I'd first like to thank everyone for this input on this, as that is what lead me to finding the solution for my problem. Long story short I did away completely with using the GCD and the custom background queue, and instead am now using nested contexts and the "performBlock" method to perform all saving on the background thread. This is working great and I elevated my hang up issue.
However, I now have a new bug. Whenever I run my app for the first time, whenever I try to save an object that has child object relations, I get the following exception.
-_referenceData64 only defined for abstract class. Define -[NSTemporaryObjectID_default _referenceData64]!
Below is my new code.
- (void)saveJsonObjects:(NSDictionary *)jsonDict
objectMapping:(VS_ObjectMapping *)objectMapping
class:(__unsafe_unretained Class)managedObjectClass
completion:(void (^)(NSArray *objects, NSError *error))completion
{
[_backgroundManagedObjectContext performBlock:^(void)
{
// create a new process object and add it to the dictionary
VS_CoreDataRequest *currentRequest = [[VS_CoreDataRequest alloc] init];
currentRequest.managedObjectClass = managedObjectClass;
// save the JSON dictionary starting at the upper most level of the key path
NSArray *objects = [self saveJSON:jsonDict objectMapping:objectMapping class:managedObjectClass managedObjectContext:_backgroundManagedObjectContext level:0];
if (objects.count == 0)
{
currentRequest.error = [self createErrorWithErrorCode:100 description:@"No objects were found for the object mapping"];
[self performSelectorOnMainThread:@selector(backgroundSaveProcessDidFail:) withObject:currentRequest waitUntilDone:NO];
}
else
{
// save the objects so we can access them later to be re-fetched and returned on the main thread
[currentRequest.objects addObjectsFromArray:objects];
// save the object IDs and the completion block to global variables so we can access them after the save
currentRequest.completionBlock = completion;
[_backgroundManagedObjectContext lock];
@try
{
[_backgroundManagedObjectContext processPendingChanges];
[_backgroundManagedObjectContext save:nil];
}
@catch (NSException *exception)
{
currentRequest.error = [self createErrorWithErrorCode:100 description:exception.reason];
}
[_backgroundManagedObjectContext unlock];
// complete the process on the main thread
if (currentRequest.error)
[self performSelectorOnMainThread:@selector(backgroundSaveProcessDidFail:) withObject:currentRequest waitUntilDone:NO];
else
[self performSelectorOnMainThread:@selector(backgroundSaveProcessDidSucceed:) withObject:currentRequest waitUntilDone:NO];
// clear out the request
currentRequest = nil;
}
}];
}
- (void)backgroundSaveProcessDidFail:(VS_CoreDataRequest *)request
{
if (request.error)
[self logError:request.error];
if (request.completionBlock)
{
void (^saveCompletionBlock)(NSArray *, NSError *) = request.completionBlock;
saveCompletionBlock(nil, request.error);
}
}
- (void)backgroundSaveProcessDidSucceed:(VS_CoreDataRequest *)request
{
// get objects from main thread
NSArray *objects = nil;
if (request.objects.count > 0)
{
NSFetchRequest *fetchReq = [NSFetchRequest fetchRequestWithEntityName:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@", request.managedObjectClass]];
fetchReq.predicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"self IN %@", request.objects];
objects = [self executeFetchRequest:fetchReq];
}
// call the completion block
if (request.completionBlock)
{
void (^saveCompletionBlock)(NSArray *, NSError *) = request.completionBlock;
saveCompletionBlock(objects, nil);
}
}
- (NSManagedObjectContext *)managedObjectContext
{
if (_managedObjectContext != nil) {
return _managedObjectContext;
}
NSPersistentStoreCoordinator *coordinator = [self persistentStoreCoordinator];
if (coordinator != nil)
{
// create the MOC for the backgroumd thread
_backgroundManagedObjectContext = [[NSManagedObjectContext alloc] initWithConcurrencyType:NSPrivateQueueConcurrencyType];
[_backgroundManagedObjectContext setPersistentStoreCoordinator:coordinator];
[_backgroundManagedObjectContext setMergePolicy:NSMergeByPropertyStoreTrumpMergePolicy];
_backgroundManagedObjectContext.undoManager = nil;
// create the MOC for the main thread
_managedObjectContext = [[NSManagedObjectContext alloc] initWithConcurrencyType:NSMainQueueConcurrencyType];
[_managedObjectContext setParentContext:_backgroundManagedObjectContext];
[_managedObjectContext setMergePolicy:NSMergeByPropertyStoreTrumpMergePolicy];
}
return _managedObjectContext;
}
Do any of you have any idea why this crash is happening?
** EDIT **
Ladies and gents I have found the solution. Apparently, even when using nested contexts you still have to merge the changes via the NSManagedObjectContextDidSaveNotification. Once I added that into my code it all started to work perfectly. Below is my working code. Thanks a million guys!
- (NSManagedObjectContext *)managedObjectContext
{
if (_managedObjectContext != nil)
return _managedObjectContext;
NSPersistentStoreCoordinator *coordinator = [self persistentStoreCoordinator];
if (coordinator != nil)
{
// create the MOC for the backgroumd thread
_backgroundManagedObjectContext = [[NSManagedObjectContext alloc] initWithConcurrencyType:NSPrivateQueueConcurrencyType];
[_backgroundManagedObjectContext setPersistentStoreCoordinator:coordinator];
[_backgroundManagedObjectContext setMergePolicy:NSMergeByPropertyStoreTrumpMergePolicy];
_backgroundManagedObjectContext.undoManager = nil;
// create the MOC for the main thread
_managedObjectContext = [[NSManagedObjectContext alloc] initWithConcurrencyType:NSMainQueueConcurrencyType];
[_managedObjectContext setParentContext:_backgroundManagedObjectContext];
[_managedObjectContext setMergePolicy:NSMergeByPropertyStoreTrumpMergePolicy];
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self selector:@selector(mergeChangesFromContextDidSaveNotification:) name:NSManagedObjectContextDidSaveNotification object:_backgroundManagedObjectContext];
}
return _managedObjectContext;
}
- (void)saveJsonObjects:(NSDictionary *)jsonDict
objectMapping:(VS_ObjectMapping *)objectMapping
class:(__unsafe_unretained Class)managedObjectClass
completion:(void (^)(NSArray *objects, NSError *error))completion
{
// perform save on background thread
[_backgroundManagedObjectContext performBlock:^(void)
{
// create a new process object and add it to the dictionary
VS_CoreDataRequest *currentRequest = [[VS_CoreDataRequest alloc] init];
currentRequest.managedObjectClass = managedObjectClass;
// save the JSON dictionary starting at the upper most level of the key path
NSArray *objects = [self saveJSON:jsonDict objectMapping:objectMapping class:managedObjectClass managedObjectContext:_backgroundManagedObjectContext level:0];
if (objects.count == 0)
{
currentRequest.error = [self createErrorWithErrorCode:100 description:@"No objects were found for the object mapping"];
[self performSelectorOnMainThread:@selector(backgroundSaveProcessDidFail:) withObject:currentRequest waitUntilDone:NO];
}
else
{
// save the objects so we can access them later to be re-fetched and returned on the main thread
[currentRequest.objects addObjectsFromArray:objects];
// save the object IDs and the completion block to global variables so we can access them after the save
currentRequest.completionBlock = completion;
[_backgroundManagedObjectContext lock];
@try
{
[_backgroundManagedObjectContext processPendingChanges];
[_backgroundManagedObjectContext save:nil];
}
@catch (NSException *exception)
{
currentRequest.error = [self createErrorWithErrorCode:100 description:exception.reason];
}
[_backgroundManagedObjectContext unlock];
// complete the process on the main thread
if (currentRequest.error)
[self performSelectorOnMainThread:@selector(backgroundSaveProcessDidFail:) withObject:currentRequest waitUntilDone:NO];
else
[self performSelectorOnMainThread:@selector(backgroundSaveProcessDidSucceed:) withObject:currentRequest waitUntilDone:NO];
// clear out the request
currentRequest = nil;
}
}];
}
- (void)mergeChangesFromContextDidSaveNotification:(NSNotification *)notification
{
[_managedObjectContext mergeChangesFromContextDidSaveNotification:notification];
}
- (void)backgroundSaveProcessDidFail:(VS_CoreDataRequest *)request
{
if (request.error)
[self logError:request.error];
if (request.completionBlock)
{
void (^saveCompletionBlock)(NSArray *, NSError *) = request.completionBlock;
saveCompletionBlock(nil, request.error);
}
}
- (void)backgroundSaveProcessDidSucceed:(VS_CoreDataRequest *)request
{
// get objects from main thread
NSArray *objects = nil;
if (request.objects.count > 0)
{
NSFetchRequest *fetchReq = [NSFetchRequest fetchRequestWithEntityName:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@", request.managedObjectClass]];
fetchReq.predicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"self IN %@", request.objects];
objects = [self executeFetchRequest:fetchReq];
}
// call the completion block
if (request.completionBlock)
{
void (^saveCompletionBlock)(NSArray *, NSError *) = request.completionBlock;
saveCompletionBlock(objects, nil);
}
}