Question

I have setup a Core Data app with the usual boilerplate code, and the RootViewController initializes the FRC by calling this:

- (NSFetchedResultsController *)fetchedResultsController 
{
    if (__fetchedResultsController != nil) 
    {
        return __fetchedResultsController;
    }
    // configure the fetchRequest, sectionKey and cacheName
    __fetchedResultsController = [[NSFetchedResultsController alloc] initWithFetchRequest: fetchRequest 
                                                                    managedObjectContext: self.managedObjectContext 
                                                                      sectionNameKeyPath: sectionKey 
                                                                               cacheName: cacheName];
    return __fetchedResultsController;
}

All the sample code I’ve seen does this. However, I have a large data set and with over 15,000 entries, it takes about 5 seconds to launch the app on the iPhone 4S. This is with caching enabled (without it, it takes 11 seconds), and with indexed attributes.

So I want to be able to show a UIActivityIndicatorView which the app is waiting for this to load. I know how to generally load core data objects in the background thread and then merge them back into the main thread, but how can I initialize the FRC in the background thread so that all the objects are loaded and sectioned in the background?

I know I can load all the objects and partition them in a background thread into a custom dictionary and use that to present the data, but I would rather use the standard FRC calls and delegates.

Thanks.

Answer 1

I think I’ve figured it out… you CAN create the FRC in the background thread and do the fetch in the main thread:

- (NSFetchedResultsController *)fetchedResultsController 
{
    if (__fetchedResultsController != nil) 
    {
        return __fetchedResultsController;
    }

    // create something to pass back to the first time FRC is initialized without fetching
    __block NSFetchedResultsController *aFetchedResultsController = [[NSFetchedResultsController alloc] initWithFetchRequest:fetchRequest managedObjectContext:self.managedObjectContext sectionNameKeyPath:nil cacheName:nil];
    aFetchedResultsController.delegate = self;
    [self.list_spinner startAnimating];

    dispatch_async(self.filterMainQueue, ^{

           NSFetchedResultsController *newFetchedResultsController = [[NSFetchedResultsController alloc] initWithFetchRequest: fetchRequest 
                                                                                                         managedObjectContext: self.managedObjectContext 
                                                                                                           sectionNameKeyPath: sectionKey 
                                                                                                                    cacheName: cacheName];
           dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{ 
               // stop the spinner here
               [self.list_spinner stopAnimating];

               NSError *error = nil;
               if (![newFetchedResultsController performFetch:&error]) 
               {
                   NSLog(@"Unresolved error %@, %@", error, [error userInfo]);
                   [SimpleListAppDelegate showCoreDataError: @"SimpleListViewController - FRC"];
               }
               __fetchedResultsController = nil;
               newFetchedResultsController.delegate = self;
               __fetchedResultsController = newFetchedResultsController;
               [self.tableView reloadData];
           });
         });

    return aFetchedResultsController;
}