Populating TableView with Plist Documents Directory in iOS

Question

• I'm a newbie to Objective-C so any help is greatly appreciated.
• I have a TableView that is successfully pulling back the list from my Data.plist file within my Xcode project but I need it to pull from the Documents Directory.
• I have seen many posts about this but can't seem to get it to work for me.
• Here is my .m file below. Like I said, it pulls back the data but I need it to be dynamically changed based on my Documents plist copy.

Thanks in advance!

 @synthesize content = _content;

 - (NSArray *)content
{
    if (!_content) {
        _content = [[NSArray alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:[[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"Data" ofType:@"plist"]];
    }
    return _content;
}

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad];
}

- (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section
{
    // Return the number of rows in the section.
    return [self.content count];
}

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    static NSString *CellIdentifier = @"Cell";
    UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:CellIdentifier forIndexPath:indexPath];

    // Configure the cell...
    cell.textLabel.text = [[self.content objectAtIndex:indexPath.row] valueForKey:@"Name"];
    cell.detailTextLabel.text = [[self.content objectAtIndex:indexPath.row] valueForKey:@"Score"];

    return cell;
}

Answer 1

Try this:

Step 1: In .h File declare a global variable

@property (nonatomic,retain) NSMutableDictionary *contents;

Step 2: In .m file set synthesis.

@synthesize contents;

Step 3: Move plist file from mainbudle into documents directory

-(void) createPlistDocuments
{
    // Get path to documents directory
    NSArray *arrayPaths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
    // Finds the contained Documents directory
    NSString *documentsDirectory = [arrayPaths objectAtIndex:0];
    NSError *error;
    // Create an object that we will later use to look for a file and return a boolean value on whether or not it exists
    NSFileManager *manager = [NSFileManager defaultManager];
    // File we want to move, stored in original top level directory
    NSString *demoFile = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"data" ofType:@"plist"];
    // Define where we want it moved to and name it
    NSString *demoFileMoved = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@/data.plist", documentsDirectory];
    // Attempt the copy
    if ([manager copyItemAtPath:demoFile toPath:demoFileMoved error:&error] != YES)
    NSLog(@"Unable to move file: %@", [error localizedDescription]);
}

Step 4: Read plist data from document directory

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad];
    [self createPlistDocuments];
    NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(
    NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
    NSString *documentsDirectoryPath = [paths objectAtIndex:0];
    NSString *path = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@/data.plist",documentsDirectoryPath];
    contents = [NSArray arrayWithContentsOfFile:path];
    NSLog(@"%d", contents.count);

}

For brief explanation follow this sample... TechDevMobile(IOS-Message-Chat)