NSMutableData Plist for NSMutableDictionary - iphone

Question

I am loading a plist via NSURLConnection into NSMutableData.
After that is done I want to read the PLIST into a NSMutableDictionary.
And then add the objects into my array to display them in a tableview.
But at the moment I don't know how to extract the data from NSMutableData into my NSMutableDictionary.
If I save the data local as plist on the iPhone in some folder and then read the plist into my Dictionary it works. But isn't there a way to do this directly?
- (void)connection:(NSURLConnection *)connection didReceiveData:(NSData *)data
{
receivedData = [[NSMutableData alloc] initWithData:data];
}
- (void)connectionDidFinishLoading:(NSURLConnection *)connection{
NSData *data = [[NSMutableData alloc] initWithData:receivedData];
NSKeyedUnarchiver *unarchiver = [[NSKeyedUnarchiver alloc] initForReadingWithData:data];
NSDictionary *myDictionary = [unarchiver decodeObjectForKey:#"Beverage"];
[unarchiver finishDecoding];
beverageArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
beverageArray = [myDictionary objectForKey:#"Beverage"];
NSLog(#"%#", beverageArray);
}
Before using NSURLConnection I used this which works:
- (void) makeDataBeverage {
beverageArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
NSMutableDictionary *beverageDic = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc]initWithContentsOfURL:[NSURL URLWithString:NSLocalizedString(#"beverage", nil)]];
beverageArray = [beverageDic objectForKey:#"Beverage"];
Now I want to the same with using NSURLConnection.

Answer 1

Assuming you have the complete data(*), you'll want to look into the NSPropertyListSerialization class. Its +propertyListWithData:options:format:error: method should get you what you're looking for, and you can use the options parameter to get the results as a mutable dictionary or array.
(*)It sounds like you have the complete data, since you say you can write it to a file and then read it in using dictionaryWithContentsOfFile: or similar, but it doesn't look like you're guaranteed to get it from the code you've shown. You're creating a new data in -connection:didReceiveData:, but that delegate method can be called multiple times as the data arrives in pieces. (I'm guessing it just happened to arrive all in one piece for your testing... this may not always be true, especially on a mobile device.) Instead, you probably want to create an empty mutable data when you start your NSURLConnection (or in -connection:didReceiveResponse:), append to it in -connection:didReceiveData:, and parse it in -connectiondidFinishLoading:. Or even better, since the property list parser can't do anything with a partial data anyway, use the new +[NSURLConnection sendAsynchronousRequest:queue:completionHandler:] if you're targeting iOS 5.0+.