storing address book records - objective-c

Question

I have creating an address book application . My AddressController.h class is ---
#interface AddressController : NSObject {
IBOutlet id nameField;
IBOutlet id addressField;
IBOutlet id tableView;
NSMutableArray *records;
}
- (IBAction)addRecord:(id)sender;
- (IBAction)deleteRecord:(id)sender;
- (IBAction)insertRecord:(id)sender;
#end
Implementation class is as follow:-
#implementation AddressController
- (id)init
{
records = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
return self;
}
- (NSDictionary *)createRecord
{
NSMutableDictionary *record = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init];
[record setObject:[nameField stringValue] forKey:#"Name"];
[record setObject:[addressField stringValue] forKey:#"Address"];
[record autorelease];
return record;
}
- (IBAction)addRecord:(id)sender
{
[records addObject:[self createRecord]];
[tableView reloadData];
}
- (IBAction)deleteRecord:(id)sender
{
int status;
NSEnumerator *enumerator;
NSNumber *index;
NSMutableArray *tempArray;
id tempObject;
if ( [tableView numberOfSelectedRows] == 0 )
return;
NSBeep();
status = NSRunAlertPanel(#"Warning!", #"Are you sure that you want to delete the selected record(s)?", #"OK", #"Cancel", nil);
if ( status == NSAlertDefaultReturn )
{
enumerator = [tableView selectedRowEnumerator]; //enumerator here gets indexes of selected rows
tempArray = [NSMutableArray array];
while ( (index = [enumerator nextObject]) )
{
tempObject = [records objectAtIndex:[index intValue]]; // we store selected rows in temporary array
[tempArray addObject:tempObject];
}
[records removeObjectsInArray:tempArray]; // we delete records from 'records' array which are present in temporary array
[tableView reloadData];
}
}
- (IBAction)insertRecord:(id)sender
{
int index = [tableView selectedRow];
[records insertObject:[self createRecord] atIndex:index];
[tableView reloadData];
}
- (int)numberOfRowsInTableView:(NSTableView *)aTableView
{
return [records count];
}
- (id)tableView:(NSTableView *)aTableView objectValueForTableColumn:(NSTableColumn *)aTableColumn row:(int)rowIndex
{
id theRecord, theValue;
theRecord = [records objectAtIndex:rowIndex];
theValue = [theRecord objectForKey:[aTableColumn identifier]];
return theValue;
}
- (void)awakeFromNib
{
[tableView reloadData];
}
#end
I am able to add and delete records to/from address book. But when I start the application again all records are gone. I want to store records somewhere (like in user defaults ) so that when I start the application again existing records are shown in the address book.
I am not getting the idea how to do it using user defaults.
Please suggest solution.

Answer 1

Do not use user defaults for this. You may want to explore Core Data. Another option to explore is NSCoding.
NSCoding will have less of a learning curve, fairly simple to implement. Core Data is tougher to grasp, but would be the wiser choice in the long run.