UICollectionView Performing Updates using performBatchUpdates

Question

I have a UICollectionView which I am trying to insert items into it dynamically/with animation. So I have some function that downloads images asynchronously and

Answer 1

I just implemented that with Swift. So I would like to share my implementation. First initialise an array of NSBlockOperations:

    var blockOperations: [NSBlockOperation] = []

In controller will change, re-init the array:

func controllerWillChangeContent(controller: NSFetchedResultsController) {
    blockOperations.removeAll(keepCapacity: false)
}

In the did change object method:

    func controller(controller: NSFetchedResultsController, didChangeObject anObject: AnyObject, atIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath?, forChangeType type: NSFetchedResultsChangeType, newIndexPath: NSIndexPath?) {

    if type == NSFetchedResultsChangeType.Insert {
        println("Insert Object: \(newIndexPath)")

        blockOperations.append(
            NSBlockOperation(block: { [weak self] in
                if let this = self {
                    this.collectionView!.insertItemsAtIndexPaths([newIndexPath!])
                }
            })
        )
    }
    else if type == NSFetchedResultsChangeType.Update {
        println("Update Object: \(indexPath)")
        blockOperations.append(
            NSBlockOperation(block: { [weak self] in
                if let this = self {
                    this.collectionView!.reloadItemsAtIndexPaths([indexPath!])
                }
            })
        )
    }
    else if type == NSFetchedResultsChangeType.Move {
        println("Move Object: \(indexPath)")

        blockOperations.append(
            NSBlockOperation(block: { [weak self] in
                if let this = self {
                    this.collectionView!.moveItemAtIndexPath(indexPath!, toIndexPath: newIndexPath!)
                }
            })
        )
    }
    else if type == NSFetchedResultsChangeType.Delete {
        println("Delete Object: \(indexPath)")

        blockOperations.append(
            NSBlockOperation(block: { [weak self] in
                if let this = self {
                    this.collectionView!.deleteItemsAtIndexPaths([indexPath!])
                }
            })
        )
    }
}

In the did change section method:

func controller(controller: NSFetchedResultsController, didChangeSection sectionInfo: NSFetchedResultsSectionInfo, atIndex sectionIndex: Int, forChangeType type: NSFetchedResultsChangeType) {

    if type == NSFetchedResultsChangeType.Insert {
        println("Insert Section: \(sectionIndex)")

        blockOperations.append(
            NSBlockOperation(block: { [weak self] in
                if let this = self {
                    this.collectionView!.insertSections(NSIndexSet(index: sectionIndex))
                }
            })
        )
    }
    else if type == NSFetchedResultsChangeType.Update {
        println("Update Section: \(sectionIndex)")
        blockOperations.append(
            NSBlockOperation(block: { [weak self] in
                if let this = self {
                    this.collectionView!.reloadSections(NSIndexSet(index: sectionIndex))
                }
            })
        )
    }
    else if type == NSFetchedResultsChangeType.Delete {
        println("Delete Section: \(sectionIndex)")

        blockOperations.append(
            NSBlockOperation(block: { [weak self] in
                if let this = self {
                    this.collectionView!.deleteSections(NSIndexSet(index: sectionIndex))
                }
            })
        )
    }
}

And finally, in the did controller did change content method:

func controllerDidChangeContent(controller: NSFetchedResultsController) {        
    collectionView!.performBatchUpdates({ () -> Void in
        for operation: NSBlockOperation in self.blockOperations {
            operation.start()
        }
    }, completion: { (finished) -> Void in
        self.blockOperations.removeAll(keepCapacity: false)
    })
}

I personally added some code in the deinit method as well, in order to cancel the operations when the ViewController is about to get deallocated:

deinit {
    // Cancel all block operations when VC deallocates
    for operation: NSBlockOperation in blockOperations {
        operation.cancel()
    }

    blockOperations.removeAll(keepCapacity: false)
}