Cocoa contents of directory - objective-c

Question

I have a group/folder with a series of text files. I need to get a path for each one so that I can read the contents, but I can't seem to get anything to work.
I've mucked about with [NSBundle pathsForResourcesOfType:#"txt" inDirectory:#"directoryName"] which gave me nothing but nulls or a single string that reads "Contents", [[NSFileManager defaultManager] enumeratorAtPath:#"directoryName"] which I have no idea what to do with once it's created, and [[NSFileManager defaultManager] contentsOfDirectoryAtPath:#"directoryName" error:nil].
I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong, and at this point I'm just grasping at straws. I went through 20 or 30 pages on here, none of which has really helped.
I should note that this is a Cocoa Application, not iOS.

Answer 1

If you want to read files in arbitrary directories, the path enumerator works nicely. A bit old fashioned, but that has its charm, too.
NSString *docPath = #"/tmp";
NSDirectoryEnumerator *dirEnum = [[NSFileManager defaultManager] enumeratorAtPath:docPath];
NSString *filename;
while ((filename = [dirEnum nextObject])) {
//Do something with the file name
}
If you want to read from well-known and defined directories in your home directory, then you can use NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains:
NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
NSString *docPath = [paths objectAtIndex: 0];
This will give you your Documents directory, and when used with the snippet above, list all files in that folder and subfolders.
Notice that we are not really supposed to use our nice, old Unix paths any more, but instead refer URLs.
In that case, you get something like:
NSArray *URLs = [[NSFileManager defaultManager] URLsForDirectory:NSDocumentDirectory inDomains:NSUserDomainMask];
NSURL *docURL = URLs[0];
NSDirectoryEnumerator *URLEnum = [[NSFileManager defaultManager] enumeratorAtURL: docURL includingPropertiesForKeys: nil options: 0 errorHandler: nil];
NSString *filename;
while ((filename = [URLEnum nextObject])) {
// ...
}
Notice that enumeratorAtURL:includingPropertiesForKeys:options:errorHandler: has all sorts of useful parameters, which you can read about in the docs.

Answer 2

Lets just take 1 of your 3:
[[NSFileManager defaultManager] contentsOfDirectoryAtPath:#"directoryName" error:nil]
You should include the error parameter and check what it contains
You need to supply a full path, not just a "directoryName"
As a result you'll get an array containing the file names of the files in the directory
So if you want the full path you can do:
NSString *directoryPath = ...;
NSArray *fileNames = [[NSFileManager defaultManager] contentsOfDirectoryAtPath:directoryPath error:...];
for(NSString *fileName in fileNames) {
NSLog(#"%#", [directoryPath stringByAppendingPathComponent:fileName]);
}

Answer 3

The problem was that when adding the folder, I needed to create a reference to the folder as well. Xcode does not default to this option. I had initially chosen to simply create groups, and this does not do the job.

Answer 4

If your group is in your current project you can use:
NSString *path = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResourcesOfType:#"txt" inDirectory:#"directoryName"]
this should work for you, I noticed that you tried something similar, but make sure you're using mainBundle.