swiftasynchronousclosuresgrand-central-dispatchhaneke

Swift: Retrieve value from asynchronous call before view appears


I'm using HanekeSwift to retrieve cached data and then set it to labels in a swipeView every time the view appears. My code retrieves the data no problem, but because cache.fetch() is asynchronous, when I call my method to update the view, my labels are set to nil. Is there anyway to tell swift to wait until my cached data is retrieved before loading the view?

See code below:

override func viewWillAppear(animated: Bool) {
    updateEntries() // updates entries from cache when view appears
}

func updateEntries() {
    guard let accessToken = NSUserDefaults.standardUserDefaults().valueForKey("accessToken") as? String else { return }
    guard let cachedEntryKey = String(accessToken) + "food_entries.get" as? String else { return }
    cache.fetch(key: cachedEntryKey).onSuccess { data in
        ...
        // if successful, set labels in swipeView to data retrieved from cache
        ...
        dispatch_group_leave(dispatchGroup)
    } .onFailure { error in
        print(error)
        ...
        // if unsuccessful, call servers to retrieve data, set labels in swipeView to that data
        ...
        dispatch_group_leave(dispatchGroup)
    }
}

When I step through the above code, it always displays the view and then steps into the cache block. How do I make viewWillAppear() allow updateEntries() to complete and not return out of it until the cache block is executed? Thanks a ton in advance!

Update 1:

The solution below is working pretty well and my calls are made in the correct sequence (my print statement in the notify block executes after the cache retrieval), but my views only update their labels with non-nil values when the server is called. Maybe I'm lumping the wrong code in the notify group?

override func viewWillAppear(animated: Bool) {
    self.addProgressHUD()
    updateEntries() // updates entries from cache when view appears
}

func updateEntries() {
    guard let accessToken = NSUserDefaults.standardUserDefaults().valueForKey("accessToken") as? String else { return }
    guard let cachedEntryKey = String(accessToken) + "food_entries.get" as? String else { return }

    let dispatchGroup = dispatch_group_create()
    dispatch_group_enter(dispatchGroup)

    dispatch_group_async(dispatchGroup, dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_HIGH, 0)) {
        cache.fetch(key: cachedEntryKey).onSuccess { data in
            ...
            // if successful, set labels in swipeView to data retrieved from cache
            ...
        } .onFailure { error in
            print(error)
            ...
            // if unsuccessful, call servers to retrieve data, set labels in swipeView to that data
            ...
        }
    }

    dispatch_group_notify(dispatchGroup, dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_HIGH, 0)) {
        print("Retrieved Data")
        self.removeProgressHUD()
    }

}

Update 2:

Also, I'm getting this warning in the console when I switch views. I think I'm locking up the main thread with the above code

"This application is modifying the autolayout engine from a background thread, which can lead to engine corruption and weird crashes. This will cause an exception in a future release."


Solution

  • Note:

    Thus:

    func updateEntries() {
        guard let accessToken = NSUserDefaults.standardUserDefaults().valueForKey("accessToken") as? String else { return }
        guard let cachedEntryKey = String(accessToken) + "food_entries.get" as? String else { return }
    
        let group = dispatch_group_create()
        dispatch_group_enter(group)
    
        cache.fetch(key: cachedEntryKey).onSuccess { data in
            ...
            // if successful, set labels in swipeView to data retrieved from cache
            ...
            dispatch_group_leave(group)
        } .onFailure { error in
            print(error)
            ...
            // if unsuccessful, call servers to retrieve data, set labels in swipeView to that data
            ...
            dispatch_group_leave(group)
        }
    
        dispatch_group_notify(group, dispatch_get_main_queue()) {
            print("Retrieved Data")
            self.removeProgressHUD()
        }
    
    }