Storing Custom Object in NSMutableDictionary - objective-c

Question

I am trying to store a custom object in NSMutableDictionary. After saving when I read the object from NSMutableDictionary it's always null.
Here is the code
//Saving
NSMutableDictionary *dict = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init];
CustomObject *obj1 = [[CustomObject alloc] init];
obj1.property1 = #"My First Property";
[dict setObject:obj1 forKey:#"FirstObjectKey"];
[dict writeToFile:[self dataFilePath] atomically:YES];
// Reading
NSString *filePath = [self dataFilePath];
NSMutableDictionary *dict = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:filePath];
CustomObject *tempObj = [dict objectForKey:#"FirstObjectKey"];
NSLog(#"Object %#", tempObj);
NSLog(#"property1:%#,,tempObj.property1);
How can I store a custom class object in NSMutableDictionary?

Answer 1

The problem is not with putting the object into the dictionary; the problem is with writing it to a file.
Your custom class has to be serializable. You need to implement the NSCoding protocol so that Cocoa knows what to do with your class when you ask for it to be written out to disk.
This is pretty simple to do; you need to implement two methods that will look something like the following:
- (id)initWithCoder:(NSCoder *)coder {
self = [super init];
// If inheriting from a class that implements initWithCoder:
// self = [super initWithCoder:coder];
myFirstIvar = [[coder decodeObjectForKey:#"myFirstIvar] retain];
mySecondIvar = [[coder decodeObjectForKey:#"mySecondIvar] retain];
// etc.
return self;
}
- (void)encodeWithCoder:(NSCoder *)coder {
// If inheriting from a class that implements encodeWithCoder:
// [super encodeWithCoder:coder];
[coder encodeObject:myFirstIvar forKey:#"myFirstIvar"];
[coder encodeObject:mySecondIvar forKey:#"mySecondIvar"];
// etc.
}
Essentially you're just listing the ivars that you need to save, and then reading them back in properly.
UPDATE: As mentioned by Eimantas, you'll also need NSKeyedArchiver. To save:
NSData * myData = [NSKeyedArchiver archivedDataWithRootObject:myDict];
BOOL result = [myData writeToFile:[self dataFilePath] atomically:YES];
To reload:
NSData * myData = [NSData dataWithContentsOfFile:[self dataFilePath]];
NSDictionary * myDict = [NSKeyedUnarchiver unarchiveObjectWithData:myData];
I think that should do it.

Answer 2

writeToFile method can store only standard types of objects into plist. If you have custom object you'd have to use NSKeyedArchiver/NSKeyedUnarchiver for this.