I have an app where the user should be able to create template settings files, to save and choose from a popup list. These settings will be applied to configure an export of an item.
I just don't know how to best approach the problem of saving and restoring the saved settings.
To add to my problem is the fact that there are many different exporting methods, each with different setting types.
To explain:
User configures the settings they want for export method A, he/she saves these settings and here i want to write them to disk in a plist file.
The the user configures another set of settings for export method B, he/she saves these settings and i want to write these to disk aswell.
I have used NSSharedUsersDefaultsController to bind all interface elements and test bindings, but i don't want to keep all settings in the application plist. Also, I don't know if there is a good way of importing/exporting using that technique when i'm using different subset of settings. If there was a good way of binding to sub-dictionaries then that could work, but I have not been able to make that work.
I could create a Class for each export method and bind the settings to an NSObjectController, and then manually create an import and export method but that felt clunky.
NSDictionaryController and NSArrayController only seem to be made for TableViews and that kind of data display, not single user interface elements, at least from what i've been able to test.
So, is there a good way to create an export/import functionality while still using cocoa bindings, or do i have to create my own methods for that?
Any examples or pointers in the right direction is appreciated.
A simple and suggest way of saving not critical / not secure settings is:
[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults]
You can access it like a dictionary with getObject: and setObject:
Related
I am just starting my dive into Blender coming mainly from Quake's Radiant. I am trying to research whether it will fit the need I have for a level editor replacement. So with that in mind, here is my question:
What is the best method for creating and storing a set of prefab "entity" objects such as health packs, ammo pickups, and "moveable" objects such that they have a set of "properties" that can be changed within Blender?
I have found this page, but I am still getting lost as to how to integrate them on a per object basis and achieve the desired result:
https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/dev/editors/properties_editor.html
Note: It is not my goal to use the Blender game engine - just attach values to things for me to export to my own engine.
Edit1: Found an article discussing the topic although it seems very outdated:
https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/IwanGabovitch/20120524/171032/Using_Blender_3D_as_a_3d_map_editor_rather_than_programming_your_own_from_scratch.php
Example:
// entity 105
{
"inv_item" "2"
"inv_name" "#str_02917"
"classname" "item_medkit"
"name" "item_medkit_11"
"origin" "-150 2322 72"
"triggerFirst" "1"
"triggersize" "40"
"rotation" "0.224951 0.97437 0 -0.97437 0.224951 0 0 0 1"
}
While we can manually add custom properties to any object, these are added to the specific object so can be unique to each object.
A better way of integrating new properties is to use bpy.props, these can be added to an objects class in blender, this means every object will have the same properties available.
You can setup a custom panel to edit your properties, like this simple example. Both the properties and panel as well as your object exporter can be defined in an addon which you can have enable at startup so that it is available every time you run blender. An addon also makes it easier for you to share your game editor with others.
The link I found seems to be the best option and allow for the most flexibility. The source code for the Super Tux Kart plugins serve as a great reference implementation:
https://sourceforge.net/p/supertuxkart/code/HEAD/tree/media/trunk/blender_26/
I am playing around with the new UI testing introduced in Xcode 7 beta. In one of my UI testing scenarios, I need to add some code that does the same thing as clicking Simulator -> Reset Content and Settings in the setup() of my test file, which is a XCTestCase. Can the reset be done programmatically? Or, can we mimic the effect of a factory reset on an app in test code?
Not entirely programmatically, but you can always write a bash file to delete:
${user.home}/Library/Application Support/iPhone Simulator/${simulator.version}
That will clear the settings on the simulator.
My understanding is that you won't be able to that from within your app, as apps are sandboxed.
Usually people were using shell scripts or apple scripts. However, using hard reset is absolutely not necessary.
You shouldn't care about data in other apps, you should care only about the data in your app. You can always delete your app data (files, user defaults) in the beginning of your tests. So, why should you do a hard reset?
A better solution is mocking. If your test supposes that, for example, some variable in NSUserDefaults is not set, you don't have to care about the actual value stored there, just mock the method your implementation is using (e.g. objectForKey: and let it return nil.
After manually creating NSTableView columns, I have called
[self.tableView setAutosaveName:#"MyTable"] and [self.tableView setAutosaveTableColumns:YES]
Ok, it works.
After closing the App I have a file ~/Library/Preferences/MyApp.plist and it has my table settings.
I delete this file and relaunch App and I have seen changed position and size of columns. Not default!
I have tried find where this settings were stored but nothing.
Help me please!
There's a server process, cfprefsd, that caches and serves the user defaults. Apps communicate with that. They don't directly access the file. It has never been reliable to directly manipulate the file as a means of changing the defaults.
To manipulate the user defaults, you must either use the CFPreferences or NSUserDefaults APIs programmatically or, from a command line, use the defaults program. For example:
defaults delete com.yourdomain.yourapp
I am writing an app in which I have two UITextFields...
Starting Text
Destination Text
Now once I place values and hit the search or whatever function I want to call, I Want to reuse these values. The app should record and save these values as cache. And should show them when typing or upon a button click. Is that possible to show them just like Dictionary words show up or Which is more preferable tableView or PickerView? If there is any other please let me know.
Definitely use a UITableView. A UIPicherView is used modally most of the time and not for optional suggestions.
Table view is used in Safari, and a lots of other apps:
As for how to cache the data, you have lots of options. It also depends on how much data you expect.
One easy way would be to simply use NSArray. You can very easily write an NSArray to disk in a plist file and read it back when you need it.
Or you could use Core Data, if you expect lots of data and still want high performance. It will be a lot more difficult though to get used to that API if you've never tried it before. Basically you'll need a simple model with one entity called something like SearchEntry that has a single property text. Then you keep adding new instances to your managed object context and can easily filter the existing values.
I have some NSManagedObject subclass in my app, and I'm trying to understand when and how to save changes.
I will try to explain myself, for example class A is NSManagedObject subclass.
During app life cycle I do:
App launched
...
Create an instance of class A
...
Change some properties of A instance
...
App go to background
...
App becomes active again
...
Change some more properties of A instance
...
App terminates
When do I need to call [context save:] ??
Do I call it after every change in A instance? Or maybe I call it only when app go to background?
Should I call it after creation or deletion of any A instance?
A nice approach is place UIManagedDocument in your AppDelegate. Then you can call [context save] whenever some change occurs in the app (like a crash). The order I like to follow is something like:
Create UIManagedDocument object (in application did load or wherever)
and assign it to a property
Setup the document (check whether it exist on disk or is already open, etc.. and respond accordingly)
Pass the UIManagedObjectContext to the initial UIViewController in your app (from there you can pass the context to other view controllers)
UIManaged document will save the context for you.
Take a look at the UIManagedDocument documentation to configure persistent store options (you send an NSDictionary of options to your UIManagedDocument instance, see the first example through the link below).
UIManagedDocument documentation:
http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/UIKit/Reference/UIManagedDocument_Class/Reference/Reference.html
Also see the CoreData lecture and demo (lectures 13 and 14) of the iPhone and iPad application development course with Paul Hegarty available free on iTunesU (Fall 2011).
The data will not be saved to the persistent store until you call save. So, it depends on what you want in your app. If you want it to be able to recover the last value it ever had, then you should save after each modification.
Easy change is to just save after making modifications.
You could do something a bit more fancy, like only save after some set amount of time, so many changes are grouped together... and catch any event that will put your app in the background and then save...
But, that's what UIManagedDocument does automatically for you, so you could just use that instead.
Depending on the amount of changes that you make and the volume of data that needs to be saved with each change, yo can choose to save a little or a lot. If you are just saving a string or a number or a bool, then go ahead and call save: on your context as soon as the changes were made.
If it is a lot of data, you may want to coalasce your changes and then save it on a background queue so that you are not blocking the main queue. This way you are not waiting to go to the background to perform your saves.
Tim