I was thinking of writing some UIViewControllers to display the data in my Core Data stores while developing and testing an app.
I was thinking of something like this: A view controller that allows the user to select parameters to be passed into a fetch request, then a table view controller to list the fetch results, and finally a view controller to display the data in a particular entry from the fetch results.
Does anyone know of some open source code already similar to this, or a different approach I should take for monitoring my data?
NOTE: To clarify, I'm talking about a generic solution that could be put into any app using CoreData with minimal configuration.
Not a direct answer to your question but there is a new app in the mac app store which allows you to view and manipulate Core Data Stores. While it doesn't integrate in with your own app (and its not the cheapest software out there) you might find it helpful. I stumbled across it a few moments ago and thought of your question here.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/core-data-editor/id403025957?mt=12
Related
I know this question is already asked earlier also but i did not found any thing much useful. so asking again. I want to use the MVC architecture in accessing database from view controller. Till now the practice i was following, just creating database methods in delegate and access in view controller itself. But now i need to follow MVC pattern only as per company.
I have not found any proper tutorial to follow except apple website. I want some other where everything is described in detail and simple language to understand.
Please guide for above.
The best way for you is to use Core Data.
You can find a great tutorial here and there are many others tutorials about Core Data through the web.
Using Core Data you can access and modify your data base in every class on your app and in every view controllers using the manageObjectContext.
Im developing an iOS application and I'm stuck on how to design the structure of it. Here is what I have so far:
The app is called "Time Clock" and it allows users to clock in and out. The app will generate time stamps when a user clocks in or out respectively. As far as data goes, I already have a large MySQL database that is already being used for a similar Windows desktop application. (I'm trying to cater to my company's iPhone users)
My question is, what should I do about the data structures in this app? Can Core Data retrieve the MySQL data (through a web service) and manage it? Should I use data controller classes to manage the data? I don't know the best way to handle the data.
Here are the data fields that need to be managed:
Store
Name
PIN
Timestamp In
Timestamp Out
All in all, what is the most efficient way to manage the data in an app such as this? If you could point me in the right direction i would be very thankful! :-)
Core data wont be able to retrieve anything from a webservice, you need to make a data access layer that will return that data to you via NSURLConnection and the like, there is a lot of information out there on how to do this... I would recommend modeling some classes that basically your data layer will fill for the rest of your application to work with. Also if your data is shared across many views i would suggest making some singleton class that will keep the data already retrieved, this way you can access it across different UIViewControllers in your application. Way I would structure this is
DataAccessLayer (layer that consumes your webservices, and fills the info into classes (your model)) -> Some Singleton class that keeps your objects from your webservices -> UIViewControllers (these will talk to your data access layer/ Singleton class for the data it needs which in turn uses it to fill your views ->VIEWS - > if changes occur to your model relay that to your webservices via the data access layer
... As far as core data, you can use that if you want to persist the data in your application, but its not necesary otherwise, i should point out that core data is not the only way to persist data in your application... This answer is a bit general but hope it can point you to the right direction..
Daniel
I'm trying to add Core Data to an app that loads news form of an RSS feed so I can store articles offline. I am using ASIHTTP to load the data off of the internet as XML.
I'd like to store the articles in Core Data so I have them the next time I start. My AppDelegate_shared already is set up for Core Data, based on the template, but I'm not sure where to add all the rest of the code.
I found a tutorial by Ray Wenderlich, but it only confuses me. His tutorial assumes that there is a single App Delegate file, not three, as created by the Universal App templates.
Where in my three AppDelegate files (the shared, iPhone and iPad specific) does my core data article entry code go?
Are there any tutorials that deal with Core Data with the newer app template setup (3 delegate files)?
How do I read out my Core Data into a UITableView?
The Core Data stack only needs to be created in one shared location at startup. You can still have three different application delegates, as long as all three call the same setup routine. This could be done by making all three application delegates you have be subclasses of one base application delegate which handles this setup.
Another way to approach this might be to create a singleton for managing your Core Data access. See this question for other potential configurations that people have used, as well as the reasons for them.
As far as how to populate a table view with data from a Core Data database, you'll want to use NSFetchedResultsController for that. It makes displaying and updating table views simple on iOS. Jeff LaMarche has some good template code for dealing with this, and the sample applications generated when creating a new navigation-based Core Data iPhone application show this in action.
Finally, I taught a class on Core Data last semester (and finished another one last night), for which the course notes are available here and the video can be downloaded from iTunes U.
the core-data stuff belongs to the shared appdelegate. because the other two appdelegates are just subclasses of the shared one.
why not create a new universal project with coredata and look how it's done? and to see how the data is feed into a tableview, you could create a navigation-based project with coredata and look how it's done in there.
I'm setting out to create an app where it will use 7-10 instances of a custom class, lets call them "books" each class will consist of a number of pages, a title, a int of how many pages a book contains and possibly some notes of the author associated with a specific page.
My question is what is the best way of creating these objects. it seems weak to just hard-code all the books together programatically, and if there are more added after the initial release I'd almost like to have the author be able to construct them with a simple desktop app.
So I guess what I'm looking for is a way to a create a small app to create instances of a custom class on a desktop, then bring those instances into the iphone app.
I only have an iphone dev license as far as I know. Obviously you don't have to be super specific but I'm looking for ways to accomplish this type of task. Maybe if there is a good way to go about hard coding them I would like to hear about that as well.
I guess an equivalent would be a game developer making like a level editor for his game so he doesn't have to create the boards programatically.
Provide your data in XML or JSON
format (or whatever flavour of file
format you prefer), this is to transfer data to/from application.
Parse your data file (xml/json) and store in permanent storage (file,sqlite,core data) on phone. This is the data that your application will regularly use from now on.
Offer user the option to get updates over network
If user selects to get updates, download updated xml/jason file over network, parse and update your permanent store
Use SQLite. You could easily create a sqlite database editor, or use some of the free ones out there. The iPhone can read a sqlite database natively, just include the library.
I am new to the iphone platform and am creating an app that retrievals a rss feed and displays it in a UITableView. I have gotten this working perfectly (or rather, the way I wanted). What I was thinking was I would store the current feed items on the phone so that it would initally load the old items it has stored while it got the new feed, then parse the new feed and add the new items and refresh the TableView. I was going to use Core Data to store it the old feed items because it would be a good way of learning Core Data and it would be an appropriate use of Core Data. However, I am having a difficult time learning how to use Core Data and connecting it with the Table/Array.
I have already googled and looked on stackoverflow for tutorials but have yet to find anything that explains it in a way I really understand. Any explanation of the overall steps that it takes to add Core Data to an existing app would be greatly appreciated. Full-blown detail are not necessary (but would also be useful). I'm just not very experienced with SQL or storing of data in such a manner and am having trouble wrapping my head around how the whole concept of Core Data works and how it connects to everything.
Also, any better method of doing what I'm trying to accomplish would also be appreciated.
There exist Xcode templates for Core Data-based applications; these are a great start to getting Core Data off the ground. However, it sounds like you want to integrate Core Data into your existing app, so you'll need to...
Add three main Core Data objects: the managed object context (MOC), the managed object model (MOM), and the persistent store coordinator (PSC). These need to be accessible wherever you want Core Data available, so either in your app delegate or, more preferably, in the controller or data source for your table view.
Create a MOM in Xcode. This will be a file of type .xcdatamodel, and it's an object graph that defines all the Core Data entities you want in your app.
Use NSFetchedResultsController (as suggested by Louis Gerbarg) to get data out of Core Data and display it into your table view.
Add code in your existing RSS-fetching-and-parsing routines to store new Core Data objects back into the store, when appropriate.
A good way to start is just to create a new Core Data application and play around with it a bit; you can also look at Apple's fantastic resources on the subject, like the Core Data Programming Guide and the sample apps Recipes and Locations. (Developer registration may be required.)
One last thing to note is that for the most part, a lot of the Core Data code you need to add can be ripped straight out of one of the Xcode template apps and pasted into your program (this holds especially true for the accessors for the three Core Data objects you need). Be careful not to use code you don't understand, though.
If you are using CoreData to populate a UITableView you really want to use NSFetchedResultsController as opposed to trying to populate and sync array yourself. The documentation for NSFetchedResultsController includes links to several CoreData tutorials, including onces that populate table views.
NSFetchedResultsController is still a bit buggy and requires fragile workarounds. I would start with the simpler iPhone Core Data "location" tutorial before moving on to the Books tutorial.
Also, any better method of doing what I'm trying to accomplish would also be appreciate
yes, it sounds like Core Data might be overkill for your application. Assuming your feed items are stored in a collection object you can easily use OSX's built in serializaition.
Been noted in other Stack-Overflow posts, but I can highly recommend the Prag Prog book "Core Data: Apple's API for Persisting Data on Mac OS X" - most is also relevant to iPhone Core Data apps; there is a whole chapter on creating an iPhone app too.
http://pragprog.com/titles/mzcd/core-data