Implementing a Search History feature in iOS - iphone

Question

I've got a search page at the moment which will load a list of results for a web-service, but when I return to the search page I would like to 'save' whatever was entered (e.g. 'resto italian') and then display that entry and previous entries into a table view below, like in my following image:
My plan was to use property list serialization - if there isn't already a list, create a property list called history.plist, and populate it with each search term that is made, and display the nearest ten in the table view like above.
What I've tried:
// should create history.plist
- (NSString *)dataFilePath {
NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentationDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
NSString *documentsDirectory = [paths objectAtIndex:0];
return [documentsDirectory stringByAppendingString:#"history.plist"];
}
/* This is the action for when 'search' is clicked - calls the method above to create
a new plist if it's not already created.
I then try to display the contents of the of the file in the textfield itself
(for testing purposes) but it's not saving/displaying properly at the moment. */
- (IBAction)saveHistory:(id)sender {
NSString *filePath = [self dataFilePath];
if([[NSFileManager defaultManager] fileExistsAtPath:filePath])
{
NSArray *array = [[NSArray alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:filePath];
for (int i = 0; i < (sizeof(array)); i++) {
UITextField *theField = self.searchHistory;
theField.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#", array];
}
}
UIApplication *app = [UIApplication sharedApplication];
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self selector:#selector(applicationWillResignActive:) name:UIApplicationWillResignActiveNotification object:app];
}
Any links to tutorials attempting to do this, suggestions towards what I should do, or improvements to what I have would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

This should fix the problem:
// This is inside viewDidLoad
UIApplication *myApp = [UIApplication sharedApplication];
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self
selector:#selector(applicationDidEnterBackground:)
name:UIApplicationDidEnterBackgroundNotification
object:myApp];
// This is inside my table view - where I'm loading the file data to display in table cells
NSString *myPath = [self dataFilePath];
BOOL fileExists = [[NSFileManager defaultManager] fileExistsAtPath:myPath];
if (fileExists) {
NSArray *values = [[NSArray alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:myPath];
for (int i = 0; i < values.count; i++) {
cell.historyDisplay.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#", [values objectAtIndex:i]];
}
}
// This is the file path for history.plist
- (NSString *)dataFilePath {
NSArray *path = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
return [[path objectAtIndex:0] stringByAppendingString:#"history.plist"];
}
// This is my search button - I want to save whatever was typed in the text field, into history.plist, to display in my tableview whenever a user goes to it.
- (IBAction)saveHistory:(id)sender {
NSMutableArray *values = [[NSMutableArray alloc]initWithContentsOfFile:[self dataFilePath]];
if(searchInputTextField.text.length > 0)
[values addObject:searchInputTextField.text];
[values writeToFile:[self dataFilePath] atomically:YES];
[leTableView reloadData];
}

Answer 2

I would use my suggest in comments, but here's some edits to your code that might help in the meantime.
NSArray *array = [[NSArray alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:filePath];
for (int i = 0; i <array.count; i++) {
//I don't know what this line means
UITextField *theField = self.searchHistory;
//Change this line to this
theField.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#", [array objectAtIndex:i]];
}

Answer 3

I would use Core Data, creating a class, i.e. HistoryRecord with attributes termSearched and timestamp of type NSString and NSDate respectively.
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
#import <CoreData/CoreData.h>
#interface HistoryRecordManagedObject : NSManagedObject
#property (nonatomic, retain) NSString *termSearched;
#property (nonatomic, retain) NSDate *timestamp;
+ (NSArray *)findEntity:(NSString *)entity withPredicate:(NSPredicate *)predicate
#end
Implementation
#import "HistoryRecordManagedObject.h"
#implementation HistoryRecordManagedObject
#dynamic termSearched;
#dynamic timstamp;
+ (NSArray *)findEntity:(NSString *)entity withPredicate:(NSPredicate *)predicate
{
NSError *error;
NSArray *fetchedObjects;
/* After set all properties, executes fetch request */
NSFetchRequest *fetchRequest = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] init];
NSEntityDescription *entityDesc = [NSEntityDescription entityForName:entity
inManagedObjectContext:managedObjectContext];
[fetchRequest setEntity:entityDesc];
[fetchRequest setPredicate:predicate];
fetchedObjects = [managedObjectContext executeFetchRequest:fetchRequest error:&error];
[fetchRequest release];
return fetchedObjects;
}
#end
Of course that's not just this! There are some extra stuff that must be done to use Core Data such as create the model. Read a little about it! It's worth!
Good luck!

Answer 4

In the action for searching, just save the search result to NSUserDefaults.
NSMutableArray *searches = [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] arrayForKey:#"searches"];
[searches insertObject:textField.text atIndex:0];
[[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] setObject:searches forKey:#"searches"];
[[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] synchronize];
Then load the same array for the tables data source and reload the table in viewwillappear and when keyboard is dismissed.

Answer 5

Replace your saveHistory function by below way:
- (IBAction)saveHistory:(id)sender
{
NSMutableArray *values = [[NSMutableArray alloc]initWithContentsOfFile:[self dataFilePath]];
if(searchInputTextField.text.length > 0)
[values addObject:searchInputTextField.text];
[values writeToFile:[self dataFilePath] atomically:YES];
[leTableView reloadData];
}
- (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section
{
return values.count;
}
- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
static NSString *CellIdentifier = #"Cell";
UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier];
if (cell == nil)
{
cell = [[[UITableViewCell alloc] initWithStyle:UITableViewCellStyleValue1 reuseIdentifier:CellIdentifier] autorelease];
}
cell.textLabel.text = [values objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];
}