Swift 4: Adding dictionaries to Plist - ios

Question

So, i have an empty plist, i am trying to create these values in the plist
using this code :
let dictionary:[String:String] = ["key1" : "value1", "key2":"value2", "key3":"value3"]
let documentDirectoryURL = FileManager().urls(for: .documentDirectory, in: .userDomainMask).first!
let fileURL = documentDirectoryURL.appendingPathComponent("dictionary.plist")
if NSKeyedArchiver.archiveRootObject(dictionary, toFile: fileURL.path) {
print(true)
}
if let loadedDic = NSKeyedUnarchiver.unarchiveObject(withFile: fileURL.path) as? [String:String] {
print(loadedDic) // "["key1": "value1", "key2": "value2", "key3": "value3"]\n"
}
everything is fine here, but the question is, when i click the plist in my xcode project, its empty, these values are only printed not inserted to the plist

Answer 1

NSKeyedUnarchiver is the wrong way to save property lists.
There is a dedicated struct PropertyListSerialization to load and save property lists.
First declare a computed property plistURL
var plistURL : URL {
let documentDirectoryURL = try! FileManager.default.url(for: .documentDirectory, in: .userDomainMask, appropriateFor: nil, create: false)
return documentDirectoryURL.appendingPathComponent("dictionary.plist")
}
and two methods for loading and saving
func savePropertyList(_ plist: Any) throws
{
let plistData = try PropertyListSerialization.data(fromPropertyList: plist, format: .xml, options: 0)
try plistData.write(to: plistURL)
}
func loadPropertyList() throws -> [String:String]
{
let data = try Data(contentsOf: plistURL)
guard let plist = try PropertyListSerialization.propertyList(from: data, format: nil) as? [String:String] else {
return [:]
}
return plist
}
Create the dictionary and save it
do {
let dictionary = ["key1" : "value1", "key2":"value2", "key3":"value3"]
try savePropertyList(dictionary)
} catch {
print(error)
}
To update a value read it, update the value and save it back
do {
var dictionary = try loadPropertyList()
dictionary.updateValue("value4", forKey: "key4")
try savePropertyList(dictionary)
} catch {
print(error)
}

Answer 2

Have you tried using PropertyListEncoder instead of NSKeyedArchiver?
do {
try PropertyListEncoder().encode(dictionary).write(to: fileURL)
} catch {
print(error)
}
Decode:
do {
let data = try Data(contentsOf: fileURL)
try PropertyListDecoder().decode([String: String].self, from: data)
} catch {
// Handle error
}

Answer 3

Here is my answer
//MARK: User.plist Save & retrive data
func saveUserDataWithParams(userData: AnyObject) -> Void {
let documentsDirectory = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(.documentDirectory, .userDomainMask, true)[0] as NSString
let path : NSString = documentsDirectory.appendingPathComponent("User.plist") as NSString
//userData.write(path as String, atomically: true)
userData.write(toFile: path as String, atomically: true)
}
func getUserPlistData() -> NSMutableDictionary {
let documentsDirectory = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(.documentDirectory, .userDomainMask, true)[0] as NSString
let path : NSString = documentsDirectory.appendingPathComponent("User.plist") as NSString
let fileManager = FileManager.default
if (!(fileManager.fileExists(atPath: path as String)))
{
let documentsDirectory = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(.documentDirectory, .userDomainMask, true)[0] as NSString
let path : NSString = documentsDirectory.appendingPathComponent("User.plist") as NSString
let data : NSMutableDictionary = NSMutableDictionary()
data.write(toFile: path as String, atomically: true)
}
let data : NSMutableDictionary = NSMutableDictionary(contentsOfFile: path as String)!
return data
}