Share Plist between iOS App and WatchKit Extension - ios

Question

I have an app that saves and uses data from a plist file. I'm working on a WatchKit extension that needs to access the same plist file to display data and save to the file. I know I need to be using app groups but I don't know how to share the plist between the iOS app and the WatchKit extension.
Here is how I'm saving to the plist in the iOS app currently.
NSFileManager *fileManager = [NSFileManager defaultManager];
NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
NSString *docPath = [[paths objectAtIndex:0]stringByAppendingPathComponent:#"locations.plist"];
BOOL fileExists = [fileManager fileExistsAtPath:docPath];
NSError *error = nil;
if (!fileExists) {
NSString *strSourcePath = [[NSBundle mainBundle]pathForResource:#"locations" ofType:#"plist"];
[fileManager copyItemAtPath:strSourcePath toPath:docPath error:&error];
}
NSString *path = docPath;
NSMutableArray *plistArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc]initWithContentsOfFile:path];
NSDictionary *locationDictionary = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:self.locationNameTextField.text, #"locationName", latString, #"latitude", longString, #"longitude", nil];
[plistArray insertObject:locationDictionary atIndex:0];
[plistArray writeToFile:docPath atomically:YES];

Answer 1

Once you've setup your app group (in both your primary iPhone app and the Watch Extension), you can get the path to the shared folder:
NSURL *groupContainerURL = [[NSFileManager defaultManager] containerURLForSecurityApplicationGroupIdentifier:#"YourAppGroupSuiteName"];
NSString *groupContainerPath = [groupContainerURL path];
You can then use the groupContainerPath to build your docPath. Otherwise, your code should work as-is.

Answer 2

I was able to successfully use plist data from my main existing iPhone app in my WatchKit app using Swift.
There are two steps:
Enable WatchKit App Extension Target Membership for each plist you want to use. Click on the plist, then:
Here's the Swift code I used to read the plist, which has "id" and "name" fields.
func valueFromPlist(value: Int, file: String) -> String? {
if let plistpath = NSBundle.mainBundle().pathForResource(file as String, ofType: "plist") {
if let entries = NSArray(contentsOfFile: plistpath) as Array? {
var entry = Dictionary<String, Int>()
for entry in entries {
if let id = entry.objectForKey("id") as? Int {
if id == value {
if let name = entry.objectForKey("name") as? String {
return name
}
}
}
}
}
}
return nil
}