OK, first, I know that there is no such thing as AnyRealmObject.
But I have a need to have something the behaves just like a Realm List, with the exception that any kind of Realm Object can be added to the list -- they don't all have to be the same type.
Currently, I have something like this:
enter code here
class Family: Object {
var pets: List<Pet>
}
class Pet: Object {
var dog: Dog?
var cat: Cat?
var rabbit: Rabbit?
}
Currently, if I wanted to add in, say, Bird, I'd have to modify the Pet object. I don't want to keep modifying that class.
What I really want to do is this:
class Family: Object {
var pets: List<Object>
}
Or, maybe, define a Pet protocol, that must be an Object, and have var pets: List<Pet>
The point is, I want a databag that can contain any Realm Object that I pass into it. The only requirement for the databag is that the objects must be Realm Objects.
Now, since Realm doesn't allow for this, how could I do this, anyway? I was thinking of creating something like a Realm ObjectReference class:
class ObjectReference: Object {
var className: String
var primaryKeyValue: String
public init(with object: Object) {
className = ???
primaryKeyValue = ???
}
public func object() -> Object? {
guard let realm = realm else { return nil }
var type = ???
var primaryKey: AnyObject = ???
return realm.object(ofType: type, forPrimaryKey: primaryKey)(
}
}
The stuff with the ??? is what I'm asking about. If there's a better way of doing this I'm all ears. I think my approach is ok, I just don't know how to fill in the blanks, here.
(I'm assuming that you are writing an application, and that the context of the code samples and problem you provided is in terms of application code, not creating a library.)
Your approach seems to be a decent one given Realm's current limitations; I can't think of anything better off the top of my head. You can use NSClassFromString() to turn your className string into a Swift metaclass object you can use with the object(ofType:...) API:
public func object() -> Object? {
let applicationName = // (application name goes here)
guard let realm = realm else { return nil }
guard let type = NSClassFromString("\(applicationName).\(className)") as? Object.Type else {
print("Error: \(className) isn't the name of a Realm class.")
return nil
}
var primaryKey: String = primaryKeyValue
return realm.object(ofType: type, forPrimaryKey: primaryKey)(
}
My recommendation is that you keep things simple and use strings exclusively as primary keys. If you really need to be able to use arbitrary types as primary keys you can take a look at our dynamic API for ideas as to how to extract the primary key value for a given object. (Note that although this API is technically a public API we don't generally offer support for it nor do we encourage its use except when the typed APIs are inadequate.)
In the future, we hope to offer enhanced support for subclassing and polymorphism. Depending on how this feature is designed, it might allow us to introduce APIs to allow subclasses of a parent object type to be inserted into a list (although that poses its own problems).
This may not be a complete answer but could provide some direction. If I am reading the question correctly (with comments) the objective is to have a more generic object that can be the base class for other objects.
While that's not directly doable - i.e. An NSObject is the base for NSView, NSString etc, how about this...
Let's define some Realm objects
class BookClass: Object {
#objc dynamic var author = ""
}
class CardClass: Object {
#objc dynamic var team = ""
}
class MugClass: Object {
#objc dynamic var liters = ""
}
and then a base realm object called Inventory Item Class that will represent them
class InvItemClass: Object {
#objc dynamic var name = ""
#objc dynamic var image = ""
#objc dynamic var itemType = ""
#objc dynamic var book: BookClass?
#objc dynamic var mug: MugClass?
#objc dynamic var card: CardClass?
}
then assume we want to store some books along with our mugs and cards (from the comments)
let book2001 = BookClass()
book2001.author = "Clarke"
let bookIRobot = BookClass()
bookIRobot.author = "Asimov"
let item0 = InvItemClass()
item0.name = "2001: A Space Odyssey"
item0.image = "Pic of Hal"
item0.itemType = "Book"
item0.book = book2001
let item1 = InvItemClass()
item1.name = "I, Robot"
item1.image = "Robot image"
item1.itemType = "Book"
item1.book = bookIRobot
do {
let realm = try Realm()
try! realm.write {
realm.add(item0)
realm.add(item1)
}
} catch let error as NSError {
print(error.localizedDescription)
}
From here, we can load all of the Inventory Item Objects as one set of objects (per the question) and take action depending on their type; for example, if want to load all items and print out just the ones that are books.
do {
let realm = try Realm()
let items = realm.objects(InvItemClass.self)
for item in items {
switch item.itemType {
case "Book":
let book = item.book
print(book?.author as! String)
case "Mug":
return
default:
return
}
}
} catch let error as NSError {
print(error.localizedDescription)
}
As it stands there isn't a generic 'one realm object fits all' solution, but this answer provides some level of generic-ness where a lot of different object types could be accessed via one main base object.
Related
I wonder if I should create my own additional layer when updating Realm objects to avoid redundant database writing operations or is it done automatically on a lower level?
Let's take an example:
class SomeEntity: Object {
#Persisted(primaryKey: true) var id = 0
#Persisted var aaa: String?
#Persisted var bbb: Float?
#Persisted var ccc: Int?
}
when doing some batch update:
newDownloadedData.forEach { entry in
guard let id = entry["id"].int else {
return
}
try? localRealm.write {
let entity = existingLocalEntities.first { $0.id == id } ?? SomeEntity(id: id)
localRealm.add(entity, update: .modified) //this makes an 'upsertion' which is automatically an update or insert
if entity.aaa != entry["aaa"].string {
entity.aaa = movieInfo["aaa"].string
}
if entity.bbb != entry["bbb"].float {
entity.bbb = movieInfo["bbb"].float
}
if entity.ccc != entry["ccc"].int {
entity.ccc = movieInfo["ccc"].int
}
}
}
I wonder if these checks necessary or can I just go with:
entity.aaa = movieInfo["aaa"].string
entity.bbb = movieInfo["bbb"].float
entity.ccc = movieInfo["ccc"].int
and not worry that values will be updated and written even if downloaded values are the same as existing local ones?
Your observers will be notified if you update a property on a realm object with the same value. Realm does not care if you use a different value or not.
I'm not sure what your use case is, but it may be a pain in the butt to check every value manually.
You can do something like this though:
protocol UniqueUpdating { }
extension UniqueUpdating where Self: AnyObject {
#discardableResult
func update<Value: Equatable>(
_ keyPath: ReferenceWritableKeyPath<Self, Value>,
to value: Value
) -> Bool {
guard self[keyPath: keyPath] != value else { return false }
self[keyPath: keyPath] = value
return true
}
}
extension Object: UniqueUpdating {}
class Person: Object {
#Persisted(primaryKey: true) var id: Int = 0
#Persisted var name: String = ""
}
Usage would be like this:
let realm = try! Realm()
try! realm.write {
person.update(\.name, to: "BOB")
}
EDIT: things described below do not work like expected.
eg. if name = "Tom" and later the same value is assigned ( self.name = "Tom") it will be treated as modification.
It turns out that YES, Realm can be smart about it!
the clue sits in update parameter in .add function.
using .modified will result in smart data write.
Excerpt from documentation:
/**
What to do when an object being added to or created in a Realm has a primary key that already exists.
*/
#frozen public enum UpdatePolicy: Int {
/**
Throw an exception. This is the default when no policy is specified for `add()` or `create()`.
This behavior is the same as passing `update: false` to `add()` or `create()`.
*/
case error = 1
/**
Overwrite only properties in the existing object which are different from the new values. This results
in change notifications reporting only the properties which changed, and influences the sync merge logic.
If few or no of the properties are changing this will be faster than .all and reduce how much data has
to be written to the Realm file. If all of the properties are changing, it may be slower than .all (but
will never result in *more* data being written).
*/
case modified = 3
/**
Overwrite all properties in the existing object with the new values, even if they have not changed. This
results in change notifications reporting all properties as changed, and influences the sync merge logic.
This behavior is the same as passing `update: true` to `add()` or `create()`.
*/
case all = 2
}
In my iOS app, I get the following exception:
'Linking objects notifications are only supported on managed objects.'
when I try to add an observer block:
y.xxx.observe { ... }
to a property that is defined as such:
class Y: Object {
...
let xxx = LinkingObjects(fromType: X.self, property: "y")
...
}
I believe this means that y.xxx does not have a Realm, and indeed I can see in the debugger that y.xxx.realm is nil. However, y.realm is NOT nil.
How can the linking objects not have a Realm if the object I am linking to does have one?
For completeness, this is how Class X is defined:
class X: Object {
...
#Persisted var y: Y?
...
}
Realm version 10.11.0, RealmDatabase version 11.1.1.
Context: I am in the last phase of migrating an app that was originally written in ObjC to be purely in Swift. This means switching to the Swift version of Realm. I have not encountered this problem in the previous version of the app that is largely the same code base except that it uses a very old version of the Realm framework and the Realm objects are defined in ObjC.
You can add an observer to a linking objects property as long as the objects are managed. Let me set this up starting with the PersonClass who has a List property of DogClass objects
class PersonClass: Object {
#objc dynamic var _id = ObjectId.generate()
#objc dynamic var name = "Jay"
let dogList = List<DogClass>()
override static func primaryKey() -> String? {
return "_id"
}
}
and then our DogClass has an inverse relationship to the PersonClass objects
class DogClass: Object {
#objc dynamic var _id = ObjectId.generate()
#objc dynamic var name = ""
let linkingOwners = LinkingObjects(fromType: PersonClass.self, property: "dogList")
override static func primaryKey() -> String? {
return "_id"
}
}
Then suppose we want to observe Spot's linkingOwners - both Jay and Cindy had Spot added to their dogList previously
let spot = realm.objects(DogClass.self).filter("name == 'Spot'").first!
self.peopleToken = spot.linkingOwners.observe { changes in
switch changes {
case .initial(let dogs):
print(" spots owners have been loaded")
case .update(_, let deletions, let insertions, let modifications ):
print(" something changed in spots owners")
case .error(let error):
print(error.localizedDescription)
}
}
Running this section of code outputs this to console and adds the observer the linkingObjects
spots owners have been loaded
Then, lets make a change to one of the owners properties
let jay = realm.objects(PersonClass.self).filter("name == 'Jay'").first!
try! realm.write {
jay.name = "Jay, Spots owner"
}
that last piece of code will output this to the console
something changed in spots owners
The above code creates a PersonClass object and a DogClass object object with a inverse relationship. The code then adds an observer the linkingObjects (PersonClass) and fires when one of them changes.
Turns out the linking objects now have to be declared like so:
class Y: Object {
...
#Persisted(originProperty: "y") var xxx: LinkingObjects<X>
...
}
I am not sure if the declaration style I used in my question is still supposed to be valid and if this is a bug, but using the new style gets rid of the exception.
I have a Models class defined like this:
class BaseModel: Object {
var data: JSON = JSON.null
convenience init(_ data: JSON) {
self.init()
self.data = data
}
override static func ignoredProperties() -> [String] {
return ["data"]
}
}
class RecipeModel: BaseModel {
dynamic var title: String {
get { return data["fields"]["title"].stringValue }
set { self.title = newValue }
}
... more vars ...
var ingredients: List<IngredientsModel> {
get {
let ingredients = List<IngredientsModel>()
for item in data["fields"]["ingredients"] {
ingredients.append(IngredientsModel(item.1))
}
return ingredients
}
set { self.ingredients = newValue }
}
}
class IngredientsModel: BaseModel {
dynamic var text: String {
get { return data["text"].stringValue }
set { self.text = newValue }
}
... more vars ...
}
And I would like to use it something like this:
Api.shared.fetchAllEntries().call(onSuccess: {response in
print(response.json)
let realm = try! Realm()
try! realm.write {
realm.deleteAll()
}
for item in response.json["items"].arrayValue {
let recipe = RecipeModel(item)
try! realm.write {
realm.add(recipe)
}
}
}, onError: {
print("error")
})
So basically the idea is to just pass the whole JSON to the initial RecipeModel class, and it should parse it out and create the objects I need in the Realm database. It works quite well except for the nested list of IngredientsModel. They do not get added to the realm database.
What I see as a potential problem is that I call self.init() before I call self.data in the convenience init, but I do not see any way to work around this. Do you guys please know how I could achieve that also the IngredientsModel would have its contents set up properly and I would have a list of ingredients in the RecipeModel?
Your current implementation doesn't work, because you are not calling the getter/setter of ingredients in the init method of RecipeModel and hence the IngredientsModel instances are never persisted in Realm.
Moreover, using a computed property as a one-to-many relationship (Realm List) is a really bad idea, especially if you are parsing the results inside the getter for this property. Every time you call the getter of ingredients, you create new model objects instead of just accessing the existing ones that are already stored in Realm, but you are never deleting the old ones. If you were actually saving the IngredientsModel instances to Realm (which you don't do at the moment as mentioned above) you would see that your database is full of duplicate entries.
Your whole approach seems really suboptimal. You shouldn't store the unparsed data object in your model class and use computed properties to parse it. You should parse it when initializing your models and shouldn't store the unparsed data at all. You can use the ObjectMapper library for creating Realm objects straight away from the JSON response.
I'm new in Realm and I tried to add an Array as I did with strings and I ended up with some errors. So after a little search I found out a solution:
class Sensors : Object {
dynamic var name = ""
dynamic var message = ""
var topic: [String] {
get {
return _backingNickNames.map { $0.stringValue }
}
set {
_backingNickNames.removeAll()
_backingNickNames.append(objectsIn: newValue.map({ RealmString(value: [$0]) }))
}
}
let _backingNickNames = List<RealmString>()
override static func ignoredProperties() -> [String] {
return ["topic"]
}
}
class RealmString: Object {
dynamic var stringValue = ""
}
This is working very good, now I want to add another array inside this class.
If someone knows any other ways to add arrays with realm please share it.
Thanks in advance
As a general rule it's way more efficient to use the one-to-many relationships provided by Realm instead of trying to emulate them by using arrays (Realm's collections are lazy, the objects contained are instantiated only when needed as opposed to plain Swift arrays).
In your case, if I understand correctly what you're trying to do, you want to add [RealmString] Swift arrays to the _backingNickNames list.
Why not use the append(objectsIn:) method of Realm's List class (see here), like this:
// Dog model
class Dog: Object {
dynamic var name = ""
dynamic var owner: Person?
}
// Person model
class Person: Object {
dynamic var name = ""
dynamic var birthdate = NSDate(timeIntervalSince1970: 1)
let dogs = List<Dog>()
}
let jim = Person()
let dog1 = Dog()
let dog2 = Dog()
// here is where the magic happens
jim.dogs.append(objectsIn: [dog1, dog2])
If you want to do the opposite (convert from a List to an Array) just do :
let dogsArray = Array(jim.dogs)
• • • • • • • •
Back to your own posted solution, you could easily refactor the model to accommodate this. Each Sensor object could have several Topic and several Message objects attached.
Just ditch the message and topic computed properties and rename topicV and messageV to topics and messages respectively. Also rename RealmString to Topic and RealmString1 to Message.
Now, you could easily iterate through the, say, topics attached to a sensor like this :
for topic in sensor1.topics { ... }
Or if you want to attach a message to a sensor you could do something like this (don't forget to properly add the newly created object to the DB first):
let message1 = Message()
message1.stringValue = "Some text"
sensor2.messages.append(message1)
So, no need to use intermediary Swift Arrays.
After testing I managed to add another array like that:
class Sensors : Object {
dynamic var type = ""
dynamic var name = ""
dynamic var badge = 0
var topic: [String] {
get {
return topicV.map { $0.stringValue }
}
set {
topicV.removeAll()
topicV.append(objectsIn: newValue.map({ RealmString(value: [$0]) }))
}
}
var message: [String] {
get {
return messageV.map { $0.stringValue1 }
}
set {
messageV.removeAll()
messageV.append(objectsIn: newValue.map({ RealmString1(value: [$0]) }))
}
}
let topicV = List<RealmString>()
let messageV = List<RealmString1>()
override static func ignoredProperties() -> [String] {
return ["topic", "message"]
}
}
class RealmString: Object {
dynamic var stringValue = ""
}
class RealmString1: Object {
dynamic var stringValue1 = ""
}
What bogdanf has said, and the way you've implemented it are both correct.
Basic value types aside, Realm can only store references to singular Realm Object objects, as well as arrays of Objects using the List type. As such, if you want to save an array of types, it's necessary to encapsulate any basic types you want to save (like a String here) in a convenience Realm Object.
Like bogdanf said, it's not recommended to convert Realm Lists to standard Swift arrays and back again, since you lose the advantages of Realm's lazy-loading features (which can cause both performance and memory issues), but memory issues can at least be mitigated by enclosing the code copying data out of Realm in an #autoreleasepool block.
class MyObject: Object {
dynamic var childObject: MyObject?
let objectList = List<MyObject>()
}
So in review, it's best practice to work directly with Realm List objects whenever possible, and to use #autoreleasepool any time you do actually want to loop through every child object in a Realm. :)
I have stop which have many directions. I've managed to do it using function 'linkingObjects' but since last update it's deprecated and I should use object 'LinkingObjects'.
Stop
class Stop: Object {
dynamic var name:String = ""
var directions = List<Direction>()
override static func primaryKey() -> String? {
return "name"
}
}
Old Direction
class Direction: Object {
dynamic var tag:String = ""
var stop:Stop? {
return linkingObjects(Stop.self, forProperty: "directions").first
}
}
When I apply my previous approach to new object then I always get nil
New Direction with nil returned by LinkingObjects
class Direction: Object {
dynamic var tag:String = ""
let stop = LinkingObjects(fromType: Stop.self, property: "directions").first //always return nil
}
But here I'm getting array with one element. So it works as it should.
New Direction with nil returned by LinkingObjects
class Direction: Object {
dynamic var tag:String = ""
let stops = LinkingObjects(fromType: Stop.self, property: "directions")
}
Question
Is there other way to use 'LinkingObjects' rather than this last example because using in every time 'direction.stop.first?.name' instead of 'direction.stop?.stop'?
Of course, I could use in 'direction' function that will take always pick first element in 'stops' but maybe I don't have to.
UPDATE
In meanwhile I’m using this. This isn’t ideal solution, but works.
private let stops:LinkingObjects<Stop> = LinkingObjects(fromType: Stop.self, property: "directions")
var stop:Stop? {
return self.stops.first
}
The solution you came up with yourself for now is the best what you could do.
We discussed whether we should expose any other API for singular backlinks, but as there is no way to enforce their multiplicity on the data storage layer, it didn't made sense so far. In addition, you would still need a wrapper object, so that we can propagate updates. For that reason a unified way to retrieve the value via LinkedObjects seemed to be the way so far.
What about specifiying the relation the other way around?
Specify the connection on the 'one'-side
Do a query in the getter on the 'many'-side:
So it should read like this:
class Child: Object {
dynamic var name:String = ""
dynamic var parent:Parent? = nil
}
class Parent: Object {
dynamic var name:String = ""
var children:Results<Child>? {
return realm?.objects(Child.self).filter(NSPredicate(format: "parent == %#", self))
}
}