IOS: ActivityIndicator over UITableView… How to?

Question

i want display an activity indicator over a uitableview while it\'s loading data (in another thread). So in the ViewDidLoad method of the UITableViewController:

Answer 1

[iOS 5 +]
If you just want to show the activityWheel without an additional parentview, you can also add the activityWheel straight to the tableView and calculate the y value for the frame using the tableViews contentOffset:

@interface MyTableViewController ()
@property (nonatomic, strong) UIActivityIndicatorView *activityView;
@end

// ....

- (void) showActivityView {
    if (self.activityView==nil) {
        self.activityView = [[UIActivityIndicatorView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectZero];
        [self.tableView addSubview:self.activityView];
        self.activityView.activityIndicatorViewStyle = UIActivityIndicatorViewStyleWhiteLarge;
        self.activityView.hidesWhenStopped = YES;
        // additional setup...
        // self.activityView.color = [UIColor redColor]; 
    }
    // Center 
    CGFloat x = UIScreen.mainScreen.applicationFrame.size.width/2;
    CGFloat y = UIScreen.mainScreen.applicationFrame.size.height/2;
    // Offset. If tableView has been scrolled
    CGFloat yOffset = self.tableView.contentOffset.y;
    self.activityView.frame = CGRectMake(x, y + yOffset, 0, 0);

    self.activityView.hidden = NO;
    [self.activityView startAnimating];
}

- (void) hideActivityView {
    [self.activityView stopAnimating];
}

If the activityView doesn't show up immediately (or never), refer to zirinisp's answer or do the heavy work in the background.