xcode 9.2 ; swift 4
I want to persist some data for my ios app in the form of property lists. I don't want to use the Documents directory of the sandbox, since the user can manipulate it. I have two alternatives: the library directory and the applicationSupport directory. Is there an advantage in using one or the other?
Thanks in advance
I have two alternatives: the library directory and the applicationSupport directory. Is there an advantage in using one or the other?
Yes, Apple recommend you use Application Support.
Though a sandboxed app has its own private little file system hierarchy you are still expected to follow the guidelines as though the sandbox was not there.
Just remember, wherever you store the data the "user can manipulate it", hiding it in the sandbox is no deterrent to that.
HTH
Related
Note: I am very new to Swift programming (2 days only) and I am working on this piece of code as part of an ElectronJS project. So please don't mind my ignorance regarding the basics of the language. Thanks.
I have created a Swift app containing a Share App Extension.
Requirements:
The Share App Extension should be able to send the absolute file path of the shared files to the container app, i.e. If the user selects a file (abc.txt) from Desktop in Finder and Shares to my Application, then the Share App Extension should be able to get the file path as
/users/userName/Desktop/abc.txt
What I am struggling with here is how to get the file path of the files shared with the Share App Extension. What is the way to get file path of the attachments in NSExtensionItem that is available to the Share App Extension or is it available from some other object ?
(I am able to successfully use App Groups to share data between Share App Extension and the Application)
In the final project, the Share App Extension becomes a part of an ElectronJS project as mentioned earlier.
Is there a standard way to share the aforementioned information (file path of the attachments) from the Share App Extension to the main/renderer processes of the Electron application.
I am sharing the solutions below. Please bear in mind that these might not be the best possible solutions and I am open to suggestions.
Solution to Point #1:
Briefing: The user selects files from Finder to be shared via the Share App Extension of the application which is registered with the OS if the extension context of the selection matches to that of the Share App Extension. Upon doing so, the Share App Extension receives the extension context alongwith NSExtensionItem. The NSExtensionItem object contains the NSItemProvider object which is the object you'd get for all the files (attachments) shared via the Share App Extension.
Now, for each item type that you receive via the Share App Extension, after looking for the data that your function recognizes via hasItemConforminToTypeIdentifier(_:), you can use UTI (Uniform Type Identifier) to identify its data.
Remedy: Here, the crucial part is to understand that one should be treating their input files as firstly being of the type: kUTTypeURL. Then, in the completionHandler for the loadItem method of the NSItemProvider object one would get NSURL which is basically the file path I was looking for.
Solution to Point #2:
Briefing: The Share App Extension has the luxury of being written in Swift but the main app in our project does not ! The main application is written in ElectronJS which is far far far far from being integratable with Swift ! Except for the fact that the application written in ElectronJS has the ability to be packaged in the form of a dmg application, there is very little integratability between ElectronJS and Swift as far as the language and framework intertwining is concerned.
Premise:
So, the premise is to be able to share the filepaths extracted earlier to be passed from the Share App Extension (written in Swift) to the main application (written in ElectronJS). Now, if the main application was a Cocoa application, things would have been much easier. If both of them belong to the same App group, then using the Swift APIs they could have read/written synchronously to the Shared Memory. However, the problem arises as those APIs are not available in ElectronJS. One remedy can be to run the Swift code in a sandboxed environment within the ElectronJS application using nodeJS libraries. However, a sandboxed environment presents its own nuances in data sharing. So, I have kept this approach on hold for now.
So, the approach that I have chosen right now is to use App Data Directory to share this intermediary information. The Share App Extension would be writing the filepath information in the App Data directory of the application and the ElectronJS application would use nodeJs APIs to access this information. Keep in mind that this is a very primitive approach and requires menial efforts but the requirements for this particular case doesn't need stringent security measures anyhow.
However, I am positively looking for a better way to solve Problem #2.
I'm working on my first osx App and I want to save arrays of objects that I've created on a "project file" like you do in any program when using the "save" button.
I have been looking different ways to do it, Core Data, Document based app, but, I'm not sure how it works any of them to choose the best option for my app.
I want to save arrays of objects that have inside more arrays and other strings and doubles that contain information of the app that the user added. ( It can be a lot of data ) So for that reason I think Userdefault is not a good idea.
I also want to make the app able to open one of this projects saved.
So, could you help me to find which is the best way to do it?
I can suggest you to read iOS FileSystem Overview.
You must use the Data container to locate your local files. For this, you have to locate the NSDocumentDirectory with the NSUserDomainMask (call to NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains) and use standard NSFileManager class.
I read the apple documentation and some other links and found there are examples of using iCloud with only either UIDocument or Core Data.
I am having a folder created in documents directory named "backUPFolder" and it contains some images and other files in it.
I want to ask , if it is possible to move this backUPFolder in iCloud with all the data exist in this folder as it is.
If yes it is possible please provide me some useful link or suggest an approach which I can follow.
My requirement is to take a back up of my data on iCloud.
Please please help me.
I am stuck here.
Any suggestions would be highly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
I have also only seen the UIDocument and Core Data examples. What comes to mind is to transform your pics and docs into Core Data blobs and store them with core data anyway. This could also be very efficient.
Alternatively, you could check out the Dropbox APIs.
If your folder in the Documents or Library folder of your application, it will be backed up to iCloud automatically assuming the user has iCloud enabled (and that you haven't explicitly flagged the file as NSURLIsExcludedFromBackupKey).
Any manual interaction with iCloud as a developer is typically to share files explicitly between installations of your app. If your requirement is just to back up data, you don't need to do anything besides store the folder in Documents.
The situation: We would like to make an app that shows all files on an iOS Device
The system: iOS App, non jailbroken system
The question:
What files (and filetypes) are allowed to be accessed by every app (system-wide) ?
(PS: we won't do file-browser like actions like sub-folders, delete, etc .. )
UPDATE :
what you are trying to achieve is not possible because of the sandbox feature of the apps. though you can display certain file types using below description.
Previously Answered this
If I understand your question correctly, there is already a framework for what you are trying to achieve. It is called the quick look framework and supports these many file types...
A Quick Look preview controller can display previews for the following items:
iWork documents
Microsoft Office documents (Office ‘97 and newer)
Rich Text Format (RTF) documents
PDF files
Images
Text files whose uniform type identifier (UTI) conforms to the public.text type (see Uniform Type Identifiers Reference)
Comma-separated value (csv) files
you can have more info about it here...
You can't access anything other than your application folder. Your application is sandboxed and for good reasons (privacy, malware, etc...)
You can only access files within your application directory. Look here for a full explanation
If you don't mean files and just the content of the phone, there are APIs for
Photos
Contacts
Media from the Music app
I think it's rather impossible, but will ask anyway. My application uses file association to open some types of files. What I need is to make file associations within my app. For example I have some files in my app's Documents folder and when user wants to open that it would be a great idea to ask him in which application he would like it to open (like Mail app does).
It can possibly be done with URL schemes, but if I don't know what applications user has, it can't be used. So, is there any way to use the device's file associations within an application?
You should take a look at Document Interaction Programming Topics for iOS. It explains how you can use the UIDocumentInteractionController class to present the user a list of apps which support a given file.