iOS Core Animation: CALayer bringSublayerToFront?

Question

How do I bring a CALayer sublayer to the front of all sublayers, analogous to -[UIView bringSubviewToFront]?

Answer 1

You can implement this functionality in a category on CALayer like so:

CALayer+Extension.h

#import <QuartzCore/QuartzCore.h>

typedef void (^ActionsBlock)(void);

@interface CALayer (Extension)

+ (void)performWithoutAnimation:(ActionsBlock)actionsWithoutAnimation;
- (void)bringSublayerToFront:(CALayer *)layer;

@end

CALayer+Extension.m

#import "CALayer+Extension.h"

@implementation CALayer (Extension)

+ (void)performWithoutAnimation:(ActionsBlock)actionsWithoutAnimation
{
    if (actionsWithoutAnimation)
    {
        // Wrap actions in a transaction block to avoid implicit animations.
        [CATransaction begin];
        [CATransaction setValue:(id)kCFBooleanTrue forKey:kCATransactionDisableActions];

        actionsWithoutAnimation();

        [CATransaction commit];
    }
}

- (void)bringSublayerToFront:(CALayer *)layer
{
    // Bring to front only if already in this layer's hierarchy.
    if ([layer superlayer] == self)
    {
        [CALayer performWithoutAnimation:^{

            // Add 'layer' to the end of the receiver's sublayers array.
            // If 'layer' already has a superlayer, it will be removed before being added.
            [self addSublayer:layer];
        }];
    }
}

@end

And for easy access you can #import "CALayer+Extension.h" in your project's Prefix.pch (precompiled header) file.

Answer 2

Create a category of CALayer like this:

@interface CALayer (Utils)

- (void)bringSublayerToFront;

@end

@implementation CALayer (Utils)

- (void)bringSublayerToFront {
    CGFloat maxZPosition = 0;  // The higher the value, the closer it is to the front. By default is 0.
    for (CALayer *layer in self.superlayer.sublayers) {
        maxZPosition = (layer.zPosition > maxZPosition) ? layer.zPosition : maxZPosition;
    }
    self.zPosition = maxZPosition + 1;
}

@end