Trying to fade in a UIView without success - objective-c

Question

I am trying to fade in a UIView as a subview of my main view. The UIView I am trying to fade in has the dimensions of 320x55.
I setup the view and a timer;
secondView.frame = CGRectMake(0, 361, 320, 55);
secondView.alpha = 0.0;
[self.view addSubview:secondView];
[NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval:.5 target:self selector:#selector(fadeView) userInfo:NO repeats:NO];
The timer triggers the following code;
secondView.alpha = 1.0;
CABasicAnimation *fadeInAnimation;
fadeInAnimation = [CABasicAnimation animationWithKeyPath:#"opacity"];
fadeInAnimation.duration = 1.5;
fadeInAnimation.fromValue = [NSNumber numberWithFloat:0.0];
fadeInAnimation.toValue = [NSNumber numberWithFloat:1.0];
[fadeInAnimation setDelegate:self];
[secondView.layer addAnimation:fadeInAnimation forKey:#"animateOpacity"];
My secondView is connected in Interface Builder and responds to other messages but I can't see anything happening on screen.
Can anyone please help me figure out what's going on here?
Thanks,
Ricky.
In reply to a following recommendation:
I'm a bit unsure here. Initially I put this code in (because I see secondView as an instance of UIView?):
[secondView beginAnimations:nil context:NULL];
[secondView setAnimationDuration:0.5];
[secondView setAlpha:1.0];
[secondView commitAnimations];
I then tried your suggestion which didn't produce warnings or errors, but it still does brings nothing to the surface:
[UIView beginAnimations:nil context:NULL];
[UIView setAnimationDuration:0.5];
[secondView setAlpha:1.0];
[UIView commitAnimations];
Thanks! Ricky.

Answer 1

You should be able to do this a bit simpler. Have you tried something like this?
[UIView beginAnimations:nil context:NULL];
[UIView setAnimationDuration:0.5];
[secondView setAlpha:1.0];
[UIView commitAnimations];

Answer 2

it seems to me that one thing you're missing is that your view may already have an alpha of 1.0. make sure the alpha is 0 (or whatever you desire it to be) prior to the animation call.
i prefer to use block animations for this. it's cleaner and more self-contained.
secondView.alpha = 0.0f;
[UIView animateWithDuration:1.5 animations:^() {
secondView.alpha = 1.0f;
}];

Answer 3

This won't answer your question if you insist on using CoreAnimations, but for iPhoneOS it's much easier to use animation blocks for UIView animations.
secondView.alpha = 0.0f;
[UIView beginAnimations:#"fadeInSecondView" context:NULL];
[UIView setAnimationDuration:1.5];
secondView.alpha = 1.0f;
[UIView commitAnimations];
Also, you can invoke a delegate in delayed time with
[self performSelector:#selector(fadeView) withObject:nil afterDelay:0.5];

Answer 4

Here is also a good alternative with many options and easy to use.
[secondViewController.view setAlpha:0.0];
[UIView animateWithDuration:1.5
delay:0.0
options:UIViewAnimationOptionCurveEaseIn // See other options
animations:^{
[secondViewController.view setAlpha:1.0];
}
completion:^(BOOL finished) {
// Completion Block
}];