SwiftUI: Encode a struct to be saved in AppStorage - swift

Question

Currently trying to build my first app in swiftUI. The part I thought would be the easiest as become a nightmare... save a struct in AppStorage to be available upon restart of the app
I got two struct to save. The first is for player and I have implemented the RawRepresentable
struct Player: Codable, Identifiable {
let id: Int
let name: String
let gamePlayed: Int
let bestScore: Int
let nbrGameWon: Int
let nbrGameLost: Int
let totalScore: Int?
}
typealias PlayerList = [Player]
extension PlayerList: RawRepresentable {
public init?(rawValue: String) {
guard let data = rawValue.data(using: .utf8),
let result = try? JSONDecoder().decode(PlayerList.self, from: data)
else {
return nil
}
self = result
}
public var rawValue: String {
guard let data = try? JSONEncoder().encode(self),
let result = String(data: data, encoding: .utf8)
else {
return "[]"
}
return result
}
}
Calling in my view this way:
struct AddPlayerView: View {
#State var name: String = ""
#State var isDisabled: Bool = false
#State var modified: Bool = false
#AppStorage("players") var players: PlayerList = PlayerList()
...
}
The above works, now I also want to save the current game data, I have the following struct:
struct Game: Codable, Identifiable {
var id: Int
var currentPlayerIndexes: Int
var currentRoundIndex: Int?
var dealerIndex: Int?
var maxRounds: Int?
var dealResults: [Int: Array<PlayerRoundSelection>]?
var currentLeaderIds: Array<Int>?
var isGameInProgress: Bool?
}
extension Game: RawRepresentable {
public init?(rawValue: String) {
if rawValue == "" {
// did to fix issue when calling AppStorage, but it is probably a bad idea
self = Game(id:1, currentPlayerIndexes:1)
}
else {
guard let data = rawValue.data(using: .utf8),
let result = try? JSONDecoder().decode(Game.self, from: data)
else {
return nil
}
self = result
}
}
public var rawValue: String {
guard let data = try? JSONEncoder().encode(self),
let result = String(data: data, encoding: .utf8)
else {
return ""
}
return result
}
}
As soon as I try to modify the struct, it calls rawValue and the encoding fails with the following:
error: warning: couldn't get required object pointer (substituting NULL): Couldn't load 'self' because its value couldn't be evaluated
error: Execution was interrupted, reason: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (code=2, address=0x7ffee49bbff8).
Here part of the code that access the struct:
struct SelectPlayersView: View {
#AppStorage("currentGame") var currentGame: Game = Game(rawValue: "")!
....
NavigationLink(
destination: SelectModeTypeView(), tag: 2, selection: self.$selection) {
ActionButtonView(text:"Next", disabled: self.$isDisabled, buttonAction: {
var currentPlayers = Array<Int>()
self.players.forEach({ player in
if selectedPlayers.contains(player.id) {
currentPlayers.insert(player.id, at: currentPlayers.count)
}
})
// This used to be a list of indexes, but for testing only using a single index
self.currentGame.currentPlayerIndexes = 6
self.selection = 2
})
...
I found the code to encode here: https://lostmoa.com/blog/SaveCustomCodableTypesInAppStorageOrSceneStorage/
My understanding is that with the self in the encode, it generate an infinite loop hence the bad access.
I have really no knowledge how to properly encode this, any help, links would be appreciated

Answer 1

I had the same problem and I wanted to share my experience here.
I eventually found that apparently you cannot rely on the default Codable protocol implementation when used in combination with RawRepresentable.
So when I did my own Codable implementation, with CodingKeys and all, it worked!
I think your Codable implementation for Game would be something like:
enum CodingKeys: CodingKey {
case currentPlayerIndexes
case currentRoundIndex
// <all the other elements too>
}
init(from decoder: Decoder) throws {
let container = try decoder.container(keyedBy: CodingKeys.self)
self.currentPlayerIndexes = try container.decode(Int.self, forKey: .currentPlayerIndexes)
self.currentRoundIndex = try container.decode(Int.self, forKey: .currentRoundIndex)
// <and so on>
}
func encode(to encoder: Encoder) throws {
var container = encoder.container(keyedBy: CodingKeys.self)
try container.encode(currentPlayerIndexes, forKey: .currentPlayerIndexes)
try container.encode(currentRoundIndex, forKey: .currentRoundIndex)
// <and so on>
}
I then wondered why your Player coding/decoding did work and found that the default coding and decoding of an Array (i.e. the PlayerList, which is [Player]), works fine.