not sure why my loadmatcheswithmatchdata isn't working

Question

I'm creating a public method to return all of my matches from my gamecenterhelper.m

I have this:

+(NSArray *)retrieveMatchesWithMatchData {
    __block NSArray *myMatches = nil;
    [GKTurnBasedMatch loadMatchesWithCompletionHandler:^(NSArray *matches, NSError *error) {
        if (error) {
            NSLog(@"There was an error loading matches");
        }
        else {
            myMatches = matches;
        }
    }];
    return myMatches;
}

but this returns null when I call it, even though I have active matches. the call method looks like this:

NSLog(@"My matches: %@",[GameCenterHelper retrieveMatchesWithMatchData]);

Thanks for your time!

Answer 1

Thats the nature of blocks. Your block is executed asynchronously. You cannot load Game Center matches synchronously. Let's make this an instance method:

-(void)retrieveMatchesWithMatchData {
    [GKTurnBasedMatch loadMatchesWithCompletionHandler:^(NSArray *matches, NSError *error) {
        if (error) {
            NSLog(@"There was an error loading matches");
        }
        else {
            [self matchesLoaded:matches];
        }
    }];
}

Then you process the matches in this method:

-(void)matchesLoaded:(NSArray *)matches {
    //do something with your matches
}

EDIT:

There is an easy way to do what you want. You can use Apples standard view controller to show current matches:

GKMatchRequest *request = [[GKMatchRequest alloc] init]; 
request.minPlayers = minPlayers;     
request.maxPlayers = maxPlayers;

GKTurnBasedMatchmakerViewController *mmvc = 
[[GKTurnBasedMatchmakerViewController alloc] 
 initWithMatchRequest:request];
mmvc.turnBasedMatchmakerDelegate = self;
mmvc.showExistingMatches = YES;
[self presentViewController:mmvc animated:NO completion:nil];