I have 3 entities saved in core data. I am loading these in several view controllers in the app - sometimes loading data from all 3. Below is how I am loading this data and assign it to an array. Once it is in the array, then I sort, filter, count or whatever I need to do depending on the current page of the app.
if (managedObjectContext == nil)
{
managedObjectContext = [(AppDelegate *)[[UIApplication sharedApplication] delegate] managedObjectContext];
}
NSFetchRequest *request = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] init];
NSEntityDescription *entity = [NSEntityDescription entityForName:#"Event" inManagedObjectContext:managedObjectContext];
[request setEntity:entity];
[request setReturnsObjectsAsFaults:NO];
NSError *error = nil;
NSMutableArray *mutableFetchResults = [[managedObjectContext executeFetchRequest:request error:&error] mutableCopy];
if (mutableFetchResults == nil)
{
// Handle the error.
NSLog(#"mutableFetchResults == nil");
}
[self setEventsArray:mutableFetchResults];
The problems I am having are:
I don't like to have lots of duplicate code - and this is appearing on every view controller where core data is needed.
From one entity, I am saving binary data of images which is causing a lag when I load that data
So, is there a way to load from core data using conditions such as eventId = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#", currentEventId]
OR (and probably more suitable) have a separate class that loads the data when the app starts. And then I can access the classes arrays (of the loaded data) to use for the current page. And then just reload the data if I save, edit or delete an object.
Any help is much appreciated.
Fro your first question, you should look at MagicalRecord which brings Ruby on Rails' Active Record to CoreData. it will shorten clear your core data code.
Pay attention that if your images are not small you should store them on a separate entity with a relationship to your main entity. this should help you with the lag problem since you will load the image trough the relationship only when you will explicitly ask it to. You can see here the answer of Marcus Zarra (wrote a great book on core data). There is always an option that your images are too big for core data.
Hope it helps
Related
I am saving various entities into core data. Each time I need to access this data I am reading from Core data and assigning the required entity to a mutable array.
if (managedObjectContext == nil)
{
managedObjectContext = [(iForgetAppDelegate *)[[UIApplication sharedApplication] delegate] managedObjectContext];
}
NSFetchRequest *request = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] init];
NSEntityDescription *entity = [NSEntityDescription entityForName:#"Event" inManagedObjectContext:managedObjectContext];
[request setEntity:entity];
NSError *error = nil;
NSMutableArray *mutableFetchResults = [[managedObjectContext executeFetchRequest:request error:&error] mutableCopy];
if (mutableFetchResults == nil)
{
// Handle the error.
NSLog(#"mutableFetchResults == nil");
}
[self setEventsArray:mutableFetchResults];
[eventsTableView reloadData];
The problem is, I am retrieving this data from many different pages in the app.
What is the best practice when using Core Data? Should I just load the data in the App Delegate and assign the arrays there?
All advice is greatly appreciated.
Your setup with mutable arrays is already bad practice. Core data can sort, filter and display, arguably much better than mutable arrays.
You should consider using a NSFetchedResultsController to display your data. You can do the filtering and sorting by using predicates and sort descriptors. Such a solution should be infinitely more robust and scalable.
As for your specific question about saving, you can use the managed object context (keep a reference in your class or get it from the app delegate) to save that data anywhere.
Using NSFetchedResultsController gives you the functionality you want. Make sure to also use the NSFetchedResultsControllerDelegate protocol. Use NSFetchRequest to do the retrieval with sorting etc.
I need to execute fetch request. But when I do it I get not fault NSManagedObjects (each of the objects is about 5 Mb, that's why I get the memory warning). Apple provides faulting possibility for Core Data (when objects are not loaded in RAM). And I wanna my objects to use this possibility.
Here is my code
+ (NSMutableSet *)GetImagesWithPredicate:(NSPredicate *)predicate
{
NSString *entityName = kEntityName;
AppDelegate *appDelegate = [[UIApplication sharedApplication] delegate];;
NSManagedObjectContext *context = appDelegate.managedObjectContext;
NSEntityDescription *entityDesctiption = [NSEntityDescription
entityForName: entityName
inManagedObjectContext:context];
// find object
NSFetchRequest *request = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] init];
[request setEntity:entityDesctiption];
[request setPredicate:predicate];
NSArray *objects = [context executeFetchRequest:request error:nil];
[request release];
if (objects == nil)
{
NSLog(#"there was an error");
return nil;
}
NSMutableSet *set = [NSMutableSet setWithArray:objects];
return set;
}
where predicate is (id < 500).
App crashes after
NSArray *objects = [context executeFetchRequest:request error:nil];
because all the data of objects appears in the RAM of iPhone.
It seems that default option returnsObjectsAsFaults = YES doesn't work.
The objects are probably being returned as faults; you can verify this with isFault. The issue is that Core Data automatically pre-fetches the property values for those objects and places them in the row cache (in memory). You can disable this behaviour by setting includesPropertyValues to NO on the NSFetchRequest object.
See the includesPropertyValues documentation for details of all this and the performance implications.
As an aside, you might not want to store lots of large objects in the database directly. You probably should look into using external storage if you're targeting iOS 5, or else using separate files yourself with their names/paths/ids in Core Data.
you could set the - (void)setResultType:(NSFetchRequestResultType)type for the NSFetchRequest and only get the relevant attributes for your Object with the -(void)setPropertiesToFetch:(NSArray *)values Method.
And only lazy loading the needed attributes.
Maybe I'm not going about showing a detail for a selected row using CoreData, but I can't figure out why I'm getting a "BAD_ACCESS" error. I've googled around and can't find what I'm looking for.
Basically I use CoreData to populate the data for a Table View. It retrieves all of the title attributes for all of the entities. When the user clicks on a row, I have a Detail View that needs to show the description for that entity. I think I need to make a new NSManagedObjectContext and a new NSEntityDescription for a new NSFetchRequest in my DetailViewController and then use a NSPredicate to say "where title = [user selected title]". I get an error when I select a row. See code:
- (void)viewDidLoad
{
// Do any additional setup after loading the view from its nib.
// Get the objects from Core Data database
Caregiver_Activity_GuideAppDelegate *appDelegate = [[UIApplication sharedApplication] delegate];
NSManagedObjectContext *context = [appDelegate managedObjectContext];
NSEntityDescription *entityDescription = [NSEntityDescription
entityForName:#"Definition"
inManagedObjectContext:context];
NSFetchRequest *request = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] init];
[request setEntity:entityDescription];
NSPredicate *pred = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"(title = %#)", self.title];
[request setPredicate:pred];
NSError *error;
NSArray *objects = [context executeFetchRequest:request error:&error];
if (objects == nil) {
NSLog(#"There was an error!");
// Do whatever error handling is appropriate
}
for (NSManagedObject *oneObject in objects) {
[definitionDescriptionTextView setText:[oneObject valueForKey:#"desc"]];
}
[objects release];
[request release];
[super viewDidLoad];
}
I comment out that code and everything works. But when I try to debug with breakpoints, nothing catches. So I'm more confused.
I know CoreData is probably overkill for what I'm doing but this is a learning app for me.
EDIT: I didn't include that I'm using a sqlite database that is pre-populated with the entities.
You can also download my project on my github page.
Normally, with a Core Data backed Master-Detail interface, you don't fetch for the Detail view.
When you select a row in the Master tableview, you are selecting a particular managed object instance. You then pass that managed object instance to the detail view. There is no need to refetch the object that you selected in the tableview.
A good example of this would be the Contacts app. The Master tableview would be a list of Contact objects (displaying the name.) When you select a row, the Master tableview controller takes the specific Contact object associated with the selected row and then passes it to the Detail view controller which then populates the Detail view using data taking from the properties of the passed Contact object.
So, that entire code block where the error occurs is unnecessary.
However, the immediate error in this code is that you are releasing an object you didn't create. In this line:
NSArray *objects = [context executeFetchRequest:request error:&error];
... you are not creating a NSArray instance with a init, new or create method. Instead, you are merely receiving an autoreleased NSArray instance created and returned by the context NSManagedObjectContext instance. When you release an object you did not create here:
[objects release];
... you cause the crash.
Conversely, you do create a NSFetchRequest here:
NSFetchRequest *request = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] init];
... because you used init so you do have to balance that with:
[request relwase];
BTW, this type of code should not be put in viewDidLoad as the method is only called when the view is read in the first time from the nib file on disk. That is only guaranteed to happen once as the view may remain in memory when the user switches to another view. Instead, put code that needs to run each time the view appears in viewWillAppear.
I am new to Core data and still figuring out the nuts and bolts and this error has been bugging me for hours and I cant seem to find a solution. Any help is greatly appreciated.
The problem is like this
I have two views which fetch data from the server and Update the UI. I have set up the flow this way
view1 -> Send HTTP Req from Server - Receive Callback -> Save Data To Coredata -> Read From Core Data and display on the UI (callback and saving/reading Coredata happen in ViewController)
view2 -> Send HTTP Req from Server - Receive Callback -> Save Data To Coredata -> Read From Core Data and display on the UI (callback and saving/reading Coredata happen in ViewController)
View 2 repeats this process every 3 seconds as this is a auto refresh screen.
The problem is whenever I try to switch between views 1 and 2 real fast, it crashes the app with above error. If I wait for a few seconds on each view (wait for data to be fetched from the server), it works fine. Am I doing something wrong, what do I need to modify?
- (void) refreshData {
[super refreshData];
[[UserDataFactory sharedSingleton] refreshLoggedInUserDataAndRespondTo:self user:self.user];
}
- (BOOL) refreshDataCallback:(QExtendedHTTPOperation*)responseOperation {
[self saveToCoreData: responseOperation.responseArray];
NSMutableArray *tmp = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithArray:[self readFromCoreData]];
[self setData: tmp];
[tmp release];
[self.tableView reloadData];
return YES;
}
- (void) saveToCoreData:(NSArray *) responseArray{
NSFetchRequest *fetchRequest = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] init];
NSEntityDescription *entity = [NSEntityDescription entityForName:#"CoreView1" inManagedObjectContext:self.managedObjectContext];
[fetchRequest setEntity:entity];
[fetchRequest setReturnsObjectsAsFaults:NO];
NSError *error;
NSArray *items = [self.managedObjectContext executeFetchRequest:fetchRequest error:&error];
[fetchRequest release];
for (NSManagedObject *managedObject in items) {
[self.managedObjectContext deleteObject:managedObject];
}
for (int i=0; i<[responseArray count]; i++) {
CoreView1 *coreView1_ = [NSEntityDescription insertNewObjectForEntityForName:#"CoreView1" inManagedObjectContext:self.managedObjectContext];
coreView_.id = [[responseArray objectAtIndex:i] id];
[self.managedObjectContext insertObject:coreView1_];
}
[self saveContext:self.managedObjectContext];
}
- (NSArray *) readFromCoreData{
NSEntityDescription *entity = [NSEntityDescription entityForName:#"CoreView1" inManagedObjectContext:self.managedObjectContext];
NSFetchRequest *fetchRequest = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] init];
[fetchRequest setEntity:entity];
[fetchRequest setReturnsObjectsAsFaults:NO];
NSError *error;
NSMutableArray *fetchedObjects = [[self.managedObjectContext executeFetchRequest:fetchRequest error:&error] mutableCopy];
[fetchRequest release];
return [fetchedObjects autorelease];
}
This is the sample code I'm using, even View2 has the same callbacks and follows the same flow.
Edit 1
Forgot to mention this earlier, I always get the error in saveToCoreData method. Also, one more thing to note is that If I remove the code to delete objects it all works fine (I need to remove all the existing data from the table before I save the updated data). Not sure whats happening though.
The reason removing your delete code makes it work is because you are removing the data in the persistent store without updating the other view that still has managed object instances tied to that data still in memory. Remember, while Core Data deals with objects, each object has to have a row in the database behind it. When you delete that row, Core Data gets angry.
So, to fix this problem, and still delete your data, you should have your views listen for NSManagedObjectContextWillSaveNotification and/or NSManagedObjectContextDidSaveNotification notifications and update your views with the most up to date versions of data in your store. It is at this point you should throw away any Core Data objects your views are holding onto, and reload them from the store.
I just resolved this error in my code. Seems my cache was corrupted in some way. I used Christopher Pickslay & Keil Gillard's suggestion of deleting or renaming my cache, and voila, crash resolved.
NSFetchedResultsController index beyond bounds
For info, yesterday, I had the same error. I checked in a live version of the app, and it was still there. yikes.
I ran through all the permutations of adding info to the core data stack until the crash occurred.
I then looked at the sqlite file from the app in the simulator library using SqliteManager. I found a data error in one table. This had occurred as there is a starter db used the first time the app was run. The error was in the starter db.
Ran the app again, testing each field in each table. Found several more occurrences. I remember reading this question, and thought maybe someone else could benefit from my mistake.
Your over releasing fetchedObjects in your readFromCoreData method. executeFetchRequest will return to you autoreleased objects anyway. When the current run loop finished executing (when you're jumping from views) then it attempt to release the objects twice (assuming you haven't used your own autorelease pools).
I'd change
return [fetchedObjects autorelease];
to
return fetchedObjects;
I have a "Song" Entity and a "Tag" entity and they have a many to many relationship between them. A Song can have multiple Tags and a Tag can be applied to multiple Songs.
I want to check if a Song has a particular Tag associated with it. If the Song has the Tag associted with it, I want to show a checkmark in the table view.
For a similar logic, in Apple "TaggedLocations" sample code, the following check is made to check for the presence of the relationship.
if ([event.tags containsObject:tag]) {
cell.accessoryType = UITableViewCellAccessoryCheckmark;
}
This may be inefficient if there are a lot of Tags in the database as this will fetch all of them in the memory. Please correct me if I am wrong here.
Is there a more efficient way to check if the Song is associated with a particular Tag instead of checking in Song.Tags?
It's actually pretty easy to do, if completely undocumented. You want to create a fetch request with a predicate that has a set operation. If we imagine that your Tag model has a property called tagValue, the predicate you care about is "ANY tags.tagValue == 'footag'"
NSString *tagSearch = #"footag";
// However you get your NSManagedObjectContext. If you use template code, it's from
// the UIApplicationDelegate
NSManagedObjectContext *context = [delegate managedObjectContext];
// Is there no shortcut for this? Maybe not, seems to be per context...
NSEntityDescription *songEntity = [NSEntityDescription entityForName:#"Song" inManagedObjectContext:context];
NSFetchRequest *request = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] init];
[request setEntity:songEntity];
// The request looks for this a group with the supplied name
NSPredicate *predicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"ANY tags.tagValue == %#", tagSearch];
[request setPredicate:predicate];
NSError *error = nil;
NSArray *results = [context executeFetchRequest:request error:&error];
[request release];
You are correct, using that code will retrieve the entire set and the object comparison may be quite complex, depending on how many properties and relationship are part of the object's entity.
Anyway, you can not avoid a set comparison for inclusion. Probably, the best you can do is to avoid fetching all of the properties/relationships by asking Core Data to retrieve NSManagedObjectID Objects only.
NSFetchRequest *fetchRequest = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] init];
[fetchRequest setEntity:[NSEntityDescription entityForName:#"Tag" inManagedObjectContext:[self managedObjectContext]]];
[fetchRequest setResultType:NSManagedObjectIDResultType];
NSManagedObjectID objects are guaranteed to be unique, therefore you can safely use them to check for set inclusion. This should be much more efficient for a performance perspective.