Loading an “overlay” when running long tasks in iOS

Question

What is example for loading overlay in Swift IOS application when do a long tasks. Example for loading data from remote server. I googled but not found any answer.

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Answer 1

For anyone late like me, I made some modifications to @Sonrobby code. As i understand, @Sonrobby adds the activity to the overlay on every showOverlay call. And some of the configuration can be passed to the init function, letting only the placement on the showOverlay method.

I also change the overlay's background to black, since my app it is mostly white.

here is the code :

public class LoadingOverlay{

    var overlayView : UIView!
    var activityIndicator : UIActivityIndicatorView!

    class var shared: LoadingOverlay {
        struct Static {
            static let instance: LoadingOverlay = LoadingOverlay()
        }
        return Static.instance
    }

    init(){
        self.overlayView = UIView()
        self.activityIndicator = UIActivityIndicatorView()

        overlayView.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, 80, 80)
        overlayView.backgroundColor = UIColor(white: 0, alpha: 0.7)
        overlayView.clipsToBounds = true
        overlayView.layer.cornerRadius = 10
        overlayView.layer.zPosition = 1

        activityIndicator.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, 40, 40)
        activityIndicator.center = CGPointMake(overlayView.bounds.width / 2, overlayView.bounds.height / 2)
        activityIndicator.activityIndicatorViewStyle = .WhiteLarge
        overlayView.addSubview(activityIndicator)
    }

    public func showOverlay(view: UIView) {
        overlayView.center = view.center
        view.addSubview(overlayView)
        activityIndicator.startAnimating()
    }

    public func hideOverlayView() {
        activityIndicator.stopAnimating()
        overlayView.removeFromSuperview()
    }
}

Answer 2

Use ATKit.

Refer: https://aurvan.github.io/atkit-ios-release/index.html

ATProgressOverlay Class https://aurvan.github.io/atkit-ios-release/helpbook/Classes/ATProgressOverlay.html

Code:

import ATKit

ATProgressOverlay.sharedInstance.show() // Does not show network activity indicator on status bar.

ATProgressOverlay.sharedInstance.show(isNetworkActivity: true) // Shows network activity indicator on status bar.

Screenshot:

Answer 3

Swift 3.

I used @Lucho's code in his answer below and I changed the overlay background color to clear and added a spinner color.

public class LoadingOverlay {

    var overlayView : UIView!
    var activityIndicator : UIActivityIndicatorView!

    class var shared: LoadingOverlay {
        struct Static {
            static let instance: LoadingOverlay = LoadingOverlay()
        }
        return Static.instance
    }

    init(){
        self.overlayView = UIView()
        self.activityIndicator = UIActivityIndicatorView()

        overlayView.frame = CGRect(0, 0, 80, 80)
        overlayView.backgroundColor = .clear
        overlayView.clipsToBounds = true
        overlayView.layer.cornerRadius = 10
        overlayView.layer.zPosition = 1

        activityIndicator.frame = CGRect(0, 0, 40, 40)
        activityIndicator.center = CGPoint(overlayView.bounds.width / 2, overlayView.bounds.height / 2)
        activityIndicator.activityIndicatorViewStyle = .whiteLarge
        activityIndicator.color = .gray
        overlayView.addSubview(activityIndicator)
    }

    public func showOverlay(view: UIView) {
        overlayView.center = view.center
        view.addSubview(overlayView)
        activityIndicator.startAnimating()
    }

    public func hideOverlayView() {
        activityIndicator.stopAnimating()
        overlayView.removeFromSuperview()
    }
}

Answer 4

I've created a protocol for presenting your own view controller as an overlay. The usage is very simple:

class ViewController: UIViewController, OverlayHost {
    @IBAction func showOverlayButtonPressed() {
        showOverlay(type: YourOverlayViewController.self, 
            fromStoryboardWithName: "Main")
    }
}

Result:

Source code: https://github.com/agordeev/OverlayViewController

Related article: https://andreygordeev.com/2017/04/18/overlay-view-controller-protocols-swift/

Answer 5

The above answers add a loading view but it doesn't block click events on the screen also it does not provides overlay for rest of screen. You can achieve it as follows:

let alert = UIAlertController(title: nil, message: "Please wait...", preferredStyle: .Alert)

alert.view.tintColor = UIColor.blackColor()
let loadingIndicator: UIActivityIndicatorView = UIActivityIndicatorView(frame: CGRectMake(10, 5, 50, 50)) as UIActivityIndicatorView
loadingIndicator.hidesWhenStopped = true
loadingIndicator.activityIndicatorViewStyle = UIActivityIndicatorViewStyle.Gray
loadingIndicator.startAnimating();

alert.view.addSubview(loadingIndicator)
presentViewController(alert, animated: true, completion: nil)

Swift 3.0

let alert = UIAlertController(title: nil, message: "Please wait...", preferredStyle: .alert)

let loadingIndicator = UIActivityIndicatorView(frame: CGRect(x: 10, y: 5, width: 50, height: 50))
loadingIndicator.hidesWhenStopped = true
loadingIndicator.activityIndicatorViewStyle = UIActivityIndicatorViewStyle.gray
loadingIndicator.startAnimating();

alert.view.addSubview(loadingIndicator)
present(alert, animated: true, completion: nil)

Swift 4.0 and newer

let alert = UIAlertController(title: nil, message: "Please wait...", preferredStyle: .alert)

let loadingIndicator = UIActivityIndicatorView(frame: CGRect(x: 10, y: 5, width: 50, height: 50))
loadingIndicator.hidesWhenStopped = true
loadingIndicator.style = UIActivityIndicatorView.Style.gray
loadingIndicator.startAnimating();

alert.view.addSubview(loadingIndicator)
present(alert, animated: true, completion: nil)

and you can hide it as follows:

dismiss(animated: false, completion: nil)

It will be shown as follows: