How do I run a process without blocking user interface in my iphone app

Question

I am accessing the photo library on the iphone and it takes a long time to import the pictures i select in my application, how do i run the process on a secondary thread , or what solution do i use to not block the user interface?

Answer 1

I did a full explanation with sample code using performSelectOnBackground or GCD here:

GCD, Threads, Program Flow and UI Updating

Here's the sample code portion of that post (minus his specific problems:

performSelectorInBackground Sample:

In this snippet, I have a button which invokes the long running work, a status label, and I added a slider to show I can move the slider while the bg work is done.

// on click of button
- (IBAction)doWork:(id)sender
{
    [[self feedbackLabel] setText:@"Working ..."];
    [[self doWorkButton] setEnabled:NO];

    [self performSelectorInBackground:@selector(performLongRunningWork:) withObject:nil];
}

- (void)performLongRunningWork:(id)obj
{
    // simulate 5 seconds of work
    // I added a slider to the form - I can slide it back and forth during the 5 sec.
    sleep(5);
    [self performSelectorOnMainThread:@selector(workDone:) withObject:nil waitUntilDone:YES];
}

- (void)workDone:(id)obj
{
    [[self feedbackLabel] setText:@"Done ..."];
    [[self doWorkButton] setEnabled:YES];
}

GCD Sample:

// on click of button
- (IBAction)doWork:(id)sender
{
    [[self feedbackLabel] setText:@"Working ..."];
    [[self doWorkButton] setEnabled:NO];

    // async queue for bg work
    // main queue for updating ui on main thread
    dispatch_queue_t queue = dispatch_queue_create("com.sample", 0);
    dispatch_queue_t main = dispatch_get_main_queue();

    //  do the long running work in bg async queue
    // within that, call to update UI on main thread.
    dispatch_async(queue, 
                   ^{ 
                       [self performLongRunningWork]; 
                       dispatch_async(main, ^{ [self workDone]; });
                   });    
}

- (void)performLongRunningWork
{
    // simulate 5 seconds of work
    // I added a slider to the form - I can slide it back and forth during the 5 sec.
    sleep(5);
}

- (void)workDone
{
    [[self feedbackLabel] setText:@"Done ..."];
    [[self doWorkButton] setEnabled:YES];
}

Answer 2

Use an asynchronous connection. It won't block the UI while it does the fetching behind.

THIS helped me a lot when I had to do download images, lot of them.

Answer 3

One option is use performSelectorInBackground:withObject: