how to block ios swift when no network, any best practice?

Question

I want to block my app's ui when there is no network connectivity.

How can I do this?

Creating a blocking wide-as-screen transparent view

move it to the front when needed to block ui touches?

move it to the rear when network is back?

Is there a best UX practice for this backed up in swift implementation?

well it's probably not a good UI solution from a user point of view... They'll have no idea why your app isn't working. I'd create an alert (either through a custom view or `UIAlertController`) that you can add over your view, that clearly says there's no network connectivity. — Hamish, Jan 29 '16 at 14:05
I think I'll add a hidden view and unhide it for 2 seconds when network is not available. But how would you trigger the hidding again ? by task? — Elad Benda, Jan 29 '16 at 14:08
I'm not sure I understand what you mean... you'll want to hide the view again when your app detects an internet connection (see http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8812459/easiest-way-to-detect-internet-connection-on-ios). If you really only want to unhide then hide after 2 seconds, you can use a `dispatch_after` or `performSelector:withObject:afterDelay:`. — Hamish, Jan 29 '16 at 14:16

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 29 '16 at 13:55

2

Instead of doing all that you can just disable user interaction for that particular view. Like below

[self.view setUserInteractionEnabled:NO];
self.view.userInteractionEnabled = false //swift implementation

This will disable user interaction for all subviews of that view

answered Jan 29 '16 at 13:55

Vishnu gondlekar

3,896
21
35

but you still need to give some indication to the user why this view has suddenly stopped working – Russell Jan 29 '16 at 15:00
Like most of the apps do, you can have banner at top or bottom saying network not available – Vishnu gondlekar Jan 29 '16 at 15:03

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 29 '16 at 13:57

2

If code that handles internet connection is not in currently shown view controller

UIApplication.sharedApplication().keyWindow.rootViewController.view.userInteractionEnabled = false

answered Jan 29 '16 at 13:57

Volodymyr

1,165
5
16

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 29 '16 at 14:15

It's not ideal but I have solution based on Nanayakkara project. AppDelegate creates MyConnectionManager which is observed on networkStatusChanged selector:

NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter().addObserver(self, selector: Selector("networkStatusChanged:"), name: ReachabilityStatusChangedNotification, object: nil)
Reach().monitorReachabilityChanges()

Each time connection state was changed manager calls networkStatusChanged and checks if connection is lost & top view isn't special connection view with message like "Please check your internet connection". If it isn't manager retrieves topController from sharedApplication

func topController() -> UIViewController? {
    if var topRootController =
        UIApplication.sharedApplication().keyWindow?.rootViewController {
            while((topRootController.presentedViewController) != nil) {
                topRootController = topRootController.presentedViewController!
            }
            return topRootController
        }
        return nil
    }

and calls presentViewController with ConnectionViewController.

how to block ios swift when no network, any best practice?

3 Answers3