I was pretty sure that writing in the main Bundle isn't possible in iOS ... for example an operation like :
NSString *path = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:#"Data" ofType:#"plist"];
.....something
[xmlData writeToFile:path atomically:YES];
Why does the first example in Apple's documentation use this exact code?
The example is for OS X, which isn't quite as strict with permissions as iOS.
I'd be surprised if you are able to do that for much longer (if you can at all now) in a Mac App Store application bundle, though.
It could be worth filing a bug regarding the documentation.
That's not a link to the main bundle. That's a path to the resources folder, and a plist within that folder.
Hence the function name pathForResource...
Everything in the main bundle is cryptographically signed when you compile the app. The resources folder isn't though. You can write to and from that freely.
for #jrturton
// we need to get the plist data...
NSString *plistPath = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:#"Symptoms" ofType:#"plist"];
NSMutableArray *dataArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:plistPath];
// add a new entry
NSDictionary *addQuestion = [[NSDictionary alloc] initWithObjectsAndKeys:#"Blank.png",#"Icon",
[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%i",r],#"ID",
[titleTextField text],#"Title",
[questionTextField text],#"Text",
qnType,#"Type",
#"1",#"Custom",
[NSArray arrayWithObjects:#"Yes",#"No",nil],#"Values",
[unitsTextField text],#"Units",
nil];
[dataArray addObject:addQuestion];
[addQuestion release];
// rewrite the plist
[dataArray writeToFile:plistPath atomically:YES];
Related
I am using this simple method I found to write to a plist but it doesn't seem to work:
-(IBAction)modifyPlist:(id)sender{
NSBundle *mainBundle=[NSBundle mainBundle];
NSString *path=[mainBundle pathForResource:#"Preferences" ofType:#"plist"];
NSMutableDictionary *dict = [NSMutableDictionary dictionaryWithContentsOfFile:path];
[[dict objectForKey:#"Root"] setBool:YES forKey:#"startup"];
}
What am I doing wrong?
Thanks
You're loading the file into memory, and modifying that memory, but you're not writing it back to disk. You'll want to use NSDictionary's -writeToFile:atomically:
[dict writeToFile:path atomically:YES];
Reference link here.
I hope you know exactly what you're doing and this is (for whatever reason) your design decision -
because you're about to write to your app's bundle.
That'll certainly fail under Sandboxing and is generally a bad, bad idea.
If you've after storing user defaults please read up on the Mac way of storing preferences:
Preferences and Settings Programming Guide
// Make a path to the plist in the Documents directory (not the bundle directory)
NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
NSString *path = [[paths objectAtIndex:0] stringByAppendingPathComponent:#"Preferences.plist"];
// Then after creating or making changes to your dictionary, write your dictionary out to the plist file
[dict writeToFile:path atomically:YES];
Maybe look at:
Should I use NSUserDefaults or a plist to store data?
Hi I have a bunch of photos that I download from the web and I want to store them in a directory so I dont have to reload photos already downloaded, I am having trouble understanding how exactly to do this and store the photos and reload them from the directory and such. This is what I have so far. Could someone please explain the steps involved and how to do it? Thanks
-(void) savePhotoInCache: (NSData*) photoToSave{
//I dont know if u need bundle ID?
// NSString * bundleID = [[NSBundle mainBundle] bundleIdentifier];
NSFileManager *fm = [[NSFileManager alloc] init];
NSArray * directoryPaths = [fm URLsForDirectory:NSCachesDirectory inDomains:NSUserDomainMask];
NSLog(#"%#", directoryPaths);
NSURL* dirPath = nil;
//Does this create a file in my cache Directory to store my photos?
dirPath = [[directoryPaths objectAtIndex:0] URLByAppendingPathComponent:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"photos.jpg"]];
NSError* theError = nil;
[fm createDirectoryAtURL:dirPath withIntermediateDirectories:YES attributes:nil error:&theError];
// Saves the photo to the file?
[photoToSave writeToURL: dirPath atomically:NO];
NSLog(#"%#", dirPath);
//I get a deprecated warning, new version needs encoding, but I did not specify encoding in writeToURL so what do I use?
NSString * contents = [NSString stringWithContentsOfURL:dirPath ];
//After this how to I access my files and check what the contents of the file are? also, how do I limit the amount of information it stores? thanks
}
check this to how to get saved contents like this:
NSArray *dirContents = [[NSFileManager defaultManager] contentsOfDirectoryAtPath:dirPath error:nil];
Now filter contains like this:
NSPredicate *fltr = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"self ENDSWITH '.jpg'"];
NSPredicate *fltr1 = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"self ENDSWITH '.png'"];
NSArray *onlyJPGs = [dirContents filteredArrayUsingPredicate:fltr];
NSArray *onlyPNGs = [dirContents filteredArrayUsingPredicate:fltr1];
To get all image content
for(NSString *fileName in dirContents)
{
NSString *imgPath = [dirPath stringByAppendingFormat:fileName];
UIImage *img = [UIImage imageWithContentsOfFile:imgPath];
//You have image use it where u want
}
If u have many images then use lazy loading of images
You are not required to handle everything by yourself. I would rather use EGO Image Loader which does pretty everything for you. it saves (cached) images in application bundle directory and reuse them whenever you need it. As far as study the classes, it uses the image url as primary key (to retrieve the image from cache).
Its pretty fast and Asynchronous.
Just add it to your project and call it like this:(This is ARC, so I don't use -release)
UIImageView *imageView = [[EGOImageView alloc] initWithPlaceholderImage:[UIImage imageNamed:#"placeholder.png"]];
imageView.frame = CGRectMake(0.0f, 44.0f, 320.0f,54.0f);
imageView.imageURL = [NSURL URLWithString:#"www.example.com/1.jpg"] ;
[self.view addSubview:imageView];
I hope it's useful.
I'm trying to save some comments in a plist, that's OK cause its just a prototype. The problem is that i can read from plist but when I try to write and read after that, it throws an "array out of bounds" exception. I can't figure it out what I'm doing wrong here.
NSString *filePath = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:#"Comments" ofType:#"plist"];
NSMutableArray *plistArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:filePath];
NSMutableDictionary *newComment = [NSMutableDictionary dictionary];
[newComment setValue:commentTitle.text forKey:#"title"];
[newComment setValue:comment forKey:#"comment"];
[plistArray addObject:newComment];
[plistArray writeToFile:filePath atomically:NO];
That works fine, then i try to read:
NSString *filePath = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:#"Comments" ofType:#"plist"];
NSMutableArray *plistArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:filePath];
NSMutableDictionary *dictionary = (NSMutableDictionary *) [plistArray objectAtIndex:0];
NSLog(#"%#", [dictionary objectForKey:#"title"]);
And it throws the exception.
If I add the item manually to the plist, it works fine, i guess it means that my reading code its fine.
Could it be the structure of my plist?
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<array>
</array>
</plist>
* Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSRangeException', reason: '-[__NSCFArray objectAtIndex:]: index (1) beyond bounds (1)'
I added the "description" to the array before writing to the plist. If i use the following code:
NSString *aDocumentsDirectory = [NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES) lastObject];
// NSString *aFilePath = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#/Comments.plist", aDocumentsDirectory];
//
// NSMutableArray *plistArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:aFilePath];
The return is (null)
But if i use:
NSString *filePath = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:#"Comments" ofType:#"plist"];
NSMutableArray *plistArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:filePath];
i can see the contents of the array, and its all working properly.
The problem is: In both ways i cant write to the file, it keeps returning "NO". And i already checked the permissions
You are trying to write the file into mainBundle. Definitely not possible.
You will have to write the plist file to Documents or Application Support folder of the app.
Create File Path in Documents Directory :
NSString *aDocumentsDirectory = [NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES) lastObject];
NSString *aFilePath = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#/Comments.plist", aDocumentsDirectory];
Write to FilePath
[plistArray writeToFile:aFilePath atomically:YES];
Read From FilePath
NSMutableArray *plistArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:aFilePath];
I see two problems with your code:
(May or may not be a problem). If the file does not exist initially, the initWithContentsOfFile: selector will return nil, causing the rest of your code to be no-ops.
(Probably the cause). You may not write to the bundle resources directory. Store your file in the Documents or Caches directory instead.
To locate your documents directory, use something like this:
- (NSString*) pathForDocument:(NSString*)documentName {
NSArray *documentDirectories = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
if(documentDirectories.count < 1) return nil;
return [[documentDirectories objectAtIndex:0] stringByAppendingPathComponent:documentName];
}
First of all, why are you writing a file into your bundle?
Then, to address your problem, check if you actually did write the file.
if ([plistArray writeToFile:filePath atomically:NO])
NSLog (#"Written");
else
NSLog (#"Not Written");
Also, log your array when you're read it using -(void)description to check the contents of the dictionary.
Edit
As you said that you're not writing to your plist. For now, just create a test plist on your desktop.
NSString *testPath = [[NSString stringWithString:#"~/Desktop/Comments.plist"] stringByExpandingTildeInPath];
if ([plistArray writeToFile:testPath atomically:NO])
NSLog (#"Written");
else
NSLog (#"Not Written");
If that still returns Not Written, then there's something wrong with your dictionary. Which I doubt because it's just strings (Though they could be placeholders for asking your question on stackoverflow. The docs states that the classes in the dictionary must be of NSData, NSDate, NSNumber, NSString, NSArray, or NSDictionary). If that says written though, I'm guessing it doesn't write to your bundle because of permissions, which then you have to change your plist location to somewhere else other than your bundle, which I highly recommend.
If you only put one item in the array, you should obviously use index 0 instead of 1 when reading from it:
NSMutableDictionary *dictionary = (NSMutableDictionary *) [plistArray objectAtIndex:0];
Here is the code:
-(void)viewDidLoad {
[super viewDidLoad];
//Verb data read, sorted and assigned to a dictionary
NSBundle *bundle = [NSBundle mainBundle];
NSString *plistPath = [bundle pathForResource:#"VerbDictionary" ofType:#"plist"];
NSDictionary *verbDictionary = [[NSDictionary alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:plistPath];
NSArray *verbs = [verbDictionary allKeys];
NSArray *vSorted = [verbs sortedArrayUsingSelector:#selector(compare:)];
NSString *selectedVerb = [vSorted objectAtIndex:0];
NSArray *vArray = [verbDictionary objectForKey:selectedVerb];
self.verbArrayData = [[NSArray alloc] initWithArray:vArray];
}
Here is a screenshot of the Error message I'm getting:
(from https://plus.google.com/u/0/113629344949177123204/posts/SwHzXL6kvvJ)
The self.verbArrayData is not populating from the vArray. self.verbDataArray is nil and it shouldn't be.
I have tried this from scratch and I have done this before, actually, in the past, but via iOS 4 and Release/retain memory management. This is the first pure iOS 5 ARC app I have started.
Any ideas?
I figured it out... But I am not sure why it works. Self.verbArrayData is invalid. However, just verbArrayData works just fine. So, I changed self.verbArrayData = [[NSArray...] TO just verbArrayData = [[NSArray...] and it compiled and ran fine. So, self.verbArrayData is the getter not the setter in this case; I think. THanks - –
I'm trying to combine images in my app into one file and write it to disk.
NSMutableArray *array = [NSMutableArray arrayWithObjects:
[NSData dataWithContentsOfFile:#"0.png"],
[NSData dataWithContentsOfFile:#"1.png"],
[NSData dataWithContentsOfFile:#"2.png"],
nil];
NSData *data = [NSKeyedArchiver archivedDataWithRootObject:array];
NSError *error = nil;
NSString *path=#"/Users/myusername/Desktop/_stuff.dat";
[data writeToFile:path options:NSDataWritingAtomic error:&error];
or
NSArray *array = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:
[NSImage imageNamed:#"0"],
[NSImage imageNamed:#"1"],
[NSImage imageNamed:#"2"],
nil];
NSData *data = [NSKeyedArchiver archivedDataWithRootObject:array];
NSError *error = nil;
NSString *path=#"/Users/myusername/Desktop/_stuff.dat";
[data writeToFile:path options:NSDataWritingAtomic error:&error];
But both produce a file that is 4KB (empty). If I NSLog the error it is (null). Am I making the data the wrong way?
Edit: If I open the resulting file with a text editor, it looks like this:
I wrote a quick example:
Missing: memory management / error handling / proper file handling
// Archive
NSMutableArray *array = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
NSString * input = #"/Users/Anne/Desktop/1.png";
[array addObject:[NSData dataWithContentsOfFile:input]];
[array addObject:[NSData dataWithContentsOfFile:input]];
[array addObject:[NSData dataWithContentsOfFile:input]];
NSData *data = [NSKeyedArchiver archivedDataWithRootObject:array];
NSString *path = #"/Users/Anne/Desktop/archive.dat";
[data writeToFile:path options:NSDataWritingAtomic error:nil];
// Unarchive
NSMutableArray *archive = [NSKeyedUnarchiver unarchiveObjectWithFile:path];
NSData * firstObject = [archive objectAtIndex:0];
NSString * output = #"/Users/Anne/Desktop/2.png";
NSURL *fileURL = [[NSURL alloc] initFileURLWithPath:output];
[firstObject writeToURL:fileURL atomically:YES];
You can also add NSImages to the NSMutableArray:
NSString * input = #"/Users/Anne/Desktop/1.png";
NSImage *image = [[NSImage alloc] initWithContentsOfFile: input];
[array addObject:image];
But that will significantly increase the file size.
Response to the following comment:
So if I only need to access an image at runtime (in the archive), is there a way to access that image at an index without unarchiving the whole thing? Seems like unnecessary overhead to me.
I assume you're still struggling with this problem?
Hiding (or encrypting) app resources?
Like i mentioned earlier, combining all files into one big file does the trick.
Just make sure you remember the file-length of each file and file-order.
Then you can extract any specific file you like without reading the whole file.
This might be a more sufficient way if you only need to extract one file at the time.
Quick 'dirty' sample:
// Two sample files
NSData *fileOne = [NSData dataWithContentsOfFile:#"/Users/Anne/Desktop/1.png"];
NSData *fileTwo = [NSData dataWithContentsOfFile:#"/Users/Anne/Desktop/2.png"];
// Get file length
int fileOneLength = [fileOne length];
int fileTwoLength = [fileTwo length];
// Combine files into one container
NSMutableData * container = [[NSMutableData alloc] init];
[container appendData:fileOne];
[container appendData:fileTwo];
// Write container to disk
[container writeToFile:#"/Users/Anne/Desktop/container.data" atomically:YES];
// Read data and extract sample files again
NSData *containerFile = [NSData dataWithContentsOfFile:#"/Users/Anne/Desktop/container.data"];
NSData *containerFileOne =[containerFile subdataWithRange:NSMakeRange(0, fileOneLength)];
NSData *containerFileTwo =[containerFile subdataWithRange:NSMakeRange(fileOneLength, fileTwoLength)];
// Write extracted files to disk (will be exactly the same)
[containerFileOne writeToFile:#"/Users/Anne/Desktop/1_extracted.png" atomically:YES];
[containerFileTwo writeToFile:#"/Users/Anne/Desktop/2_extracted.png" atomically:YES];
// Only extract one file from the container
NSString * containerPath = #"/Users/Anne/Desktop/container.data";
NSData * oneFileOnly = [[NSFileHandle fileHandleForReadingAtPath:containerPath] readDataOfLength:fileOneLength];
// Write result to disk
[oneFileOnly writeToFile:#"/Users/Anne/Desktop/1_one_file.png" atomically:YES];
Tip:
You can also save the 'index' inside the container file.
For example: The first 500 bytes contain the required information.
When you need a specific file: Read the index, get the file position and extract it.
You are archiving a NSMutable array of NSImage. This two classes conform to the NSCoding protocol required by NSKeyedArchiver, so I don't see where would be your problem.
So, here are many ideas to test.
First, are you sure that the data you think you have are valid? In your first code snippet, you write [NSData dataWithContentsOfFile:#"0.png"]. This method expects an absolute file path.
Assuming the problem is not in your code, just in your question, let's continue:
Do you have something different than nil in the variable data after your archiving? Ie, after the assignement to data, can you add this code. If the assertion fail, you will get an exception at runtime:
NSData *data = [NSKeyedArchiver archivedDataWithRootObject:array];
NSAssert(nil != data, #"My object data is nil after archiving");
If the problem was not here, what is the return of the line [data writeToFile:path options:NSDataWritingAtomic error:&error];
(Not the variable error, but the return value of the call to the method - writeToFile: options: error:)
What happens if you simplify your code and just do this:
result = [NSKeyedArchiver archiveRootObject:data
toFile:archivePath];
If everything was ok, have you tried to unarchive your file with NSKeyedUnarchiver?
The problem is that [NSData dataWithContentsOfFile:#"0.png"] looks for the file "0.png" in the current directory, but what the application thinks of as the current directory is probably not the place you're expecting. For graphical apps, you should always either use an absolute path or a path relative to some place that you can get the absolute path of (e.g. your app bundle, the application support directory, some user-selected location).
For command-line tools, using the current directory is more common. But I doubt that's the case here.
Another thing I noticed on Mavericks and up is that the folders in the path must be in existence. Meaning you must create the folder structure prior to saving into that folder. If you try to write to a folder on the desktop or elsewhere, even with sandboxing off, it will fail if the folder does not exist. I know this has been answered already, but I found that my issue continued regardless, but once I make sure that the folder structure was in place, I could do my writing to that folder.
On a side note: I'm sure that you could do this from NSFileManager, and I'll be doing that myself once I finalize my app structure, but hope this helps someone else lost in the sauce.