NSUserDefaults: storing struct/class with only property list compliant types, in a readable format

Question

Suppose a dictionary is stored in UserDefaults according to the following code:

UserDefaults.standard.set(["name": "A preset", "value": 1], forKey: "preset")

The plist that results from running this command is:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>preset</key>
    <dict>
        <key>name</key>
        <string>A preset</string>
        <key>value</key>
        <integer>1</integer>
    </dict>
</dict>
</plist>

Now, consider this data should be represented by the following struct:

struct Preset: Codable {
    var name: String
    var value: Int
}

I'd like to call the following code and get the same results as above (data stored in the plist using exactly the same layout):

UserDefaults.standard.set(Preset(name: "A preset", value: 1), forKey: "preset")

Unfortunately this results in an error:

Attempt to set a non-property-list object
TableViewToUserDefaults.Preset(name: "A preset", value: 1)
as an NSUserDefaults/CFPreferences value for key preset

How can I achieve this, keeping the same plist layout, and if possible in a generic way? (i.e. one which works for any struct consisting of properties that can be encoded in a plist, without hardcoding the struct's properties such as name and value in this case)

Answer 1

The following extension to UserDefaults solves the problem, and I didn't generalize it for lack of time, but it may be possible:

extension UserDefaults {
    func set(_ preset: Preset, forKey key: String) {
        set(["name": preset.name, "value": preset.value], forKey: key)
    }
}

This can work on arrays as well:

extension UserDefaults {
    func set(_ presets: [Preset], forKey key: String) {
        let result = presets.map { ["name":$0.name, "value":$0.value] }
        set(result, forKey: key)
    }
}

While UserDefaults.standard.set(:forKey:) is what the question was about, my goal was actually to get it working with Cocoa bindings for use with NSArrayController. I decided to subclass NSArrayController as follows (see comment by Hamish to my other question, which was the last missing piece of the puzzle to make this generic):

extension Encodable {
    fileprivate func encode(to container: inout SingleValueEncodingContainer) throws {
        try container.encode(self)
    }
}

struct AnyEncodable: Encodable {
    var value: Encodable
    init(_ value: Encodable) {
        self.value = value
    }
    func encode(to encoder: Encoder) throws {
        var container = encoder.singleValueContainer()
        try value.encode(to: &container)
    }
}

class NSEncodableArrayController: NSArrayController {
    override func addObject(_ object: Any) {
        let data = try! PropertyListEncoder().encode(AnyEncodable(object as! Encodable))
        let any = try! PropertyListSerialization.propertyList(from: data, options: [], format: nil)

        super.addObject(any)
    }
}