Using plist in a DetailView - iphone

Question

I have this tableview in my app which has a particular item name such as "Apple". When the user taps on that selected item they are directed to a detailView that views an image and description of that selected item. I was thinking to use plist´s to do this, but I don't know how to. Please help me.
I looked at some sources such as iCodeBlog but they don´t really explain retrieving and saving so well. Maybe you people can also give reference to some links that describe this better.
Heres a plist that I have tried. Each of the items (Orange, Apple) have the data that I want to display in my detailView. I basically want to display the data shown.

Answer 1

Here is an example view controller which will do what you want. I named the class DetailViewController and loaded the plist from Details.plist in the app's resources. Images are also located in the app's resources.
DetailViewController.h
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#interface DetailViewController : UIViewController {
UILabel *description;
UIImageView *imageView;
NSString *selectedItem;
}
#property (nonatomic, retain) IBOutlet UILabel *description;
#property (nonatomic, retain) IBOutlet UIImageView *imageView;
#property (nonatomic, copy) NSString *selectedItem;
#end
DetailViewController.m
#import "DetailViewController.h"
#implementation DetailViewController
#synthesize description, imageView, selectedItem;
- (void)viewDidLoad {
NSDictionary *details = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithContentsOfFile:[[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:#"Details" ofType:#"plist"]];
details = [details objectForKey:self.selectedItem];
self.description.text = [details objectForKey:#"description"];
self.imageView.image = [UIImage imageNamed:[details objectForKey:#"image"]];
}
#end
Then, all you have to do is update the selectedItem property before loading the view and create a NIB file with the description label and image view attached to their outlets.

Answer 2

Plists are really useful for many cases:
+ (NSMutableDictionary*) containerDictionary {
NSString *path = [[NSBundle mainBundle] bundlePath];
NSString *finalPath = [path stringByAppendingPathComponent:#"ContainerGraphics.plist"];
NSMutableDictionary *plistData = [NSMutableDictionary dictionaryWithContentsOfFile:finalPath];
return plistData;
}
This loads a plist file (Property List) called "ContainerGraphics.plist" from my apps bundle.
The plist file is actually just an XML file. You can build one in Xcode by selecting "new file" -> "resource" -> "Property list".
You don't really say what it is you don't understand, so if there is something specific that you find hard to comprehend, please elaborate:)
EDIT:
With the plist you post, use my above approach to "load in" the plist file.
Then it is an NSDictionary of NSDictionaries..
So to get to the "Apple" dictionary you go:
NSDictionary *appleDictionary = [plistData objectForKey:#"Apple"];
Which means something along - go into the list and retrieve the "Apple" dictionary.
Now to get the image and description values you would go:
NSString *imagePath = [appleDictionary objectForKey:#"image"];
NSString *descriptionString = [appleDictionary objectForKey:#"description"];
That is pretty much what there is to it.
If you have a a tableView that need to be populated with this data there is a catch!
The data inside an NSDictionary has no order. So you can't just reference [dictionary objectAtIndex:indexPath.row] as you would do with an array of data for a tableView.
What you do then is to first get the plistData, as in my first example.
(do this in viewDidLoad).
Then you extract all the keys from the plistData dictionary - notice that the "top dictionary is specific, "Apple, "Orange" etc. not values you want to hardcode into your app. But, the dictionaries inside these dictionaries are general, image, description…
So:
NSArray *allKeys = [plistData allKeys];
the allKey array now contains keys (Apple, Orange, etc.)to get to the NSDictionaries in the plistData.
In the cellForRowAtIndexPath method you can now go:
NSDictionary *dictionaryForCurrentCell = [plistData objectForKey:[allKeys objectAtIndex:indexPath.row]];
[cell.textLabel setText:[dictionaryForCurrentCell objectForKey:#"image"]];
[cell.detailLabel setText:[dictionaryForCurrentCell objectForKey:#"description"]];
Hope it helps:)

Answer 3

Pass an NSString to the detail view and load the item based on the NSString, This could be a particular dictionary name, or item in an array.
newDetailViewController.currentItem = #"Array1";
and in my detail view, define:
.h
NSString *currentItem;
#property(nonatomic,retain) NSString *currentItem;
.m
#synthesize currentItem;
Now currentItem in your detailView controller will be "Array1", since that is what we passed to it.
It all depends on really how your plist is setup, are you using an NSArray, an NSDictionary?
There are plenty of ways you can put this to use:
NSString *current = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#/%#",appDocsPath,currentItem];
NSMutableDictionary* dict = [[[NSMutableDictionary alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:current] autorelease];
EDIT FROM QUESTION:
Using the example above:
aLabel.text = [dict objectForKey#"description"];

Answer 4

Create an array in a plist with a number of items which is equal to the number of rows. Create a string called description and a string called image in each item. Get the number of the selected row in didSelectRowAtIndex: method. Store the dictionary in an NSDictionary
[myDictionary initWithDictionary:[myArray objectAtIndex:indexPath.row]]
Then get the imagestring and the description string by calling
[myDictionary objectForKey:#"image"]
and pass these strings to the detail view.