Animate frame and layout change of UICollectionView

Question

I am trying to create an effect where I change the layout of my UICollectionView while changing the frame size

Initially the collectionView layout presents a "thumbnail" gallery style full screen.

After resizing the frame to a thin strip - I would like to present a "film strip" style layout

both layouts independently work fine and as expected.

I tried code similar to this:

[UIView animateWithDuration:1
                          delay:0.0
                        options:UIViewAnimationOptionCurveEaseOut
                     animations:^{
                         self.collectionview.frame = newFrame; // animate the frame size


                     }
                     completion:^(BOOL finished) {
                        [self.collectionView.collectionViewLayout invalidateLayout];

    [self.collectionView setCollectionViewLayout:filmstriplayout animated:YES];    // now set the new layout
                     }];

But it is looking very choppy and not resizing as expected.

Is there a way where I could change the collectionview layout and the frame size simultaneously while animating the change?

Answer 1

I don't have a specific answer, but a few suggestions to consider.

UICollectionView doesn't always handle switching layout instances gracefully. Here is a good discussion of the problem and some workarounds.

But what I’ve actually done in practice that worked for me was to implement both layouts in a single layout object that knows how to toggle between layout modes. I found that switching layout modes in a batch update block was less problematic than using setCollectionViewLayout with two different layout instances:

[self.collectionView performBatchUpdates:^{
    MyLayout *layout = (MyLayout *)self.collectionView.collectionViewLayout;
    layout.mode = otherLayoutMode;
} completion:nil];