How to fade animate hide/show window with Objective C - objective-c

Question

In Objective C, is it possible to hide my application window on launch, and then at some point of time make the call to do a pleasant fade animation to show my application window?
Not that you need to know this, but the background is that I was planning to do this from my Javascript in the webkit widget. I've already established the Objective C <==> Javascript bridge. So, when my charts finish loading, I make the call from Javascript back to Objective C to tell it to show the window with pleasant fade animation.
Here's what I've tried, but this has no fade effect -- the window just waits a sec (because those charts are loading) and then just pops on the screen fast. I tried changing the NSThread delay, but it didn't help -- that just slowed it more.
// ...in my app delegate...
- (void)applicationWillFinishLaunching:(NSNotification *)aNotification
{
// NOTE THIS SAYS "WILL", NOT "DID" -- VERY IMPORTANT.
// TO DO OTHERWISE WOULD GIVE YOU A WINDOW FLASH FOR A SECOND,
// THEN FADE IN.
[self hideWindow:_window];
}
- (void)hideWindow:(NSWindow *)window
{
float alpha = 0.0;
[window setAlphaValue:alpha];
[window makeKeyAndOrderFront:self];
}
- (void)showWindow:(NSWindow *)window
{
float alpha = 1.0;
[window setAlphaValue:alpha];
[window makeKeyAndOrderFront:self];
}
- (void)fadeOutWindow:(NSWindow*)window
{
float alpha = 1.0;
[window setAlphaValue:alpha];
[window makeKeyAndOrderFront:self];
for (int x = 0; x < 10; x++) {
alpha -= 0.1;
[window setAlphaValue:alpha];
[NSThread sleepForTimeInterval:0.020];
}
}
- (void)fadeInWindow:(NSWindow*)window
{
float alpha = 0.0;
[window setAlphaValue:alpha];
[window makeKeyAndOrderFront:self];
for (int x = 0; x < 10; x++) {
alpha += 0.1;
[window setAlphaValue:alpha];
[NSThread sleepForTimeInterval:0.020];
}
}
// My javascript to ObjC bridge calls this:
- (void)callShowAppWindow;
{
[self fadeInWindow:_window];
}

Answer 1

In my source on the question, I almost had it. Here's the fix on two functions that causes the fade effect:
- (void)fadeOutWindow:(NSWindow*)window
{
float alpha = 1.0;
[window setAlphaValue:alpha];
[window makeKeyAndOrderFront:self];
[NSAnimationContext beginGrouping];
[[NSAnimationContext currentContext] setDuration:1.5f];
[[window animator] setAlphaValue:0.f];
[NSAnimationContext endGrouping];
}
- (void)fadeInWindow:(NSWindow*)window
{
float alpha = 0.0;
[window setAlphaValue:alpha];
[window makeKeyAndOrderFront:self];
[NSAnimationContext beginGrouping];
[[NSAnimationContext currentContext] setDuration:1.5f];
[[window animator] setAlphaValue:1.f];
[NSAnimationContext endGrouping];
}

Answer 2

Just use NSAnimationContext animations to animate alpha property:
- (void)fadeInWindow:(NSWindow *)window {
[window setAlphaValue:0.0];
[window makeKeyAndOrderFront:self];
[NSAnimationContext runAnimationGroup:^(NSAnimationContext *context) {
[context setDuration:2.0];
[window setAlphaValue: 1.0f];
} completionHandler:^{ // or put nil instead of block
NSLog(#"Completed");
}];
}
And the same method to fade out your window:
- (void)fadeOutWindow:(NSWindow*)window {
[window setAlphaValue:1.0f];
[window makeKeyAndOrderFront:self];
[NSAnimationContext runAnimationGroup:^(NSAnimationContext *context) {
[context setDuration:2.0];
[window setAlphaValue: 0.0f];
} completionHandler:nil];
}
You can even combine this in one method:
- (void)fadeWindow:(NSWindow *)window in:(BOOL)in {
[window setAlphaValue: in ? 0.0f : 1.0f];
[window makeKeyAndOrderFront: self];
[NSAnimationContext runAnimationGroup: ^(NSAnimationContext *context) {
[context setDuration: 2.0f]; // or whatever you need
[window setAlphaValue: in ? 1.0f : 0.0f];
} completionHandler: nil];
}

Answer 3

Instead of hiding the window what about creating a splash/loading page occupying the initial window real estate and then doing some fancy animations with your actual window once your data has loaded or your app is ready to go?