromSuperview];
[imageView release];
imageView = nil;
}
#end
I have ViewController and its view with two buttons. First button with startAnimation action, which creates UIImageView , NSMutableArray and starts animation on it. Second button with cleanMemory action , which clean all what i've created in startAnimation.
When i start Profile with Activity Monitor instrument, my program have 4 mb Real Mem, when i press startAnimation button it's changes to 16 mb Real Mem and after animation i press cleanMemory button, but it has same 16 mb Real Mem... Why? I wont to clean my memory to started value( 4 mb Real Mem). Please, can you explain, where i have problems?
UIImage imageNamed: caches the images and will release the memory on it's own schedule. If you do not want the caching, that is completely control the memory then load the image directly,not with UIImage imageNamed:.
From the Apple docs:
This method looks in the system caches for an image object with the
specified name and returns that object if it exists. If a matching
image object is not already in the cache, this method loads the image
data from the specified file, caches it, and then returns the
resulting object.
You can use
+ (UIImage *)imageWithContentsOfFile:(NSString *)path
to load the image directly.
From the Apple docs:
This method does not cache the image object.
If even after using + (UIImage *)imageWithContentsOfFile:(NSString *)path you still don't get to free memory, tyr calling imageView.animationImages = nil;

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