NSDictionary with specific property of plist - objective-c

I have a plist with key values.
Each key represent a language, let's say 'it' 'en' ....ecc
The value of each key is another key/value(=array) set. At startup I would like to create a dictionary by reading only a specific key. Let's say the locale of my iphone is 'it', then the init method would only parse it key, because the only way I found by now is to make a dictionary from the whole plist file and then another dictionary.
But I can imagine this can become quite cpu consuming if I add more language in the future.
thanks
Leonardo

Why not localize the plist file, thus having multiple plists?

Related

MCNearbyServiceAdvertiser Multi-Object DiscoveryInfo

I do not understand how this makes sense. I put two objects in the discoveryinfo dictionary inside the MCNearbyServiceAdvertiser object that I create and the browser doesn't see the advertiser, yet when I move the second object out of the dictionary and comment it out at the end of the line, the browser sees the advertiser. Does the discoveryinfo dictionary only accept one object to work? I have a string as the first object and an array as the second. Here is what it looks like:
advertiser = [[MCNearbyServiceAdvertiser alloc] initWithPeer:myPeerID discoveryInfo:#{#"Name": [[NSString alloc] initWithString:myUniqueID], #"Peers": [[NSArray alloc] initWithArray:connectedPeersAry]} serviceType:#"Blahblah"];
And before that line, I tried this simpler format (but went to the above just in case the syntax was the problem):
advertiser = [[MCNearbyServiceAdvertiser alloc] initWithPeer:myPeerID discoveryInfo:#{#"Name": myUniqueID, #"Peers": connectedPeersAry} serviceType:#"FRCSCOUT"];
I guess I can put a dictionary or array inside the discoveryinfo dictionary, but I feel it's a pretty dumb way of doing things because a dictionary shouldn't ever be limited to one object for any case.
I'll go ahead and put my objects in another layer to "conserve space" inside the discoveryinfo dictionary, but if any of you find a better way of doing things or if you are seeing the same problem, please let me know.
You can have multiple objects in the discoveryInfo dictionary, but keep in mind that the dictionary will be encoded in a Bonjour TXT record. This imposes a few restrictions on what can be put into that dictionary.
As stated in the documentation for [MCNearbyServiceAdvertiser initWithPeer:discoveryInfo:serviceType:]:
This data is advertised using a Bonjour TXT record, encoded according to RFC 6763 (section 6). As a result:
The key-value pair must be no longer than 255 bytes (total) when encoded in UTF-8 format with an equals sign (=) between the key and the value.
Keys cannot contain an equals sign.
For optimal performance, the total size of the keys and values in this dictionary should be no more than about 400 bytes so that the entire advertisement can fit within a single Bluetooth data packet.
Well, found my problem. As quoted by Apple in their class reference for MCNearbyServiceAdvertiser:
"The content of discoveryInfo will be advertised within Bonjour TXT records, so you should keep the dictionary small for better discovery performance."
So, looks like I'll have to use a comma separated string of some sort...
EDIT
I misunderstood the Multipeer Connectivity API. I thought the roles were reversed and the Advertiser was basically the public host for a Multipeer Session, but it should be the Browser that invites Advertisers. I now just have the Unique ID generated as the discovery info.
Thank you all for your help and sorry for the API confusion on my part.

Cocoa - Search field with Plist

I am sorry to ask this but I have searched for hours on doing this but I really don't understand it. Please help me. I have a .plist file in my Xcode project and it's root is a Dictionary type. It contains about 50 more dictionaries. Inside the dictionary contains strings. (Dictionary(root) > Dictionary > String. I added a search field to my toolbar and linked it to my code. I am able to get what the user types but then how do I "search" after getting what the user typed? Is there a method for this and how do I link it into my .plist? Thank you so much!!!
You want to search for the user entered string in your Dictionary of Dictionaries?
You're going to have to iterate each dictionary, asking [dict objectForKey:userEntry] in each. Not sure if you want to only find first match or all matches too.
Additionally, you may want to create an abstraction of your Dictionary of Dictionaries to reduce the scale of the problem and clarify the API. In simpler terms, wrap your Dictionary of Dictionaries in a class and put a sensible (non-dictionary-based) set of methods on it. It's probably worth the effort.
To load the plist into a Dictionary, look at [Dictionary dictionaryWithContentsOfFile].
Edit: Filtering options on NSDictionary
Have you looked at the following options for filtering values in an NSDictionary:
[NSDictionary keysOfEntriesPassingTest:] (10.6 and later) or
take the [rootDictionary allValues] NSArray and use Predicates, perhaps like this.

KVC for an entry in NSDictionary

I have an NSDictionary of strings mapping to numbers that contains properties of an object to be edited in the UI, e.g.
Length : 1
Height : 2
Now trying to bind text fields in the UI to entries in the dictionary using the key of items in the dictionary in the key path fails miserably, so is trying to simply access entries in the dictionary with valueForKey: like
NSLog(#"KVC: %#", [self valueForKey:#"keysAndValues"]);
--> OK, Dump shows that Length is stored in the dictionary.
NSLog(#"KVC: %#", [self valueForKey:#"keysAndValues.Length"]);
[< YourClass 0x114608de0> valueForUndefinedKey:]:
this class is not key value coding-compliant for the key keysAndValues.Length.
Any suggestions on how to set up UI bindings with a pretty generic model having all it's stuff stored in a dictionary? I'm pretty sure I've read that KVC/KVO with paths to access individual entries in a dictionary actually works - but can't find the topic any more..
You want to use valueForKeyPath:, which takes a list of keys, separated by periods. Just using valueForKey can't include a series of keys as in your code.

How to import a very large array Objective-C

I am creating an iOS word game and need to import every word in the English dictionary. I have to check if a string is part of the array or set or whatever it may be. What is the best and most memory efficient way of importing and utilizing the data?
I feel like I'm working for them, haha, but LexiconText has a very nice product indeed, and it isn't too hard to determine if the word is in the dictionary or not:
Lexicontext *dictionary = [Lexicontext sharedDictionary];
BOOL wordExists = [dictionary containsDefinitionFor:#"MyWord"];
Note: I am not affiliated with lexicontext in any way, other than being a happy customer.
You should use sqlite or another database to store the dictionary. Then you don't have to load it all into memory, but get fast loading of words.

How can i save JSON objects to Core Data?

I'm a nwebie in Core Data, i have designed a navigation based application and some of the data i use are created on run time(come from a URL via JSON). I took a few tutorials an searched for almost a day but haven't still realized how to save the incoming JSON data to the Entity (or event?) in my Core Data model. I fetch the data in the DetailViewController class and i need to save this data to Core Data(I have prepared an Entity with 7 properties). Can anyone please help?(If you know a good tutorial or sample code i will be pleased)
EDIT This may be a little specific but i really have trouble with and need just a little help.
My data comes to the app from a kind of restful server(i wrote it in PHP), firstly user enters his/her login informations(which i have saved to the database on server before) and when the response data comes i will use different elements of it in differen views(for example the user_id will be used on a view and the buttonData etc on other views). My question is, how will i save JSON data into my core data model(has tree Entities for the moment). Thanks in advance
Note: I lokked arround a lot but couldn't find any answer&tutorial about an app like mine
The best way to do that would be to create entities corresponding to JSON structure. Easiest was is when each JSON object becomes an entity, and arrays become arrays of entities. Be reasonable, however, and don't introduce too much overkill for JSON subobjects that are essentially part of its superobject.
When you have created entities, you can start off with the parsing and translation. Use some JSON framework (starting from iOS5 there's one from Apple) and parse JSON string into object tree, where root item is either an NSArray or NSDictionary, and subelements will be NSArray, NSDictionary, NSNumber, NSString or NSNull.
Go over them one by one in iterational loops and assign according values to your core data entity attributes. You can make use of NSKeyValueCoding here and avoid too much manual mapping of the attribute names. If your JSON attributes are of the same name as entity attributes, you'll be able to just go over all dictionary elements and parse them into attributes of the same name.
Example
My parsing code in the similar situation was as follows:
NSDictionary *parsedFeed = /* your way to get a dictionary */;
for (NSString *key in parsedFeed) {
id value = [parsedFeed objectForKey:key];
// Don't assign NSNull, it will break assignments to NSString, etc.
if (value && [value isKindOfClass:[NSNull class]])
value = nil;
#try {
[yourCreatedEntity setValue:value forKey:property];
} #catch (NSException *exception) {
// Exception means such attribute is not defined in the class or some other error.
}
}
This code will work in trivial situation, however, it may need to be expanded, depending on your needs:
With some kinds of custom mappings in case you want your JSON value be placed in differently named attribute.
If your JSON has sub-objects or arrays of sub-objects, you will need to detect those cases, for example in setters, and initiate new parsing one level deeper. Otherwise with my example you will face the situation that assigns NSDictionary object to an NSManagedObject.
I don't think it is reasonable to dive into these, more advanced matters in scope of this answer, as it will expand it too much.
I suggest you to use this library : https://github.com/TouchCode/TouchJSON
And then if you want to make a factory to parse json and feed your code data, you can use selectors to call methods to fill all your attributes.
Chances are your JSON data gets converted to an NSDictionary or NSArray (or some combination of the two). Simply extract the key/values from the JSON structure and add them to your entity class.
This lib helps me lot
Features
Attribute and relationship mapping to JSON key paths.
Value transformation using named NSValueTransformer objects.
Object graph preservation.
Support for entity inheritance
Works vice-versa