Extracting NSDictionary from a project - ios

Question

I have a NSDictionary in a project that was created over time and i need to take all the data from it from this project into another project.
Any idea how can i achive it without adding it one by one?
I thought about extracting everything into arrays and to pass arrays but its not really a good option

Answer 1

Probaly not the best solution but it will work fine.
You can convert the dictionary in to a string using the following steps.
Then you log the string and copy it. After that you can do a reverse of these steps in your new project.
Project 1
NSDictionary *dictionary = [NSDictionary alloc]init];
NSError *error;
NSData *jsonData = [NSJSONSerialization dataWithJSONObject:dictionary options:kNilOptions error:&error];
NSString *dictionaryString = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:jsonData encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
NSLog(#"%#",dictionaryString); #Copy this string from the debugger
Project 2
NSError *error;
NSString *dictionaryString = #"PASTE_DEBUGGER_STRING";
NSData *jsonData = [dictionaryString dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
NSDictionary *dictionary = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:responseData options:kNilOptions error:&error];

Answer 2

I would write it to a file and then import it in your new app. First you would ran the method in your app, and then take the file from the documents folder in iTunes. Add it to the documents folder in your new app and add the reading code.
To save it:
NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
NSString *stringsPlistPath = [[paths objectAtIndex:0] stringByAppendingPathComponent:#"myDictionary.plist"];
BOOL success = [myDictionary writeToFile:stringsPlistPath atomically:YES];
if (success) {
UIAlertView *alert = [[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:#"" message:#"Your configuration file is in the Documents folder of the app which is accessible via iTunes." delegate:nil cancelButtonTitle:#"OK" otherButtonTitles: nil];
[alert show];
} else {
UIAlertView *alert = [[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:#"" message:#"There was a problem creating the configuration file. Please try again." delegate:nil cancelButtonTitle:#"OK" otherButtonTitles: nil];
[alert show];
}
To read it:
NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
NSString *stringsPlistPath = [[paths objectAtIndex:0] stringByAppendingPathComponent:#"myDictionary.plist"];
NSDictionary *loadedDictionary = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithContentsOfFile:stringsPlistPath];
This will leave your file there. If you wanted to delete it:
NSFileManager *fileManager = [NSFileManager defaultManager];
NSError *error;
BOOL success = [fileManager removeItemAtPath:stringsPlistPath error:&error];
if (success) {
UIAlertView *alert = [[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:#"" message:#"The configuration file was successfully loaded and has now been removed." delegate:nil cancelButtonTitle:#"OK" otherButtonTitles: nil];
[alert show];
}
else
{
UIAlertView *alert = [[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:#"" message:#"The configuration file was successfully loaded but could not be removed. You will need to remove it manually." delegate:nil cancelButtonTitle:#"OK" otherButtonTitles: nil];
[alert show];
}