Summary

The BFRGifRefreshControl is an extremely lightweight, unintrusive and configurable way to add a .gif to refreshing actions inside of your iOS app 📱! You have total control over it, and the whole package comes in at just over 100 lines 😃!

Installation

The BFRGifRefreshControl is hosted on CocoaPods and is the recommended way to install it:

pod 'BFRGifRefreshControl'

Quickstart

To get going, you can either initialize the .gif from your app bundle or via NSData which can be retrived from a network call or other means. The flow is consists of adding it your table view, setting your desired offset values for your situation and then calling [refreshControl containingScrollViewDidEndDragging] from your tableview instance's scrollViewDidEndDragging:willDecelerate:.

Here is a quick example:

self.gifRefresh = [[BFRGifRefreshControl alloc] initWithGifFileName:@"myGif" refreshAction:^ {
    //Calls [self.gifRefresh stopAnimating] inside of performFakeDataRefresh
    [self performFakeDataRefresh];
}];

self.gifRefresh.dataRefreshOffsetThreshold = 100.0f; //Trigger refresh after user has scrolled this far
self.gifRefresh.dataRefreshingGifYInset = 115.0f; //Where we want the gif to "hang out" while it performs the block
self.gifRefresh.dataLoadedYInset = 64.0f; //Account for navbar
self.gifRefresh.dataLoadedYOffset = -64.0f; //Account for navbar

If you want some additional context, just fire up the demo project and take a peek 👌! This is the easiest way to see how to fire it up!

Wait - that seems like a good bit of configuration! Why?

• Is the view controller's automaticallyAdjustsScrollViewInsets set to YES or NO?
• Is there a nav bar?
• Is the view hierarchy complex and customized?
• Perhaps you need an offset larger or smaller for other UI elements?
• ...etc

Those are all valid questions! The BFRGifRefreshControl was designed to be usable no matter the situation you find youself in. We could make assumptions or controll the UIScrollView via a category, but every developer faces different situations and those assumptions could sometimes be wrong or lead to some tricky debugging 🐛.

It's true that most scenarios call for direct opposite values for the Y inset and offset (i.e. 64 and -64) and that the threshold to trigger a refresh just needs to be the same as the control's height - but that's not 100% always the case. For that reason we've opted for those values to be consciously set by the developer 👍

Important Note

• The constraints are geared for more smaller, "logo" style .gif files (around 50 x 50). Things could certainly be changed to accomodate all sizes fairly easily, but it would require a few tweaks 😎.

Going Forward

We regularly maintain this code, and you can also rest assured that it's been battle tested against thousands of users in production 👍. That said, we get things wrong from time to time - so feel free to open an issue for anything you spot!

We are always happy to talk shop, so feel free to give us a shout on Twitter:

• Andy - @ay8s
• Jordan - @jordanmorgan10
• Humber -@goku2

Or, hey - why not work on the BFRGifRefreshControl and get paid for it!? We're hiring!

Licence

This project uses MIT License.