Saving JSON into Realm - swift

Question

For my project I want to save data I'm getting from an API in realm and then display it in a table view.
The JSON will look like this:
{"books":[{"author":"Chinua Achebe", "title":"Things Fall Apart","imageLink":"http://books.google.com/books/content?id=plk_nwEACAAJ&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=5&source=gbs_api"}]}
I've tried a few different things, but I can't figure out how to decode and store the JSON properly. I have used this function before for parsing the JSON, but when I add the realm Code I'm getting errors.
My function for fetching the JSON is:
func fetchArticle(){
let urlRequest = URLRequest(url: URL(string: "https:/mocki.io/v1/89aa9fe9-fdba-463f-99b3-5d8b6bc1d32e")!)
let task = URLSession.shared.dataTask(with: urlRequest) { (data,response,error) in
if error != nil {
print(error)
return
}
self.books = [Books]()
do {
let json = try JSONSerialization.jsonObject(with: data!, options: .mutableContainers) as! [String: AnyObject]
if let booksFromJson = json["books"] as? [[String : AnyObject]]{
for bookFromJson in booksFromJson {
let book = Books()
if let title = bookFromJson["title"] as? String, let author = bookFromJson["author"] as? String, let imageLink = bookFromJson["imageLink"] as? String {
book.author = author
book.title = title
book.imageLink = imageLink
}
self.books?.append(book)
let realm = try! Realm()
for books in bookFromJson {
try! realm.write {
realm.add(books, update: .all)
}
}
DispatchQueue.main.async {
self.tableview.reloadData()
}
} catch let error {
print(error)
}
}
task.resume()
}
}
}
This is my Struct:
class Books: Object, Decodable {
#objc dynamic var author: String?
#objc dynamic var imageLink: String?
#objc dynamic var title: String?
convenience init(author: String, imageLink: String, title: String) {
self.init()
self.author = author
self.imageLink = imageLink
self.title = title
}
override static func primaryKey() -> String? {
return "author"
}
private enum CodingKeys: String, CodingKey {
case author
case imageLink
case title
}
}
This are the errors im getting in the func:
Invalid conversion from throwing function of type '(Data?, URLResponse?, Error?) throws -> Void' to non-throwing function type '(Data?, URLResponse?, Error?) -> Void'
'let' declarations cannot be computed properties

Answer 1

There are probably a 100 different ways to map your json to a realm object but let's keep it simple. First I assume your incoming json may be several books so it would look like this
let jsonStringWithKey = """
{
"books":
[{
"author":"Chinua Achebe",
"title":"Things Fall Apart",
"imageLink":"someLink"
},
{
"author":"another author",
"title":"book title",
"imageLink":"another link"
}]
}
"""
So encode it as data
guard let jsonDataWithKey = jsonStringWithKey.data(using: .utf8) else { return }
Then, using JSONSerialization, map it to an array. Keeping in mind the top level object is "books" and AnyObject will be all of the child data
do {
if let json = try JSONSerialization.jsonObject(with: jsonDataWithKey) as? [String: AnyObject] {
if let bookArray = json["books"] as? [[String:AnyObject]] {
for eachBook in bookArray {
let book = Book(withBookDict: eachBook)
try! realm.write {
realm.add(book)
}
}
}
}
} catch {
print("Error deserializing JSON: \(error)")
}
and the Realm object is
class Book: Object, Codable {
#objc dynamic var author = ""
#objc dynamic var title = ""
#objc dynamic var imageLink = ""
convenience init(withBookDict: [String: Any]) {
self.init()
self.author = withBookDict["author"] as? String ?? "No Author"
self.title = withBookDict["title"] as? String ?? "No Title"
self.imageLink = withBookDict["imageLink"] as? String ?? "No link"
}
}
Again, there are a LOT of different ways of handling this so this is kind of the basics that can be expanded on.
As a suggestion, Realm Results are live-updating objects that also have corresponding events. So a neat thing you can do is to make a results object your tableView datasource and add an observer to it.
Results objects work very much like an array.
As books are added, updated or deleted from realm, the results object will reflect those changes and an event will be fired for each one - that makes keeping your tableView updated very simple.
So in your viewController
class ViewController: NSViewController {
var bookResults: Results<PersonClass>? = nil
#IBOutlet weak var bookTableView: NSTableView!
var bookToken: NotificationToken?
self.bookResults = realm.objects(Book.self)
and then
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
self.bookToken = self.bookResults!.observe { changes in
//update the tableView when bookResults change

Answer 2

You have an error in terms of where you've placed your catch statement -- it should be in line with the do { } block. This might be easier to see if you format/indent your code (Ctrl-i in Xcode).
func fetchArticle(){
let urlRequest = URLRequest(url: URL(string: "https:/mocki.io/v1/89aa9fe9-fdba-463f-99b3-5d8b6bc1d32e")!)
let task = URLSession.shared.dataTask(with: urlRequest) { (data,response,error) in
if let error = error {
print(error)
return
}
self.books = [Books]()
do {
let json = try JSONSerialization.jsonObject(with: data!, options: .mutableContainers) as! [String: AnyObject]
if let booksFromJson = json["books"] as? [[String : AnyObject]]{
for bookFromJson in booksFromJson {
let book = Books()
if let title = bookFromJson["title"] as? String, let author = bookFromJson["author"] as? String, let imageLink = bookFromJson["imageLink"] as? String {
book.author = author
book.title = title
book.imageLink = imageLink
}
self.books?.append(book)
let realm = try! Realm()
for books in bookFromJson {
try! realm.write {
realm.add(books, update: .all)
}
}
DispatchQueue.main.async {
self.tableview.reloadData()
}
}
}
} catch { //<-- no need for `let error`
print(error)
}
}
task.resume() //<-- Moved outside the declaration
}