Question

The answer is likely that I just can’t mix things the way I’m trying to, and I’ll accept “the right way” to mix things (probably a more complicated CAAnimation? I don’t know). What I have:

__block BOOL animationComplete = FALSE;
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] beginIgnoringInteractionEvents];
[UIView animateWithDuration:0.5f delay:0.0f options:UIViewAnimationCurveEaseInOut
    animations:^{
        [self setFrame:destRect];
    }
    completion:^(BOOL finished) {
        animationComplete = YES;
        [[UIApplication sharedApplication] endIgnoringInteractionEvents];
    }];

Which is then polled with:

dispatch_async(dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_LOW, (unsigned long)NULL), ^{
    while (!animationComplete) {
        CALayer *layer = self.layer.presentationLayer;
        CGRect frame = [layer frame];
        CGPoint point = [layer position];
        float currentTranslation = [[layer valueForKeyPath:@"transform.translation.x"] floatValue];
        NSLog(@"%.1f : %.1f : %.1f : %.1f : %.1f : %.1f",frame.origin.x, currentTranslation, frame.origin.x, layer.bounds.origin.x, layer.position.x, point.x);
    }
});

Am I grabbing the wrong queue? The wrong parameter? Am I looking at the wrong layer? Above is a scattershot of values I’ve tried looking at, all unchanging during the animation….

214.4 : 0.0 : 214.4 : 0.0 : 264.4 : 264.4
214.4 : 0.0 : 214.4 : 0.0 : 264.4 : 264.4
214.4 : 0.0 : 214.4 : 0.0 : 264.4 : 264.4
214.4 : 0.0 : 214.4 : 0.0 : 264.4 : 264.4
214.4 : 0.0 : 214.4 : 0.0 : 264.4 : 264.4

etc. 🙂

Answer 1

You can only interact with the view hierarchy on the main thread. You should not be calling self.layer on a global dispatch queue. You can only do that on dispatch_get_main_queue().

You will have to rewrite your logging to not loop like that, since the completion block also runs on the main thread, and it can’t run if your block is running.

UPDATE

The problem is definitely caused by accessing the layer from a non-main thread. I made a test project with a view subclass, MyView. I gave it this method:

- (IBAction)move {
    CGRect destRect = self.frame;
    destRect.origin.x = 300 - destRect.origin.x;

    __block BOOL animationComplete = FALSE;
    [[UIApplication sharedApplication] beginIgnoringInteractionEvents];
    [UIView animateWithDuration:0.5f delay:0.0f options:UIViewAnimationCurveEaseInOut
                     animations:^{
                         [self setFrame:destRect];
                     }
                     completion:^(BOOL finished) {
                         animationComplete = YES;
                         [[UIApplication sharedApplication] endIgnoringInteractionEvents];
                     }];

    dispatch_async(dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_LOW, (unsigned long)NULL), ^{
        while (!animationComplete) {
            dispatch_sync(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
                CALayer *layer = self.layer.presentationLayer;
                CGRect frame = [layer frame];
                CGPoint point = [layer position];
                float currentTranslation = [[layer valueForKeyPath:@"transform.translation.x"] floatValue];
                NSLog(@"%.1f : %.1f : %.1f : %.1f : %.1f : %.1f",frame.origin.x, currentTranslation, frame.origin.x, layer.bounds.origin.x, layer.position.x, point.x);
            });
        }
    });
}

When this method ran, I got output like this:

2012-09-10 21:06:31.732 presentationLayerTest[1274:c07] 20.0 : 0.0 : 20.0 : 0.0 : 100.0 : 100.0
2012-09-10 21:06:31.735 presentationLayerTest[1274:c07] 20.0 : 0.0 : 20.0 : 0.0 : 100.0 : 100.0
2012-09-10 21:06:31.737 presentationLayerTest[1274:c07] 20.0 : 0.0 : 20.0 : 0.0 : 100.0 : 100.0
2012-09-10 21:06:31.737 presentationLayerTest[1274:c07] 20.0 : 0.0 : 20.0 : 0.0 : 100.0 : 100.0
2012-09-10 21:06:31.738 presentationLayerTest[1274:c07] 20.0 : 0.0 : 20.0 : 0.0 : 100.0 : 100.0
2012-09-10 21:06:31.739 presentationLayerTest[1274:c07] 20.0 : 0.0 : 20.0 : 0.0 : 100.0 : 100.0
2012-09-10 21:06:31.739 presentationLayerTest[1274:c07] 20.1 : 0.0 : 20.1 : 0.0 : 100.1 : 100.1
2012-09-10 21:06:31.740 presentationLayerTest[1274:c07] 20.1 : 0.0 : 20.1 : 0.0 : 100.1 : 100.1
2012-09-10 21:06:31.741 presentationLayerTest[1274:c07] 20.1 : 0.0 : 20.1 : 0.0 : 100.1 : 100.1
2012-09-10 21:06:31.741 presentationLayerTest[1274:c07] 20.1 : 0.0 : 20.1 : 0.0 : 100.1 : 100.1
2012-09-10 21:06:31.742 presentationLayerTest[1274:c07] 20.1 : 0.0 : 20.1 : 0.0 : 100.1 : 100.1
2012-09-10 21:06:31.743 presentationLayerTest[1274:c07] 20.1 : 0.0 : 20.1 : 0.0 : 100.1 : 100.1
2012-09-10 21:06:31.743 presentationLayerTest[1274:c07] 20.2 : 0.0 : 20.2 : 0.0 : 100.2 : 100.2
2012-09-10 21:06:31.744 presentationLayerTest[1274:c07] 20.2 : 0.0 : 20.2 : 0.0 : 100.2 : 100.2
2012-09-10 21:06:31.745 presentationLayerTest[1274:c07] 20.2 : 0.0 : 20.2 : 0.0 : 100.2 : 100.2
2012-09-10 21:06:31.745 presentationLayerTest[1274:c07] 20.2 : 0.0 : 20.2 : 0.0 : 100.2 : 100.2

… and so on, with the X values eventually reaching 280.

I then commented out the dispatch_sync line, so the layer access and logging happens on the global low-priority thread, and I got output like this:

2012-09-10 21:08:20.973 presentationLayerTest[1296:1b03] 20.0 : 0.0 : 20.0 : 0.0 : 100.0 : 100.0
2012-09-10 21:08:20.976 presentationLayerTest[1296:1b03] 20.0 : 0.0 : 20.0 : 0.0 : 100.0 : 100.0
2012-09-10 21:08:20.976 presentationLayerTest[1296:1b03] 20.0 : 0.0 : 20.0 : 0.0 : 100.0 : 100.0
2012-09-10 21:08:20.977 presentationLayerTest[1296:1b03] 20.0 : 0.0 : 20.0 : 0.0 : 100.0 : 100.0
2012-09-10 21:08:20.978 presentationLayerTest[1296:1b03] 20.0 : 0.0 : 20.0 : 0.0 : 100.0 : 100.0
2012-09-10 21:08:20.978 presentationLayerTest[1296:1b03] 20.0 : 0.0 : 20.0 : 0.0 : 100.0 : 100.0
2012-09-10 21:08:20.979 presentationLayerTest[1296:1b03] 20.0 : 0.0 : 20.0 : 0.0 : 100.0 : 100.0
2012-09-10 21:08:20.980 presentationLayerTest[1296:1b03] 20.0 : 0.0 : 20.0 : 0.0 : 100.0 : 100.0
2012-09-10 21:08:20.981 presentationLayerTest[1296:1b03] 20.0 : 0.0 : 20.0 : 0.0 : 100.0 : 100.0
2012-09-10 21:08:20.981 presentationLayerTest[1296:1b03] 20.0 : 0.0 : 20.0 : 0.0 : 100.0 : 100.0
2012-09-10 21:08:20.982 presentationLayerTest[1296:1b03] 20.0 : 0.0 : 20.0 : 0.0 : 100.0 : 100.0
2012-09-10 21:08:20.982 presentationLayerTest[1296:1b03] 20.0 : 0.0 : 20.0 : 0.0 : 100.0 : 100.0
2012-09-10 21:08:20.983 presentationLayerTest[1296:1b03] 20.0 : 0.0 : 20.0 : 0.0 : 100.0 : 100.0
2012-09-10 21:08:20.984 presentationLayerTest[1296:1b03] 20.0 : 0.0 : 20.0 : 0.0 : 100.0 : 100.0

… and so on, with the X values never changing.