Initiate self.window in appDelegate init method - objective-c

Question

I'm a web developer creating an Apache Cordova application so my knowledge with Objective-C is very little. Everything is going fine until i try to supplement the splash screen with a video. It sort of does it, but not fully.. It starts with displaying the Default.png followed by the SplashScreenLoader. It then actually plays the video and I know this because the audio is emitted, but the video layer isn't shown.
What I've found out is that the self.window or self.viewController are both defined in didFinishLaunchingWithOptions, so they don't exist in the - (id) init method. Therefore I can't find a way to place it on top of the loading splash.
My init method currently looks like this in AppDelegate.m:
- (id) init {
NSString *moviePath = [[[NSBundle mainBundle] resourcePath] stringByAppendingPathComponent:#"Splash_v1.mp4"];
NSURL *movieURL = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:moviePath];
MPMoviePlayerController* moviePlayer = [[MPMoviePlayerController alloc] initWithContentURL: movieURL];
moviePlayer.controlStyle = MPMovieControlStyleNone;
[moviePlayer.view setFrame: self.window.bounds];
[self.window addSubview:moviePlayer.view];
[self.window makeKeyAndVisible];
[moviePlayer play];
NSHTTPCookieStorage *cookieStorage = [NSHTTPCookieStorage sharedHTTPCookieStorage];
[cookieStorage setCookieAcceptPolicy:NSHTTPCookieAcceptPolicyAlways];
[CDVURLProtocol registerURLProtocol];
return [super init];
}
Here the self.window is null, and I've also attempted to set the self.window with this code:
CGRect screenBounds = [[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds];
self.window = [[[UIWindow alloc] initWithFrame:screenBounds] autorelease];
...without prevail. It actually sets it, but for the subsequent code it doesn't wanna do it.
So what I'm wondering is, how would I place this video on top of the splash's content, before didFinishLaunchingWithOptions kicks in?
Thanks in advance,
//Peter

Answer 1

So what I'm wondering is, how would I place this video on top of the splash's content, before didFinishLaunchingWithOptions kicks in?
actually, you do that in didFinishLaunchingWithOptions. put this statements in there (in the bolierplate code that Xcode generates for you, you should already have a call to makeKeyAndVisible, so just complement it):
[self.window addSubview:moviePlayer.view];
[self.window makeKeyAndVisible];
having previously instantiated your moviePlayer.
One way to avoid the blank screen could be this:
create a UIImageView containing your Default.png image;
display such UIImageView by adding it to your self.window as a subview (this will create no black screen effect);
initialize your player (I assume it takes some time, hence the black screen) and add it below the UIImageView;
when the player is ready (viewDidLoad) push it on top of the UIImageView.
Finally, I don't know how your player will signal the end of the video play, but I assume you have some delegate method; make you appDelegate be also your player delegate and from there, remove UIImageView and player from self.window and add you other view to self.window.
Hope this helps.
EDIT:
This is a rough sketch of what I would try and do in your app delegate appDidFinishLaunching:
self.moviePlayer = <INIT MOVIEW PLAYER CONTROLLER>
self.backgroundImage = <INIT UIImageView with Default.png>
[self.window addSubview:self.moviePlayer.view];
[self.window addSubview:self.backgroundImage];
[self.window makeKeyAndVisible];
In your movie Player viewDidLoad:
- (void)viewDidLoad {
[super viewDidLoad];
...
[self.view.superview addSubview:self.view]; //-- this will just move the player view to the top
...
}

Answer 2

If that helps anyone else, I had the same issue which was resolved by moving '[self.window makeKeyAndVisible];' above the subview like this, so in appdelegate.m:
UIView *myView = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 200, 300)];
myView.backgroundColor = [UIColor blueColor];
[self.window makeKeyAndVisible];
[self.window addSubview:myView];
This works fine, but if I swap the last two statements around, the subview does not display.