How do I execute my method when the UIView loads? - ios

Question

I have a view-based template app and have UILabel & UIButton. For debugging purposes I'm showing and hiding the button whilst changing the UILabel.text.
In C++ I would 'thread root();' to execute the root method but I don't know how to in Objective-c. How to run my 'root' method once the view loads?
-(void) root
{
[bombButton1 setHidden:NO];
int s = 0;
int j = 10;
while ( s < j )
{
[bombButton1 setHidden:YES];
NSString *debugLabelString = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%d", s];
debugLabel.text=debugLabelString;
s++;
}
Edit:
Right, now I have: (but I get ERROR: Expected method body on the "-(void) rootMethod: NSTimer * timer {" line)
-(void) applicationDidFinishLaunching : (UIApplication *) application {
spawnTimer = [NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval: 1.0 target:self selector:#selector(rootMethod:) userInfo:nil repeats: YES];
}
-(void) rootMethod: NSTimer * spawnTimer {
int s = 0;
int j = 10;
while ( s < j )
{
NSString *debugLabelString = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%d", s];
debugLabel.text=debugLabelString;
//debugLabel.text=#"debug test complete";
s++;
}
}

Answer 1

Several ways to do this, I think. Here's one:
[self performSelectorInBackground:#selector(root) withObject:nil];
You'd make this call in say, your -(void)viewDidAppear: method.
You may run into issues running code on threads other than the main thread that tries to manipulate the UI.
That sleep(1) is worrisome. You could use a repeating NSTimer instead and eliminate the sleep(1) entirely. Something like:
[NSTimer scheduledTimerWithInterval:2.0 target:self
selector:#selector(root:) userInfo:nil repeats:YES];
For NSTimer, you'd have to change your method, root, to have a signature like
- (void)root:(NSTimer*)theTimer

Answer 2

You need to implement a called viewDidLoad.
- (void) viewDidLoad() {
// your code here
}
I'm sure you have your reasons, but you really shouldn't iteract with UI components in anything other than the UI thread. What you actually need to do is use an NSTimer to call a method on the UI thread multiple times.

Answer 3

What you should be doing is performSelectorOnMainThread when you want to update the UI Thread.
Do your running in the background and update variables that will contain the updated values, then use performSelectorOnMainThread on the View, sending it to a method that will merely update the Textbox with the data in the variables.
You can do anything in a background thread, except update the ui.
Edit: Furthermore I dont recommend using Timers in place of background threads, I have had instances when using Timers, where only so many get created and when I expected a background thread to fire, it never did. The timer actually never fired, even tho it was created.