Fire a NSThread every 'X' seconds - objective-c

Question

I'm having an issue with NSThread which I don't understand very well..
How to well create a NSThread:
- (id)initWithTarget:(id)target selector:(SEL)selector object:(id)argument
then...
I'm a bit confuse with NSThread and all of his methods.
I want to create a NSThread and fire it every 5 minutes (and of course keep using my applications without latence :)

Answer 1

Or use a dispatch source with GCD since Apple is recommending migrating away from NSThread use.
Assuming the following ivar exists:
dispatch_source_t _timer;
then, for example:
dispatch_queue_t backgroundQueue = dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_DEFAULT, 0);
_timer = dispatch_source_create(DISPATCH_SOURCE_TYPE_TIMER, 0, 0, backgroundQueue);
dispatch_source_set_timer(_timer, DISPATCH_TIME_NOW, 2 * NSEC_PER_SEC, 0.05 * NSEC_PER_SEC);
dispatch_source_set_event_handler(_timer, ^{
NSLog(#"periodic task");
});
dispatch_resume(_timer);
which will fire a small task on a background queue every 2 seconds with a small leeway.

Answer 2

You could set an NSTimer up that will run a method that starts your thread
// Put in a method somewhere that i will get called and set up.
[NSTimer timerWithTimeInterval:10 target:self selector:#selector(myThreadMethod) userInfo:nil repeats:YES];
or
[NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval:10 target:self selector:#selector(myThreadMethod) userInfo:nil repeats:YES];
You can also set this to an NSTimer so you can set up the poroperties of the timer. Such as start and finish.
- (void)myThreadMethod
{
[NSThread detachNewThreadSelector:#selector(someMethod) toTarget:self withObject:nil];
}

Answer 3

You can try to use a NSTimer to implement it. Register a NSTimer in your main thread:
NSTimer *timer = [NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval:300 target:self selector:#selector(doSomething) userInfo:nil repeats:YES];
and you can have -doSomething to start a thread to do your actual work:
-(void) doSomething {
dispatch_queue_t doThings = dispatch_queue_create("doThings", NULL);
dispatch_async(doThings, ^{
//Do heavy work here...
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
//Here is main thread. You may want to do UI affair or invalidate the timer here.
});
});
}
You can refer to NSTimer Class and GCD for more info.

Answer 4

I suggest NSTimer + NSThred for your purpose
[NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval:300 target:self selector:#selector(triggerTimer:)
userInfo:nil repeats:YES];
-(void) triggerTimer:(NSTimer *)theTimer
{
//Here perform the thread operations
[NSThread detachNewThreadSelector:#selector(myThreadMethod) toTarget:self withObject:nil];
}