MBProgressHud not showing when network activity indicator is showing

Question

I am using a table view and trying to show MBProgressHud for cell selections that take a long time to present a modal (2.5 seconds).

Here is how I am starting MBProgressHud:

- (void)showProgressHud
{
    dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
        [MBProgressHUD showHUDAddedTo:self.streamTableView animated:YES];
    });
}

- (void)hideProgressHud
{
    dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
        [MBProgressHUD hideHUDForView:self.streamTableView animated:YES];
    });
}

I have noticed that the progress HUD shows only when the network activity indicator is not spinning.

The network becomes active when the table is being reloaded (using Restkit 0.20.0). I have AFNetworking configured to start the activity indicator when there is an open connection.

I have verified that if I disable the activity indicator the problem does not go away:

[[AFNetworkActivityIndicatorManager sharedManager] setEnabled:NO];

I'd really like to be able to keep the option enabled either way. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

It looks like the network activity indicator was tying up the run loop that MBProgressHud uses.

I ended up using this technique to allow the MBProgressHud time to show before the indicator ties up the loop again.

- (void)showProgressHud
{
    dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
        [MBProgressHUD showHUDAddedTo:self.streamTableView animated:YES];
        [[NSRunLoop currentRunLoop] runUntilDate:[NSDate distantPast]];
    });
}