iPhone: Can't set object received from thread in NSMutableDictionary - iphone

I've got a thread (specifically an NSOperation) that runs to load some images for me for a scroll view when my main view asks for them. Any number of these NSOperations can be queued at once. So it goes with the filepath I give it and loads the image from the disk (as UIImages) and then sends the object back to my mainview by using performSelectorOnMainThread: and passing my mainview an NSDictionary of the object, and an image ID value. My main view is then supposed to insert the image object and the image ID string into an NSMutableDictionary that it has for the mainview to be able to use. I've verified that the NSMutableDictionary is allocated and initialized fine, but when the method the NSOperation calls tries to add the objects to the dictionary nothing happens. I've verified that the object and string i get from the dictionary the thread sent me are not null or anything but yet it doesn't work. Am I not doing something right or using a bad technique? What would anyone suggest to do in a situation like this where I need to add UIImages to an NSMutableDictionary from a thread? Thanks so much!
Here's the NSOperation code I use:
- (void)main {
NSString *filePath = [applicaitonAPI getFilePathForCachedImageWithID:imageID andSize:imageSize];
UIImage *returnImage = [[UIImage alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:filePath];
if (returnImage) {
NSMutableDictionary *dict = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] initWithCapacity:2];
[dict setObject:returnImage forKey:#"IMAGE"];
[dict setValue:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%d", imageID] forKey:#"IMAGE_ID"];
NSDictionary *returnDict = [[NSDictionary alloc] initWithDictionary:dict];
[dict release];
[mainViewController performSelectorOnMainThread:#selector(imageLoaderLoadedImage:) withObject:returnDict waitUntilDone:NO];
[returnDict release];
}
}
And here's the method on the main thread:
- (void)imageLoaderLoadedImage:(NSDictionary *)dict {
UIImage *loadedImage = [dict objectForKey:#"IMAGE"];
NSString *loadedImage = [dict valueForKey:#"IMAGE_ID"];
[imagesInMemoryDictionary setObject:loadedImage forKey:loadedImageID];
[self drawItemsToScrollView];
}

[mainViewController performSelectorOnMainThread:#selector(imageLoaderLoadedImage:) withObject:nil waitUntilDone:NO];
You're not passing returnDict as the parameter to the method. You're passing nil.
A couple of other thoughts:
you don't need to create returnDict. You can just use dict as the method parameter.
you're leaking returnImage.
edit
Since you apparently are passing returnDict as the parameter to the method, my other guess would be that mainViewController is nil. Other than that, your code looks functional.

Related

iPhone - Make UITableViewCells appear on view load before NSURLConnection completes

I am trying to create a loose version of LazyTabelImages using storyboard and JSON. in ViewDidLoad on my main TableViewController, I start an NSURLConnection to get the JSON data, but my cells do not load until after the connection is completed. I want the same behavior that LazyTableImages has, where the cells load as blanks, but then have the information filled in (reload the table data). I can duplicate this if I do not use storyboard, as LazyTables does not use storyboard, but that is not an option.
I have looked through LazyTableImages to try to find the solution, but storyboard make a big difference (to me anyway).
Is there a simple way to get the cells to load as blanks? For example, if the device has no internet, I still want my TableView to show up, and I will put a custom message in the cell.
Code:
The part of my viewDidLoad where I initialize the connection....
NSURLRequest *urlrequest = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:serverURL]];
self.dataConnection = [[NSURLConnection alloc] initWithRequest:urlrequest delegate:self];
[UIApplication sharedApplication].networkActivityIndicatorVisible = YES;
connectionDidFinnishLoading...
- (void)connectionDidFinishLoading:(NSURLConnection *)connection
{
//ListData below is an array that my data received (JSON) is loaded into. It is then passed to getTableData.
self.dataConnection = nil;
[UIApplication sharedApplication].networkActivityIndicatorVisible = NO;
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_DEFAULT, 0), ^{
[self performSelectorOnMainThread:#selector(getTableData:) withObject:ListData waitUntilDone:YES];
});
}
getTableData...
-(void)getTableData:(NSData *)jsonData
{
NSError *error = nil;
arrayEntries = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:jsonData options:NSJSONReadingMutableLeaves error:&error];
for (int x = 0; x < arrayEntries.count; x++)
{
NSMutableDictionary *dic = [arrayEntries objectAtIndex:x];
//ARecord is a class just like in LazyTableImages that creates objects to keep the icons/data together. The ARecords are loaded into the TableView
ARecord *arecord = [[ARecord alloc] init];
NSString *title = [dic objectForKey:#"title"];
NSString *subt = [dic objectForKey:#"subtitle"];
NSString *url = [dic objectForKey:#"image_URL"];
arecord.Icon = nil;
arecord.URL = url;
arecord.Name = title;
arecord.title = subt;
//this is where I load an array full of the arecord objects.
[array addObject:arecord];
}
[self.tableView reloadData];
}
I've done something similar. In viewDidLoad: I set the array for table data to a few objects of [NSNull null] for however many blank rows I want to show while the data is downloading. In cellForRowAtIndexPath: I check if [self.arrayOfTableData objectAtIndex:indexPath.row] = [NSNull null]. If so return a "blank" cell, otherwise load the cell with ARRecrod data.
Then when the URL completes, replace the array of NSNulls with array of your ARRecords.
I do this with two objects. First, I have an image fetcher class that downloads data asynchronously and notifies a delegate when it's complete. Then I have an image view class that implements the fetcher's delegate methods. So something like:
#implementation AsyncImageFetcher
-(id)initWithURL:(NSURL *)aURL andDelegate:(id<SomeProtocol>)aDelegate{
//...
NSURLRequest *req = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:aURL];
//Note that NSURLConnection retains its delegate until the connection
//terminates! See comments in MyImageView below.
[NSURLConnection connectionWithRequest:req delegate:self];
//...
}
//Implement standard connection delegates here. The important part is:
-(void)connectionDidFinishLoading:(NSURLConnection *)connection{
// ...
UIImage *anImage = [self decodeDownloadedDataIntoAnImage];
if([[self delegate] respondsToSelector:#selector(imageFetcher:didFetchImage:)]){
[[self delegate] imageFetcher:self didFetchImage:anImage];
}
//...
}
#end
Then I subclass UIImageView or UIView or something (depending on how flexible you need to be) to implement the delegate protocol and fire off the fetcher:
#implementation MyImageView
-(id)initWithURL:(NSURL *)aURL andPlaceHolderImage:(UIImage *)aPlaceHolder{
//...
[self setImage:aPlaceHolder];
//Note we don't assign this to an ivar or retain it or anything.
//That's ok because the NSURLConnection inside the fetcher actually
//retains the fetcher itself. So it will live until the connection
//terminates -- which is exactly what we want. Thus we disable
//CLANG's noisy warnings.
#pragma clang diagnostic push
#pragma clang diagnostic ignored "-Wunused-value"
[[AsyncImageFetcher alloc] initWithURL:aURL andDelegate:self];
#pragma clang diagnostic pop
return self;
}
-(void)imageFetcher:(MCMAsyncImageFetcher *)anImageFetcher didFetchImage:(UIImage *)anImage{
[self setImage:anImage];
}
#end
In your specific case, you'd just set a MyImageView as your cell's imageView in -tableView:cellForRowAtIndexPath:, passing reasonable values for its placeholder and URL, of course.
Since I haven't see your code, I just give my suggestion here:
- (void)viewDidLoad
{
[super viewDidLoad];
dispatch_queue_t queue = dispatch_queue_create(NULL, NULL);
dispatch_async(queue, ^{
//add your connection code here
//parse the json and store the data
//
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
//here to reload your table view again,
//since UI related method should run on main thread.
[YOUR_TABLEVIEW reloadData];
});
});
[YOUR_TABLEVIEW reloadData];
}
Note: Make sure your tableview in storyboard has connected to that in code! Hope it helps!

Multiple NSThreads running simultaneously causing app freezes

I am developing an application in which I have a display a lot of images in my table view.These images has to come from server, so I have create another thread in which the image get processed and then set on table view cell to make our table view scrolls smoothly and properly.
My problem is when I scrolls my table view to a number of times, the app get freezes and after some time the xcode shows the message shown in below image:-
My table view cell code :-
id object = [imageDictFunctionApp objectForKey:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%d",functionAppButton.tag]];
if(!object){
NSArray *catdictObject=[NSArray arrayWithObjects:[NSNumber numberWithInt:functionAppButton.tag],indexPath,[NSNumber numberWithInt:i],nil];
NSArray *catdictKey=[NSArray arrayWithObjects:#"btn",#"indexPath",#"no",nil];
NSDictionary *catPassdict=[NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjects:catdictObject forKeys:catdictKey];
[NSThread detachNewThreadSelector:#selector(displayingSmallImageForFunctionsApps:) toTarget:self withObject:catPassdict];
}
else
{
if(![object isKindOfClass:[NSNull class]]){
UIImage *img = (UIImage *)object;
[functionAppButton setImage:img forState:UIControlStateNormal];
}
-(void)displayingSmallImageForFunctionsApps:(NSDictionary *)dict
{
NSAutoreleasePool *pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
NSIndexPath *path=[dict objectForKey:#"indexPath"];
NSArray *catArray=[self.functionDataDictionary objectForKey:[self.functionsKeysArray objectAtIndex:path.row]];
int vlaue=[[dict objectForKey:#"no"] intValue];
NSDictionary *dict1=[catArray objectAtIndex:vlaue];
NSString *urlString=[dict1 objectForKey:#"artwork_url_large"];
NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:urlString];
UIImage *image = [UIImage imageWithData:[NSData dataWithContentsOfURL:url]];
if(image){
[imageDictFunctionApp setObject:image forKey:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%d",[[dict objectForKey:#"btn"] intValue]]];
NSMutableDictionary *dict2=[NSMutableDictionary dictionaryWithCapacity:4];
[dict2 setObject:image forKey:#"imageValue"];
[dict2 setObject:[dict objectForKey:#"btn"] forKey:#"tag"];
[dict2 setObject:[dict objectForKey:#"indexPath"] forKey:#"indexPath"];
[self performSelectorOnMainThread:#selector(setImageInCellDictCategroryTable:) withObject:dict2 waitUntilDone:NO];
}
else{
[imageDictFunctionApp setObject:[NSNull null] forKey:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%d",[[dict objectForKey:#"btn"] intValue]]];
}
[pool drain];
}
- (void)setImageInCellDictCategroryTable:(NSDictionary *)dict{
UITableViewCell *myCell = (UITableViewCell *)[categoriesAndFunctionsTableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:[dict objectForKey:#"indexPath"]];
UIButton *myBtn = (CustomUIButton *)[myCell viewWithTag:[[dict objectForKey:#"tag"] intValue]];
if ([dict objectForKey:#"imageValue"]) {
[myBtn setImage:[dict objectForKey:#"imageValue"] forState:UIControlStateNormal];
}
}
I have posted all my code that might be linked with this error.Please anyone suggest me how to solve this issue.
Thanks in advance!
I would suggest not to use threads and move you code to GCD, looks like what you want to use is a serial queue.
So what I would guess is happening is that you are running out of Mach ports. It looks to me like you are starting a thread for every single cell in your table and then they are all trying to schedule tasks to run on the main runloop when they are done. This is going to stress your system.
I would create an NSOperation for each image and schedule them all on the same NSOperationQueue. The runtime will use a pool of threads tuned to the specific system to run all of the operations.
For a simple thing like this, you can also use GCD as Oscar says, but I recently read on the Apple list that NSOperationQueue is preferred because it is higher level. It gives you more options for controlling what happens to your background tasks.

Table View Scrolling cause problems when I use dynamic data

When I use static data there is no problem but I use dynamic data with Web services there is problem (table view scrolling cause crash program) why? If I comment these lines add static data it works;
//tempCs is NSDictionary
tempDc = [arrHaberler objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];
cell.textLabel.text = [tempDc valueForKey:#"short_header"];
NSData *imgData = [[NSData alloc] initWithContentsOfURL:[NSURL URLWithString:[tempDc valueForKey:#"iphone_src"]]];
UIImage *myImage = [[[UIImage alloc] initWithData:imgData] autorelease];
cell.imageView.image = myImage;
You don't release the imgData. You'd want to do that after creating the UIImage.
Other than that, from your description, maybe the numbersOfRowsInSection method has an error?
EDIT (after discussion):
(crash due to unrecognized selector (ie method from NSArray) sent to instance of NSString)
There are many ways you can come to this state, including accessing some memory that was released and reused (ie missing a retain), or overwriting an array with a string due to some parsing yielding a wrong result.
I try something with made an comment another lines and problem is on this line:
tempDc = [arrHaberler objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];
I change "indexPath.row" to "0" still cause crash... Problem about when is assign data to NSDictionary
There is no null-checking (setting NSData *imgData and setting UIImage *myImage) and there in a synchronous call to server. fmpov, problem is out there.
#VNevzatR i am just asking you that Are you are calling plenty no of images from somewhere....because this is no the problem you UITableView as you said working fine in static data,the problem is some where else, so if you are calling plenty of images at a time....Try doing this way...release that pool.
-(void) parseImages
{
NSAutoreleasePool *pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
//Fetch your images here
[self performSelectorOnMainThread:#selector(Done) withObject:nil waitUntilDone:YES];
[pool release];
}
-(void) Done {
[self.tableView reloadData];
}
Hope it will resolve your problem...Good Luck

images not being added to NSMutableDictionary, which is within an NSOperation

So I first coded all my methods in a viewcontroller with an NSOperationQueue. After doing some research and a lot of reading I realized i had to subclass my loadImage operation so that I may use isCancelled and cancelAllOperations. So I went ahead and created an nsoperation class and called it from my viewcontroller. ALl the methods are called, even the imageLoaded, but the NSMutableDictionary remains empty. I use the dictionary to populate my tableviewcells using the url as the Key. Also be aware that the operation call in the viewcontroller is within a method which is called by an NSInvocationOperation when the view loads.
#interface loadImages : NSOperation {
NSURL *targetURL;
}
#property(retain) NSURL *targetURL;
- (id)initWithURL:(NSURL*)url;
#end
implementation of nsoperation class which includes some other calls to resize the image
#implementation loadImages
#synthesize targetURL;
- (id)initWithURL:(NSURL*)url
{
if (![super init]) return nil;
[self setTargetURL:url];
return self;
}
- (void)dealloc {
[targetURL release], targetURL = nil;
[super dealloc];
}
- (void)main {
NSLog(#"loadImages.m reached");
StoriesTableViewController *stories = [[StoriesTableViewController alloc] init];
NSMutableDictionary *tempDict = stories.filteredImagesDict;
UIImage *myImage = [[[UIImage alloc] initWithData:[NSData dataWithContentsOfURL:[self targetURL]]]autorelease];
UIImage *scaledImage = [[[UIImage alloc] init] autorelease];
CGRect frame = CGRectMake(100.0f, 100.0f, 180.0f, 180.0f);
UIImageView *myImageFrame = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithFrame:frame];
myImage = [[myImage croppedImage:[myImageFrame bounds]]retain];
scaledImage = [[myImage resizedImage:CGSizeMake(120.0f, 120.0f) interpolationQuality:kCGInterpolationHigh]retain];
[tempDict setValue:scaledImage forKey:[self targetURL]];
[stories performSelectorOnMainThread:#selector(imageLoaded:)
withObject:myImage
waitUntilDone:YES];
NSLog(#"targetURL %#",[self targetURL]);
NSLog(#"tempDict count: %d",tempDict.count);
[stories release];
[myImage release];
[myImageFrame release];
[scaledImage release];
}
creation of nsoperation on viewcontroller
for(int i=0;i<storyQuantity;i++) {
NSString *imageString = [[[storiesArray objectAtIndex:i] objectForKey: #"image"] stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet]]; // must add trimming to remove characters
NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:imageString];
loadImages *imageOperation = [[loadImages alloc] initWithURL:url];
[queue_ addOperation:imageOperation];
[imageOperation release];
}
If this is running without exceptions and the dictionary is still empty, it most likely means that your value is nil.
This is a common problem with code like that where you have the result of one method going into the next. At any point if there is a problem, all the rest of the chain will not work.
To solve, I would start right above where you assigned the image to the dictionary. You can use either a breakpoint, or an NSLog to determine the value of the image at that point. I prefer to use an NSLog, but a break point would let you look at all the values at once. If scaledImage is nil, then check myImage. Keep going back up the chain until you find the point where the value goes from what you would expect, to nil.

Memory allocation in detached NSThread to load an NSDictionary in background?

I am trying to launch a background thread to retrieve XML data from a web service. I developed it synchronously - without threads, so I know that part works. Now I am ready to have a non-blocking service by spawning a thread to wait for the response and parse.
I created an NSAutoreleasePool inside the thread and release it at the end of the parsing. The code to spawn and the thread are as follows:
Spawn from main-loop code:
.
.
[NSThread detachNewThreadSelector:#selector(spawnRequestThread:)
toTarget:self withObject:url];
.
.
Thread (inside 'self'):
-(void) spawnRequestThread: (NSURL*) url {
NSAutoreleasePool * pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
parser = [[NSXMLParser alloc] initWithContentsOfURL:url];
[self parseContentsOfResponse];
[parser release];
[pool release];
}
The method parseContentsOfResponse fills an NSMutableDictionary with the parsed document contents. I would like to avoid moving the data around a lot and allocate it back in the main-loop that spawned the thread rather than making a copy. First, is that possible, and if not, can I simply pass in an allocated pointer from the main thread and allocate with 'dictionaryWithDictionary' method? That just seems so inefficient.
parseContentsOfResponse
-(void)parseContentsOfResponse {
[parser setDelegate:self];
[parser setShouldProcessNamespaces:YES];
[parser setShouldReportNamespacePrefixes:YES];
[parser parse];
NSError *parseError = [parser parserError];
if (parseError) {
NSLog(#"%#", parseError);
NSLog(#"publicID: %#", [parser publicID]);
NSLog(#"systemID: %#", [parser systemID]);
NSLog(#"line:%d column:%d", [parser lineNumber], [parser columnNumber]);
}
ready = YES;
}
First parse section
Each section creates element strings when its elementStart is signaled. The elementEnd will add the object to the dictionary and release the element. The remaining details are redundant and I think the point to note is that the allocations are not directed at an NSZone, therefore they should be residing in the thread's memory pool.
- (void)parserDidStartDocument:(NSXMLParser *)parser {
NSLog(#"%s", __FUNCTION__);
currentChars = [NSMutableString stringWithString:#""];
elementQuestion = [NSMutableString stringWithString:#""];
elementAnswer = [NSMutableString stringWithString:#""];
elementKeyword = [NSMutableString stringWithString:#""];
}
The simplest thing to do would be to create the dictionary in the separate thread, then set it as a property on the main thread, like so:
- (void)spawnRequestThread: (NSURL*) url {
NSMutableDictionary *dict = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init];
//do stuff with dict
[self performSelectorOnMainThread:#selector(doneWithThread:) withObject:dict waitUntilDone:NO];
}
- (void)doneWithThread:(NSDictionary *)theDict {
self.dict = theDict; //retaining property, can be an NSDictionary
}
Do you need to change the contents of the dictionary over time? If so, allocating on the main thread and changing the contents in the other thread is possible, but you have to worry about thread-safety issues--NSMutableDictionary isn't thread-safe, so you'd have to use an atomic property and locks:
//.h
#property (retain) NSMutableDictionary *dict; //don't use "nonatomic" keyword
#property (retain) NSLock *dictLock;
//.m
- (id) init {
//blah blah
dict = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init];
dictLock = [[NSLock alloc] init];
return self;
}
- (void)spawnRequestThread: (NSURL*) url {
//whenever you have to update the dictionary
[self.dictLock lock];
[self.dict setValue:foo forKey:bar];
[self.dictLock unlock];
}
Locking is quite expensive and inefficient in any case, so I'd tend to prefer the first method (I'm not sure which is more expensive, exactly, but the first is simpler and avoids thread-safety issues).
Also, looking at your code, it looks like your NSXMLParser is an ivar which you directly access. This is a bad idea, since NSXMLParser isn't thread-safe--I would recommend implementing it as a local variable instead. If you do need it as an ivar, use an atomic property and locks and only access it through accessors.