Swift - tableview using plist not reloading after adding new data - ios

Question

Updated: My FIX
This is what fixed my problem, and it may help you!
override func viewDidAppear(animated: Bool) {
authors = loadPlist()
tableView.reloadData()
}
Now data loads perfectly:)
I'm having troubles with my code. I have a plist that I am modifying and adding entries to.
Everything is working fine, but I need to restart the iOS simulator to see the newly added plist entries.
To quickly summarize, Everything gets updated in the plist file, but it requires the app to be rebuilt.
I've tried tableView.reloadData() but my understanding is that once the viewDidLoad() runs only once.
Now I tried to bypass this by creating additional Segue connections back and fourth, but I found this counter productive and cumbersome.
Thank You very much!
P.S
I have a feeling I'm not persisting the data properly?
How I retrieve info from plist, while creating copy:
private func loadPlist() -> NSArray {
var data = NSArray()
// attempt to open "authors.plist" from the application's Documents/ directory
let paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(.DocumentDirectory, .UserDomainMask, true)
as NSArray
let documentsDirectory = paths.objectAtIndex(0) as! NSString
let path = documentsDirectory.stringByAppendingPathComponent("authors.plist")
let fileManager = NSFileManager.defaultManager()
// if the file is not available (first access), then open it from the app's
// mainBundle Resources/ folder:
if(!fileManager.fileExistsAtPath(path)) {
let plistPath = NSBundle.mainBundle().pathForResource("authors", ofType: "plist")
data = NSArray(contentsOfFile: plistPath!)!
do {
try fileManager.copyItemAtPath(plistPath!, toPath: path)
} catch let error as NSError {
// failure
print("Error copying plist file: \(error.localizedDescription)")
}
print("First launch... Default plist file copied...")
data.writeToFile(path, atomically: true)
}
else {
data = (NSArray(contentsOfFile: path))!
}
return data
}
To Save Data:
func saveData(){
let paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(.DocumentDirectory, .UserDomainMask, true)
as NSArray
let documentsDirectory = paths.objectAtIndex(0) as! NSString
let path = documentsDirectory.stringByAppendingPathComponent("authors.plist")
if let plistArray = NSMutableArray(contentsOfFile: path) {
//...
//...
plistArray.writeToFile(path, atomically: false)
}
}
Save Button:
#IBAction func saveDataButton(sender: UIBarButtonItem) {
saveData()
navigationController?.popViewControllerAnimated(true)
}
How I'm populating my tableview:
let cell = tableView.dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier(cellIdentifier, forIndexPath: indexPath)
if let author = authors[indexPath.row] as? [String: AnyObject], let name = author["Author"] as? String {
// Configure Cell
cell.textLabel?.text = name
}
return cell;
my viewDidLoad() now:
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
title = "Authors"
authors = loadPlist()
tableView.registerClass(UITableViewCell.classForCoder(), forCellReuseIdentifier: cellIdentifier)
tableView.delegate = self;
tableView.dataSource = self;
tableView.reloadData()
}

Answer 1

You seem very confused. Yes, viewDidLoad only gets called once during the life of a view controller.
You should call your loadData method once in viewDidLoad.
You should alter loadData to make a mutable copy of your array before returning it. You should keep the mutable array in a property of your view controller. That will become your model (data store) for your table view.
As the user makes changes to the entries in the table view, apply those changes to your mutable array. Make your table view data source methods fetch data from that mutable array.
Your storeData method is wrong. It first reads the plist from disk (wiping out any changes the user has made) and then writes it back. The end result is that it does nothing. Get read of the read at the beginning of the function and instead save the mutable array that has changes in it back to the plist file.