iphone sdk MapView update users location

Question

Hi guys, I've successfully put together a mapview with a pin annotation representing the users current position that updates at a set interval. When the location manager updates the user's position, the pin annotation disappears and reappears at the new location. Has anyone played with getting the current user's GPS location to update through the use of an animation, like what is done in Apple's offical mapping application? If so, I'd love some pointers to get this to work. Thanks!

Answer 1

Hi,

Solution 1:

First, you need to make your view controller implement MKMapViewDelegate if it doesn't already.

Then, implement this method:

- (void)mapView:(MKMapView *)mapView didAddAnnotationViews:(NSArray *)views { 
   MKAnnotationView *aV; 
   for (aV in views) {
     CGRect endFrame = aV.frame;

     aV.frame = CGRectMake(aV.frame.origin.x, aV.frame.origin.y - 230.0, aV.frame.size.width, aV.frame.size.height);

     [UIView beginAnimations:nil context:NULL];
     [UIView setAnimationDuration:0.45];
     [UIView setAnimationCurve:UIViewAnimationCurveEaseInOut];
         [aV setFrame:endFrame];
     [UIView commitAnimations];

   }
}

Add your annotations to the MapView and when they are added, this delegate method will be called and will animate the pins from top to bottom as they are added.

The values for timing and positioning can be changed a little bit but I've tweaked it to make it look best/closest to the traditional drop (as far as I've tested).

Solution 2:

Alternatively, if you're making a MKAnnotationView subclass, you can use didMoveToSuperview to trigger the animation. The following does a drop that ends in a slight 'squish' effect

#define kDropCompressAmount 0.1

  @implementation MyAnnotationViewSubclass

  ...

  - (void)didMoveToSuperview {
      CABasicAnimation *animation = [CABasicAnimation animationWithKeyPath:@"transform"];
      animation.duration = 0.4;
      animation.timingFunction = [CAMediaTimingFunction functionWithName:kCAMediaTimingFunctionEaseIn];
      animation.fromValue = [NSValue valueWithCATransform3D:CATransform3DMakeTranslation(0, -400, 0)];
      animation.toValue = [NSValue valueWithCATransform3D:CATransform3DIdentity];

      CABasicAnimation *animation2 = [CABasicAnimation animationWithKeyPath:@"transform"];
      animation2.duration = 0.10;
      animation2.beginTime = animation.duration;
      animation2.timingFunction = [CAMediaTimingFunction functionWithName:kCAMediaTimingFunctionEaseOut];
      animation2.toValue = [NSValue valueWithCATransform3D:CATransform3DScale(CATransform3DMakeTranslation(0, self.layer.frame.size.height*kDropCompressAmount, 0), 1.0, 1.0-kDropCompressAmount, 1.0)];
      animation2.fillMode = kCAFillModeForwards;

      CABasicAnimation *animation3 = [CABasicAnimation animationWithKeyPath:@"transform"];
      animation3.duration = 0.15;
      animation3.beginTime = animation.duration+animation2.duration;
      animation3.timingFunction = [CAMediaTimingFunction functionWithName:kCAMediaTimingFunctionEaseOut];
      animation3.toValue = [NSValue valueWithCATransform3D:CATransform3DIdentity];
      animation3.fillMode = kCAFillModeForwards;

      CAAnimationGroup *group = [CAAnimationGroup animation];
      group.animations = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:animation, animation2, animation3, nil];
      group.duration = animation.duration+animation2.duration+animation3.duration;
      group.fillMode = kCAFillModeForwards;

      [self.layer addAnimation:group forKey:nil];
  }

Hope this helps!

PK