writeToFile NSDictionary not saving to plist correctly - ios

Question

I have a custom plist that I am using to populate UItableViewCells with, I am able to read them perfectly, however when I try to write to my custom plist file it never changes.
NSString *errorDesc = nil;
NSString * plistPath = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:#"AdvanceSearchPrefrences" ofType:#"plist"];
NSMutableDictionary *advPrefs = [NSMutableDictionary dictionaryWithContentsOfFile:plistPath];
[advPrefs setObject:cell.textLabel.text forKey:#"Manuf"];
[advPrefs setObject:selRow forKey:#"ManufNum"];
NSData *plistData = [NSPropertyListSerialization dataFromPropertyList:advPrefs format:NSPropertyListXMLFormat_v1_0 errorDescription:&errorDesc];
[plistData writeToFile:plistPath atomically:YES];
NSString * plistPath2 = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:#"AdvanceSearchPrefrences" ofType:#"plist"];
NSMutableDictionary *advPrefs2 = [NSMutableDictionary dictionaryWithContentsOfFile:plistPath2];
The advPrefs shows the new values and advPrefs2 shows the old values.

Answer 1

You can't directly save over your plist, but what you can do is create a copy and save that to NSUserDefaults.
On the initial load you do something like this in your AppDelegate. This will copy your plist into something you can edit and save:
NSString * plistPath = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:#"AdvanceSearchPrefrences" ofType:#"plist"];
NSMutableDictionary *advPrefs = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithContentsOfFile:plistPath];
[[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] setObject:[NSKeyedArchiver archivedDataWithRootObject:advPrefs] forKey:#"plist"];
[[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] synchronize];
In your class that you want to fetch the copied plist, you can call something like this:
NSUserDefaults *defaults = [NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults];
NSData *data = [defaults objectForKey:#"plist"];
NSMutableDictionary *advPrefs = [[NSKeyedUnarchiver unarchiveObjectWithData:data]mutableCopy];
Then make your changes
[advPrefs setObject:cell.textLabel.text forKey:#"Manuf"];
[advPrefs setObject:selRow forKey:#"ManufNum"];
And then save them to NSUserDefaults
[[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] setObject:[NSKeyedArchiver archivedDataWithRootObject:advPrefs] forKey:#"plist"];
[[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] synchronize];
I had this same problem with my app and this is how I fixed it. Hope this works for you too

Answer 2

Read data:
NSData *data;
NSString *documentsDirectory = [NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES) lastObject];
NSString *filePath = [documentsDirectory stringByAppendingPathComponent:#"AdvanceSearchPrefrences.plist"];
if (filePath) {
data = [[NSString stringWithContentsOfFile:filePath
encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding
error:&error]
dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
// use data here....
}
Write data:
NSString *documentDirectoryPath = [NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES) lastObject];
NSString *path = [documentDirectoryPath stringByAppendingPathComponent:#"AdvanceSearchPrefrences.plist"];
if ([dataToBeWritten writeToFile:path
atomically:YES
encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding
error:&error]) {
// data is written
}