I'm working on implementing screen-capturing of a Mac app suing CGDisplayStream, similar to the question asked here, but in Swift.
Below is the code I have in my app's single ViewController:
override func viewDidAppear() {
super.viewDidAppear()
let backgroundQueue = DispatchQueue(label: "com.app.queue",
qos: .background,
target: nil)
let displayStream = CGDisplayStream(dispatchQueueDisplay: 0, outputWidth: 100, outputHeight: 100,pixelFormat: Int32(k32BGRAPixelFormat), properties: nil, queue: backgroundQueue) { (status, code, iosurface, update) in
switch(status){
case .frameBlank:
print("FrameBlank")
break;
case .frameIdle:
print("FrameIdle")
break;
case .frameComplete:
print("FrameComplete")
break;
case .stopped:
print("Stopped")
break;
}
self.update()
}
displayStream?.start()
}
func update(){
print("WORKING")
}
What seems to be happening is that the queue process isn't being properly initialized, but I'm not sure...when the app starts, the self.update() is called once, but only once. Given that the display stream has started properly, I would expect this function to be called repeatedly, but it's only called once.
Anyone have any ideas? Am I not setting up a queue properly?
Thank you!
The problem is that no reference to displayStream is kept outside
of viewDidAppear, so the stream will be deallocated on return
of that method.
Making it a property of the view controller should solve the problem:
class ViewController: NSViewController {
var displayStream: CGDisplayStream?
override func viewDidAppear() {
super.viewDidAppear()
// ...
displayStream = CGDisplayStream(...)
displayStream?.start()
}
override func viewWillDisappear() {
super.viewWillDisappear()
displayStream?.stop()
displayStream = nil
}
}
Releasing the stream in viewWillDisappear breaks the retain cycle
and allows the view controller to be deallocated (if it is part of
a view controller hierarchy).
Related
I am building an iOS app using the new language Swift. Now it is an HTML5 app, that displays HTML content using the UIWebView. The app has local notifications, and what i want to do is trigger a specific javascript method in the UIWebView when the app enters foreground by clicking (touching) the local notification.
I have had a look at this question, but it does not seem to solve my problem. I have also come across this question which tells me about using UIApplicationState, which is good as that would help me know the the app enters foreground from a notification. But when the app resumes and how do i invoke a method in the viewController of the view that gets displayed when the app resumes?
What i would like to do is get an instance of my ViewController and set a property in it to true. Something as follows
class FirstViewController: UIViewController,UIWebViewDelegate {
var execute:Bool = false;
#IBOutlet var tasksView: UIWebView!
}
And in my AppDelegate i have the method
func applicationWillEnterForeground(application: UIApplication!) {
let viewController = self.window!.rootViewController;
let mainStoryboard: UIStoryboard = UIStoryboard(name: "Main", bundle: nil)
var setViewController = mainStoryboard.instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier("FirstView") as FirstViewController
setViewController.execute = true;
}
so what i would like to do is when the app enters foreground again, i want to look at the execute variable and run the method as follows,
if execute{
tasksView.stringByEvaluatingJavaScriptFromString("document.getElementById('sample').click()");
}
Where should i put the code for the logic to trigger the javascript from the webview? would it be on viewDidLoad method, or one of the webView delegate methods? i have tried to put that code in the viewDidLoad method but the value of the boolean execute is set to its initial value and not the value set in the delegate when the app enters foreground.
If I want a view controller to be notified when the app is brought back to the foreground, I might just register for the UIApplication.willEnterForegroundNotification notification (bypassing the app delegate method entirely):
class ViewController: UIViewController {
private var observer: NSObjectProtocol?
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
observer = NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(forName: UIApplication.willEnterForegroundNotification, object: nil, queue: .main) { [unowned self] notification in
// do whatever you want when the app is brought back to the foreground
}
}
deinit {
if let observer = observer {
NotificationCenter.default.removeObserver(observer)
}
}
}
Note, in the completion closure, I include [unowned self] to avoid strong reference cycle that prevents the view controller from being deallocated if you happen to reference self inside the block (which you presumably will need to do if you're going to be updating a class variable or do practically anything interesting).
Also note that I remove the observer even though a casual reading of the removeObserver documentation might lead one to conclude is unnecessary:
If your app targets iOS 9.0 and later or macOS 10.11 and later, you don't need to unregister an observer in its dealloc method.
But, when using this block-based rendition, you really do need to remove the notification center observer. As the documentation for addObserver(forName:object:queue:using:) says:
To unregister observations, you pass the object returned by this method to removeObserver(_:). You must invoke removeObserver(_:) or removeObserver(_:name:object:) before any object specified by addObserver(forName:object:queue:using:) is deallocated.
I like to use the Publisher initializer of NotificationCenter. Using that you can subscribe to any NSNotification using Combine.
import UIKit
import Combine
class MyFunkyViewController: UIViewController {
/// The cancel bag containing all the subscriptions.
private var cancelBag: Set<AnyCancellable> = []
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
addSubscribers()
}
/// Adds all the subscribers.
private func addSubscribers() {
NotificationCenter
.Publisher(center: .default,
name: UIApplication.willEnterForegroundNotification)
.sink { [weak self] _ in
self?.doSomething()
}
.store(in: &cancelBag)
}
/// Called when entering foreground.
private func doSomething() {
print("Hello foreground!")
}
}
Add Below Code in ViewController
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
let notificationCenter = NotificationCenter.default
notificationCenter.addObserver(self, selector:#selector(appMovedToForeground), name: UIApplication.willEnterForegroundNotification, object: nil)
}
#objc func appMovedToForeground() {
print("App moved to foreground!")
}
In Swift 3, it replaces and generates the following.
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
foregroundNotification = NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(forName:
NSNotification.Name.UIApplicationWillEnterForeground, object: nil, queue: OperationQueue.main) {
[unowned self] notification in
// do whatever you want when the app is brought back to the foreground
}
I've tried, without success, respond to events such as windowWillClose() and windowShouldClose() inside NSWindowController (yes conforming to NSWindowDelegate).
Later, to my surprise, I was able to receive those events if I make my contentViewController (NSViewController) conform to NSWindowDelegate.
Unfortunately, later on, found out that view.window?.windowController is nil inside windowWillClose() or windowShouldClose(), code:
override func viewDidAppear() {
super.viewDidAppear()
self.view.window?.delegate = self
self.view.window?.windowController // not nil!
}
func windowWillClose(_ notification: Notification) {
self.view.window?.windowController // nil!!
}
func windowShouldClose(_ sender: NSWindow) -> Bool {
self.view.window?.windowController // nil!!
return true
}
After realizing that view.window?.windowController is not nil inside viewDidAppear() the next thing I thought was that Swift garbage collected the controller, so I changed viewDidAppear() in a way that creates another reference of windowController thus preventing garbage collection on said object, code:
var windowController: NSWindowController?
override func viewDidAppear() {
super.viewDidAppear()
self.view.window?.delegate = self
windowController = view.window?.windowController
}
func windowWillClose(_ notification: Notification) {
self.view.window?.windowController // NOT nil
}
func windowShouldClose(_ sender: NSWindow) -> Bool {
self.view.window?.windowController // NOT nil
return true
}
My hypothesis turned out to be correct (I think).
Is this the same issue that is preventing me from receiving those events inside NSWindowController?
Is there another way I can achieve the same thing without creating more object references?
In order to post code, I use the Answer option even though it is more of a comment.
I added in NSViewController:
override func viewDidAppear() {
super.viewDidAppear()
parentWindowController = self.view.window!.windowController
self.view.window!.delegate = self.view.window!.windowController as! S1W2WC. // The NSWC class, which conforms to NSWindowDelegate
print(#function, "windowController", self.view.window!, self.view.window!.windowController)
}
I get print log:
viewDidAppear() windowController Optional()
and notification is passed.
But if I change to
override func viewDidAppear() {
super.viewDidAppear()
// parentWindowController = self.view.window!.windowController
self.view.window!.delegate = self.view.window!.windowController as! S1W2WC
print(#function, "windowController", self.view.window!, self.view.window!.windowController)
}
by commenting out parentWindowController, notification don't go anymore to the WindowController…
Edited: I declared in ViewController:
var parentWindowController: NSWindowController? // Helps keep a reference to the controller
The proposed solutions are, in my opinion, hacks that can cause serious problems with memory management by creating circular references. You definitely can make instances of NSWindowController work as the window’s delegate. The proper way is to wire it up correctly in either code or in Interface Builder in Xcode. An example of how to do it properly is offered here.
If the delegate methods are not called is because the wiring up is not done correctly.
Another thing that must be done in Swift is when you add the name of the NSWindowController subclass in Interface Builder in Xcode is to check the checkbox of Inherits from Module. If you fail to do this, none of your subclass methods will be called.
In Xcode 10.1 with Swift 4.2 I'm having a memory leak when I add a local monitor for key down events in my NSViewController, that it is be instanced as minimal version (without nib and xib).
override func loadView() {
self.view = NSView()
self.view.wantsLayer = true
}
override func viewDidLoad(){
super.viewDidLoad
NSEvent.addLocalMonitorForEvents(matching: .keyDown, handler: handler)
}
lazy var handler:(NSEvent)->NSEvent? = { [ weak self ,unowned picker = picker] event in
picker.keyDown(with: event)
return event
}
This memory leak does not have much information:Memory leak
EDIT
In deinit method removeMonitor is called
deinit {
NSEvent.removeMonitor(self)
}
EDIT 2
Issue solved :
override func loadView() {
self.view = NSView()
self.view.wantsLayer = true
}
var monitor:Any? // This is essential
override func viewDidLoad(){
super.viewDidLoad
monitor = NSEvent.addLocalMonitorForEvents(matching: .keyDown, handler: handler)
}
lazy var handler:(NSEvent)->NSEvent? = { [ weak self ,unowned picker = picker] event in
picker.keyDown(with: event)
return event
}
deinit {
NSEvent.removeMonitor(monitor)
}
From the Apple Docs;
Note
The monitor Block is called for all future events that match mask. You must call removeMonitor(_:) to stop the monitor. Under garbage collection, the monitor (and everything the Block references) will not be collected until removeMonitor(_:) is invoked.
Meaning that the monitor will continue to look for matching events until removeMonitor() is invoked. So your system is using extra memory to keep looking for events, and if you never call this - it could lead to a fairly large memory leak. As it says even with garbage collection, this object is still allocated - because it is looking for events that could take place at any time (so it is not guaranteed that this will be collected). Make sure you call this when you want the system to stop looking for events.
You could also do something like this in your handler.
You can return the event unmodified, create and return a new NSEvent object, or return nil to stop the dispatching of the event.
The simple Swift 4 example below should stop when the computer's display goes to sleep.
class Observer {
var asleep = false
func addDNC () {
NSWorkspace.shared.notificationCenter.addObserver(forName: NSWorkspace.screensDidSleepNotification, object: nil, queue: nil, using: notificationRecieved)
}
func notificationRecieved (n: Notification) {
asleep = true
}
}
let observer = Observer ()
observer.addDNC ()
while (!observer.asleep) {}
print ("zzzz")
However, the program gets stuck in the while loop. What am I doing wrong, and what is the proper way to wait for a Notification?
I have tried using a selector (#selector (notificationRecieved), with #objc in the function declaration, of course), to no avail.
Start a template app in Xcode and modify the ViewController.swift to do this:
import Cocoa
class Observer {
var asleep = false
func addDNC () {
NSWorkspace.shared.notificationCenter.addObserver(forName: NSWorkspace.screensDidSleepNotification, object: nil, queue: nil, using: notificationRecieved)
}
func notificationRecieved (n: Notification) {
print("got sleep notification!")
asleep = true
}
}
class ViewController: NSViewController {
let observer = Observer ()
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
// Do any additional setup after loading the view.
observer.addDNC ()
}
override var representedObject: Any? {
didSet {
// Update the view, if already loaded.
}
}
}
The difference between your code and mine is that I'm not doing the wacky sleepy polling thing you're doing (that's going to lead to a spinning pizza cursor), and I'm also setting observer to be a property off the ViewController object, so the observer property sticks around as long as the view controller does.
How do I run an asynchronous thread that only runs as long as the view that uses it is presented?
I want the view to run this asynchronous thread. However, as soon as the view disappears, I want that thread to stop running. What's the best way to do this? I'm not sure where to start and might be thinking about this the wrong way. Nevertheless, what I described is how I want it to behave to the user.
You can use NSOperation to achieve what you want, NSOperation and NSOperationQueue are built on top of GCD. As a very general rule, Apple recommends using the highest-level abstraction, and then dropping down to lower levels when measurements show they are needed.
For example, You want to download images asynchronously when the view is loaded and cancel the task when the view is disappeared. First create a ImageDownloader object subclass to NSOperation. Notice that we check if the operation is cancelled twice, this is because the NSOperation has 3 states: isReady -> isExecuting -> isFinish and when the operation starts executing, it won't be cancelled automatically, we need to do it ourself.
class ImageDownloader: NSOperation {
//1
var photoRecord: NSURL = NSURL(string: "fortest")!
//2
init(photoRecord: NSURL) {
self.photoRecord = photoRecord
}
//3
override func main() {
//4
if self.cancelled {
return
}
//5
let imageData = NSData(contentsOfURL:self.photoRecord)
//6
if self.cancelled {
return
}
}
}
Then you can use it like: downloader.cancel(), downloader.start(). Notice that we need to check if the operation is cancelled in the completion block.
import UIKit
class ViewController: UIViewController {
let downloder = ImageDownloader(photoRecord: NSURL(string: "test")!)
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
downloder.completionBlock = {
if self.downloder.cancelled {
return
}
print("image downloaded")
}
//Start the task when the view is loaded
downloder.start()
}
override func viewWillDisappear(animated: Bool) {
//Cancel the task when the view will disappear
downloder.cancel()
}
}
Once DetailViewController is presented, the asyncOperation method will be executed asynchronously.
Note: currently the asyncOperation method is executed every second so if you want the method to be called only once, you must change the repeats property to false.
class DetailViewController: UIViewController {
// timer that will execute
// asynchronously an operation
var timer: NSTimer!
// counter used in the async operation.
var counter = 0
// when view is about to appear
override func viewWillAppear(animated: Bool) {
super.viewWillAppear(animated)
// setting up the timer
timer = NSTimer.scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval(
1.0,
target: self,
selector: #selector(asyncOperation),
userInfo: nil,
repeats: true //set up false if you don't want the operation repeats its execution.
)
}
// when view is about to disappear
override func viewWillDisappear(animated: Bool) {
super.viewWillDisappear(animated)
// stopping the timer
timer.invalidate()
}
// async operation that will
// be executed
func asyncOperation() {
counter += 1
print("counter: \(counter)")
}
}
Source: https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Cocoa/Reference/Foundation/Classes/NSTimer_Class/
Result: