UIScrollView Infinite Scrolling

Question

I'm attempting to setup a scrollview with infinite (horizontal) scrolling.

Scrolling forward is easy - I have implemented scrollViewDidScroll, and when the contentOffset gets near the end I make the scrollview contentsize bigger and add more data into the space (i'll have to deal with the crippling effect this will have later!)

My problem is scrolling back - the plan is to see when I get near the beginning of the scroll view, then when I do make the contentsize bigger, move the existing content along, add the new data to the beginning and then - importantly adjust the contentOffset so the data under the view port stays the same.

This works perfectly if I scroll slowly (or enable paging) but if I go fast (not even very fast!) it goes mad! Heres the code:

- (void) scrollViewDidScroll:(UIScrollView *)scrollView {

    float pageNumber = scrollView.contentOffset.x / 320;
    float pageCount = scrollView.contentSize.width / 320;

    if (pageNumber > pageCount-4) {
        //Add 10 new pages to end
        mainScrollView.contentSize = CGSizeMake(mainScrollView.contentSize.width + 3200, mainScrollView.contentSize.height);
        //add new data here at (320*pageCount, 0);
    }

    //*** the problem is here - I use updatingScrollingContent to make sure its only called once (for accurate testing!)
    if (pageNumber < 4 && !updatingScrollingContent) {

        updatingScrollingContent = YES;

        mainScrollView.contentSize = CGSizeMake(mainScrollView.contentSize.width + 3200, mainScrollView.contentSize.height);
        mainScrollView.contentOffset = CGPointMake(mainScrollView.contentOffset.x + 3200, 0);
        for (UIView *view in [mainContainerView subviews]) {
            view.frame = CGRectMake(view.frame.origin.x+3200, view.frame.origin.y, view.frame.size.width, view.frame.size.height);
        }
        //add new data here at (0, 0);      
    }

    //** MY CHECK!
    NSLog(@"%f", mainScrollView.contentOffset.x);
}

As the scrolling happens the log reads: 1286.500000 1285.500000 1284.500000 1283.500000 1282.500000 1281.500000 1280.500000

Then, when pageNumber<4 (we're getting near the beginning): 4479.500000 4479.500000

Great! - but the numbers should continue to go down in the 4,000s but the next log entries read: 1278.000000 1277.000000 1276.500000 1275.500000 etc....

Continiuing from where it left off!

Just for the record, if scrolled slowly the log reads: 1294.500000 1290.000000 1284.500000 1280.500000 4476.000000 4476.000000 4473.000000 4470.000000 4467.500000 4464.000000 4460.500000 4457.500000 etc....

Any ideas????

Thanks

Ben.

Answer 1

I found a really great example app by Apple to implement Infinite Scrolling using a similar idea in the OP. Very simple and most importantly no tearing.

http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#samplecode/StreetScroller/Introduction/Intro.html

They implemented the "content recentering" every time layoutSubviews was called on the UIScrollView.

The only adjustment I made was to recycle the "tiling effect" instead of throwing away old tiles and allocing new ones.

Answer 2

It could be that whatever is setting those numbers in there, is not greatly impressed by you setting the contentOffset under its hands. So it just goes on setting what it thinks should be the contentOffset for the next instant - without verifying if the contentOffset has changed in the meantime.

I would subclass UIScrollView and put the magic in the setContentOffset method. In my experience all content-offset changing passes through that method, even the content-offset changing induced by the internal scrolling. Just do [super setContentOffset:..] at some point to pass the message on to the real UIScrollView.

Maybe if you put your shifting action in there it will work better. You could at least detect the 3000-off setting of contentOffset, and fix it before passing the message on. If you would also override the contentOffset method, you could try and see if you can make a virtual infinite content size, and reduce that to real proportions "under the hood".

Answer 3

When I had faced this problem I had 3 images, which needed to be able to scroll infinitely in either direction. The optimal solution would probably be to load 3 images and modifying the content panel when user moves to rightmost/ leftmost image but I have found an easier solution. (Did some editing on the code, might contain typos)

Instead of 3 images, I have setup a scroll view with 5 images, like:

3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1

and calculated the content view accordingly, whereas the content size is fixed. Here is the code:

for ( NSUInteger i = 1; i <= NO_OF_IMAGES_IN_SCROLLVIEW + 2 ; i ++) {

    UIImage *image;
    if ( i  % 3 == 1){

        image = [UIImage imageNamed:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"img1.png"]];
    }

    else if (i % 3 == 2 ) {

        image = [UIImage imageNamed:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"img2.png"]];

    }

    else {

        image = [UIImage imageNamed:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"img3.png"]];
    }

    UIImageView *imageView = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake((i-1)*_scrollView.frame.size.width, 0, _scrollView.frame.size.width, _scrollView.frame.size.height)];
    imageView.contentMode=UIViewContentModeScaleToFill;
    [imageView setImage:image];
    imageView.tag=i+1;
    [self.scrollView addSubview:imageView];
}

[self.scrollView setContentOffset:CGPointMake(self.scrollView.frame.size.width, 0)];
[scrMain setContentSize:CGSizeMake(self.scrollView.frame.size.width * ( NO_OF_IMAGES_IN_SCROLLVIEW + 2 ), self.scrollView.frame.size.height)];

Now that the images are added, the only thing is to create the illusion of infinite scrolling. To do that I have "teleported" the user into the three main image, whenever he tries to scroll to one of the outer two images. It is important to do that not-animated, so that the user won't be able to feel it:

- (void)scrollViewDidScroll:(UIScrollView *)scrollView {

    if (scrollView.contentOffset.x < scrollView.frame.size.width ){

        [scrollView scrollRectToVisible:CGRectMake(scrollView.contentOffset.x + 3 * scrollView.frame.size.width, 0, scrollView.frame.size.width, scrollView.frame.size.height) animated:NO];
    }
}

    else if ( scrollView.contentOffset.x > 4 * scrollView.frame.size.width  ){

        [scrollView scrollRectToVisible:CGRectMake(scrollView.contentOffset.x - 3 * scrollView.frame.size.width, 0, scrollView.frame.size.width, scrollView.frame.size.height) animated:NO];
    }
}