NSURL path not working, but NSString path working - objective-c

Question

I saved an object to file and I am now trying to run a check on whether or not that file exists. I have confirmed the path of the file and concluded that the IF statement works when I hard code the path as a NSString, see first block. However, when I try saving the path as a NSURL, and convert it to an NSString so that fileManager can run it's method on it, it does not locate the file at the path. Anything that I am missing here?
LOCATES FILE HERE USING HARD CODE NSSTRING:
[NSKeyedArchiver archiveRootObject:employees toFile:#"/Users/xxx/Documents/employees.plist"];
NSFileManager *fileManager = [NSFileManager defaultManager];
NSString *employeesPath = #"/Users/xxx/Documents/employees.plist";
if ([fileManager fileExistsAtPath:employeesPath]) {
NSLog(#"It exists! yes!");
}
else {
NSLog(#"Doesn't exist, sorry bud");
}
DOES NOT LOCATE FILE USING NSURL:
[NSKeyedArchiver archiveRootObject:employees toFile:#"/Users/xxx/Documents/employees.plist"];
NSFileManager *fileManager = [NSFileManager defaultManager];
NSURL *employeesPath = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:#"/Users/xxx/Documents/employees.plist"];
NSString *employeesString = [employeesPath absoluteString];
if ([fileManager fileExistsAtPath:employeesString]) {
NSLog(#"It exists! yes!");
}
else {
NSLog(#"Doesn't exist, sorry bud");
}
EDIT
-- if I wanted to use the NSURL method, I could by making a function to store the path into a NSString the proper way. This ended up working:
NSString* getPropertyListPath() {
NSURL *documentDir = [[NSFileManager defaultManager] URLForDirectory:NSDocumentDirectory inDomain:NSUserDomainMask appropriateForURL:nil create:NO error:nil];
NSURL *plist = [documentDir URLByAppendingPathComponent:#"employees.plist"];
return plist.path;
}

Answer 1

You are correct to use NSURL, giuseppe, instead of string literals.
NSURL is more compatible and robust than a string literal. NSURL types will give you access to more methods and functionality.
The trick that you stumbled into is that you needed the file path without the "scheme" or "domain" included in the format.
You are correct to call the path method on your NSURL object to retrieve the correct path format for what you need. The path method only returns the path component to the NSURL address path. It doesn't return the scheme or domain components.
NSString *correctPathFormat = [yourNsurlObject path];
For Example:
If I have a file in the following directory path:
NSString* myDirPath = #"/Users/yourUserName/imageFolder";
and load this into a NSURL object:
NSURL *nsurlDirPath = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:myDirPath];
then append the file name and file type:
NSURL *nsurlFilePath = [nsurlDirPath URLByAppendingPathComponent:#"employee.plist"];
If you call the [nsurlFilePath absoluteString] method you will get an NSString value in the format of "scheme://domain/path"
NSString *retrievePath = [nsurlFilePath absoluteString];
NSLog(#"%#",retrievePath);
This logs out:
file:///Users/yourUserName/imageFolder/employee.plist
Special Note: This is the equivalent to the file path:
file://localhost/Users/yourUserName/imageFolder/employee.plist
The "localhost" is just omitted because this is by default implied, so that is why you see the tripple "///" in "file:///Users/...".
"localhost" is an alias that refers to the local device's ip address, or in other words, the device the code is running on.
Finally, to get the correct path format you need you would run the 'path' method on the NSURL object, which takes us back to the answer at the very beginning of my response:
NSString *correctPathFormat = [nsurlFilePath path];
This logs out the correct "path" component, minus the "scheme" & "domain":
/Users/yourUserName/imageFolder/employee.plist
Further Explanation:
NSURLS have three parts:
scheme : [http, https, ftp, file]
domain : [www.stackoverflow.com, localhost, ipAddress]
path : [/questions/26663573/, /Users/youUserName/subDirName]
scheme | domain | path
file://localhost/Users/youruserName/file.txt

Answer 2

Don't use a NSURL as a file path intermediary.
NSURL *employeesPath = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:#"/Users/xxx/Documents/employees.plist"];
NSString *employeesString = [employeesPath absoluteString];
NSLog(#"employeesString: %#", 'employeesString');
Output:
employeesString: 'file:///Users/xxx/Documents/employees.plist'
Which is clearly not a file path.