Dynamically change text of CATextLayer

Question

I've been banging my head off a wall trying to figure this problem out. I've added a CATextLayer to a CALayer and after a couple of operations happen i want to change the text of the CATextLayer to something different. Is there a simple way to do that? Below i have some code below which doesn't seem to work.

self.searchingForTextLayer = [CATextLayer layer];
    self.searchingForTextLayer.bounds = CGRectMake(0.0f, 0.0f, 100.0f, 30.0f);
    self.searchingForTextLayer.string = @"Searching for..";
    self.searchingForTextLayer.fontSize = 12;
    //TextLayer.font = [UIFont boldSystemFontOfSize:18].fontName;
    self.searchingForTextLayer.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor].CGColor;
    self.searchingForTextLayer.position = CGPointMake(80.0, 40.0f);
    self.searchingForTextLayer.wrapped = NO;
    [self.captureVideoPreviewLayer addSublayer:self.searchingForTextLayer];

and later i call this in a method

self.searchingForTextLayer.string = @"Search complete";

but calling this doesnt change the text on screen.

Any help would be great!

It worked fine for me. Added two extra lines but you would have done that too. self.captureVideoPreviewLayer = [CATextLayer layer]; [self.captureVideoPreviewLayer addSublayer:self.searchingForTextLayer]; [[self.view layer] addSublayer:self.captureVideoPreviewLayer]; — ratul, Jul 02 '13 at 20:26
yeah that part works when when i try to change the text after i have already added it as a sublayer it wont change — user1179321, Jul 02 '13 at 20:46
All s fine for me. Before changing the text, make sure whether 'self.searchingForTextLayer' is pointing to the right layer. — ratul, Jul 04 '13 at 06:18

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 20 '16 at 20:32

Make sure you are changing the string property on the main thread and disable animations. This worked for me (Swift):

 dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), { () -> Void in
                CATransaction.begin()
                CATransaction.setDisableActions(true)
                self.textLayer?.string = text
                CATransaction.commit()
            })

Dynamically change text of CATextLayer

1 Answers1