Is it possible to use an Xcode build script to download JSON files to the app bundle? - ios

Question

I have a web server, running locally, which serves JSON-formatted data from a number of endpoints. I currently include the data from each endpoint in separate .json files, which I manually add to the app bundle for use within the app. Is it possible to automate this process whenever the project is built, perhaps using an Xcode build script?
Below is an example of what I am trying to achieve.
Fetch the JSON-formatted data from localhost:3000/example.
Stop here if the endpoint cannot be reached.
Save the data in a file called example.json.
Add example.json to the app bundle for use within the app.
Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.
Edit
I have fetched the JSON-formatted data, however I am now looking to see how this data can be copied into the app bundle.
curl -o example.json http://localhost:3000/example

Answer 1

Here's how I did the same thing in my project.
I went to my target -> Build Phases -> + -> 'New Run Script Phase' and added the following script:
curl -o ${BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR}/${PRODUCT_NAME}.app/your_file.json http://localhost:3000/your_file.json
echo "Your file downloaded to ${BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR}/${PRODUCT_NAME}.app/your_file.json"
I am currently working on adding some validation to the process, but as a starting point this is working for me.
Hope that helps!
UPDATE
Here is the same code with some added JSON validation:
YOUR_DATA=$(curl -s "http://localhost:3000/your_file.json" | python -m json.tool);
if [ -n "$YOUR_DATA" ];
then
echo "$YOUR_DATA" > ${BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR}/${PRODUCT_NAME}.app/your_file.json;
fi

Answer 2

Not sure if I'm getting your specifications right here but this is what I have implemented as well as some help from this solution: How can I save a JSON response to a file that would be accessible from within a local HTML file loaded inside UIWebWiew
(1) Here is the function that will grab the json file. This function is basically assigning
the url you are targeting to a string. Then formatting it to a NSURL. This is then
formatted as NSData which will grab the contents of the url. The data will be serialised and
then ready to target the appropriate elements.
- (void)fetchJson
{
NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
NSString *documentsDirectory = [paths objectAtIndex:0];
NSString *urlString = #"localhost:3000/example";
NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:urlString];
NSData *jsonData = [NSData dataWithContentsOfURL:url];
NSError *error = nil;
if(jsonData != nil)
{
NSError *error = nil;
id result = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:jsonData options:NSJSONReadingMutableContainers error:&error];
if (error == nil)
NSLog(#"%#", result);
// (2) This part is dependent on how your json data is arranged (Target the
// right elements).
_endpoint = [result objectForKey:#"endpoint"];
if(_endpoint == null){
NSLog(#"%#", result);
}
else{
//(3) This will save your data into the specified file name under the application documents directory.
NSString *filePath = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#/%#", documentsDirectory,#"example.json"];
[result writeToFile:filePath atomically:YES];
}
}
else {
NSLog(#"%#", error);
}
}
(4) To refer to the file in the application documents directory
NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
NSString *documentsDirectory = [paths objectAtIndex:0];
NSError *jsonError = nil;
NSString *jsonFilePath = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#/%#", documentsDirectory,#"data.json"];
NSData *jsonData = [NSData dataWithContentsOfFile:jsonFilePath options:kNilOptions error:&jsonError ];