How to display activity indicator in middle of the iphone screen?

Solution 1:

UIActivityIndicatorView *activityView = [[UIActivityIndicatorView alloc]     
        initWithActivityIndicatorStyle:UIActivityIndicatorViewStyleWhiteLarge];

    activityView.center=self.view.center;
    [activityView startAnimating];
    [self.view addSubview:activityView];

Solution 2:

If you are using Swift, this is how you do it

let activityView = UIActivityIndicatorView(activityIndicatorStyle: .whiteLarge)
activityView.center = self.view.center
activityView.startAnimating()

self.view.addSubview(activityView)

Solution 3:

Code updated for Swift 3

enter image description here

Swift code

import UIKit
class ViewController: UIViewController {

    let activityIndicator = UIActivityIndicatorView(activityIndicatorStyle: UIActivityIndicatorViewStyle.whiteLarge)

    @IBOutlet weak var myBlueSubview: UIView!

    @IBAction func showButtonTapped(sender: UIButton) {
        activityIndicator.startAnimating()
    }

    @IBAction func hideButtonTapped(sender: UIButton) {
        activityIndicator.stopAnimating()
    }

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        // set up activity indicator
        activityIndicator.center = CGPoint(x: myBlueSubview.bounds.size.width/2, y: myBlueSubview.bounds.size.height/2)
        activityIndicator.color = UIColor.yellow
        myBlueSubview.addSubview(activityIndicator)
    }
}

Notes

  • You can center the activity indicator in middle of the screen by adding it as a subview to the root view rather than myBlueSubview.

    activityIndicator.center =  CGPoint(x: self.view.bounds.size.width/2, y: self.view.bounds.size.height/2)
    self.view.addSubview(activityIndicator)
  • You can also create the UIActivityIndicatorView in the Interface Builder. Just drag an Activity Indicator View onto the storyboard and set the properties. Be sure to check Hides When Stopped. Use an outlet to call startAnimating() and stopAnimating(). See this tutorial.

enter image description here

  • Remember that the default color of the LargeWhite style is white. So if you have a white background you can't see it, just change the color to black or whatever other color you want.

    activityIndicator.color = UIColor.black
  • A common use case would be while a background task runs. Here is an example:

    // start animating before the background task starts
    activityIndicator.startAnimating()
    
    // background task
    DispatchQueue.global(qos: .userInitiated).async {
    
        doSomethingThatTakesALongTime()
    
        // return to the main thread
        DispatchQueue.main.async {
    
            // stop animating now that background task is finished
            self.activityIndicator.stopAnimating()
        }
    }

Solution 4:

This is the correct way:

UIActivityIndicatorView *activityIndicator = [[UIActivityIndicatorView alloc]initWithActivityIndicatorStyle:UIActivityIndicatorViewStyleGray];
activityIndicator.center = CGPointMake(self.view.frame.size.width / 2.0, self.view.frame.size.height / 2.0);
[self.view addSubview: activityIndicator];

[activityIndicator startAnimating];

[activityIndicator release];

Setup your autoresizing mask if you support rotation. Cheers!!!

Solution 5:

Swift 4, Autolayout version

func showActivityIndicator(on parentView: UIView) {
    let activityIndicator = UIActivityIndicatorView(activityIndicatorStyle: .gray)
    activityIndicator.startAnimating()
    activityIndicator.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false

    parentView.addSubview(activityIndicator)

    NSLayoutConstraint.activate([
        activityIndicator.centerXAnchor.constraint(equalTo: parentView.centerXAnchor),
        activityIndicator.centerYAnchor.constraint(equalTo: parentView.centerYAnchor),
    ])
}