Fetching contacts based on tag - ios

I'm trying to modify a simple Core Data fetch request for contacts to only look for contacts with a relationship with a certain tag. Contact and Tag are both entities with a many-to-many relationship.
I understand with Core Data I can do this by first fetching the Tag object, and then calling tag.contact, but I don't want to do it this way as the rest of the code is dependent on the fact that the fetchResultsController returns Contact objects, not Tag objects.
If I were to do relational databasing, I could do a simple cross-table query and find all contacts with a certain tag. Is there a simple way I can replicate this via Core Data?
-(NSFetchedResultsController *) fetchedResultsController {
//if fetch controller already exists
if(_fetchedResultsController != nil) {
return _fetchedResultsController;
}
//create a new fetch request
NSFetchRequest *fetchRequest = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] init];
NSEntityDescription *entity = [NSEntityDescription entityForName:#"Contact"
inManagedObjectContext:[self managedObjectContext]];
[fetchRequest setEntity:entity];
NSSortDescriptor *sortDescriptor = [[NSSortDescriptor alloc] initWithKey:#"lastName"
ascending:YES];
NSArray *sortDescriptors = [[NSArray alloc] initWithObjects:sortDescriptor, nil];
[fetchRequest setSortDescriptors:sortDescriptors];
//instantiate the fetch controller with the fetch request and sort by last name into sections
_fetchedResultsController = [[NSFetchedResultsController alloc] initWithFetchRequest:fetchRequest managedObjectContext:[self managedObjectContext] sectionNameKeyPath:nil cacheName:nil];
//declare delegate of fetch controller as self
_fetchedResultsController.delegate = self;
NSLog(#"fetchResultsController Created");
return _fetchedResultsController;
}

Use NSPredicate.
Lets say you have related Contacts with Tag by name tags and tag entity has property name.
NSPredicate *predicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"ANY tags.name = [cd] %#", #"sales"];
[fetchRequest setPredicate:predicate];

Related

to-many relation as sectionNameKeyPath

I want to show Project such that it shows all the projects on the basis of sharedToUsers basis. Means section name with User.user_id and it should shows all the shared project with that user. but i am not able to set section value for NSFetchedResultsController properly because it is a too many relation and it is crashing on sectionNameKeyPath .
Any Help
NSFetchRequest *fetchRequest = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] init];
NSEntityDescription *theParent = [NSEntityDescription entityForName:#"Project" inManagedObjectContext:_managedObjectContext];
//the name key exsit in parent entity of project.
NSSortDescriptor *sort = [[NSSortDescriptor alloc] initWithKey:#"name" ascending:YES];
[fetchRequest setSortDescriptors:[NSArray arrayWithObject:sort]];
[fetchRequest setFetchBatchSize:10];
[fetchRequest setEntity:theParent];
[fetchRequest setPredicate:_predicate];
NSFetchedResultsController *theFetchedResultsController =
[[NSFetchedResultsController alloc] initWithFetchRequest:fetchRequest
managedObjectContext:_managedObjectContext sectionNameKeyPath:#"ANY sharedToUsers.user_id"
cacheName:[self getCacheNameForNSFetchedResultsController]];
if you have a senario like i have then when ever you change data in the core data then try donot use to add or update relation ship items using object of parent or category object. if you had to link some thing with category then try to link from child object.
donot use this
[category addRelationShipItem:child];
use this
`[child addToCategory:category];`
when you use this then it will not triger update call in NSFetchResultController call.
Happy coding.
Hi If you want fetch the Project shared by a user you need this predicate:
NSFetchRequest *fetchRequest = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] init];
NSEntityDescription *theParent = [NSEntityDescription entityForName:#"Project" inManagedObjectContext:_managedObjectContext];
NSString *userId; // If you user_id is a NSNumber change you to it.
NSPredicate *predicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"ANY sharedToUsers.user_id = %#",userId];
[fetchRequest setPredicate:predicate];
Last things you are using a NSSort: name , but name it's not a Project property.

core data dynamic predicate: passing data?

Here's my scenario:
I have a "cameras" table view and a "Rolls" table view. I want to click on a camera and load it's corresponding rolls. I can't seem to get this to work. What is the proper way to pass the selected camera core data object into the predicate of the rolls table view NSFetchedResultsController?
Camera entity
relationship : rolls
Destination :Roll
Inverse : No Inverse
Roll entity
relationship : camera
Destination :Camera
Inverse : No Inverse
from roll table view controller
- (NSFetchedResultsController *)fetchedResultsController
{
if (_fetchedResultsController != nil) {
return _fetchedResultsController;
}
NSFetchRequest *fetchRequest = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] init];
NSEntityDescription *entity = [NSEntityDescription
entityForName:#"Roll" inManagedObjectContext:self.managedObjectContext];
[fetchRequest setEntity:entity];
NSSortDescriptor *sort = [[NSSortDescriptor alloc]
initWithKey:#"desc" ascending:YES];
[fetchRequest setSortDescriptors:[NSArray arrayWithObject:sort]];
[fetchRequest setFetchBatchSize:20];
NSPredicate *predicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"ANY camera == %#", self.selectedCamera.objectID];
[fetchRequest setPredicate:predicate];
NSFetchedResultsController *theFetchedResultsController =
[[NSFetchedResultsController alloc] initWithFetchRequest:fetchRequest
managedObjectContext:self.managedObjectContext sectionNameKeyPath:nil
cacheName:nil];
self.fetchedResultsController = theFetchedResultsController;
_fetchedResultsController.delegate = self;
return _fetchedResultsController;
}
Your relationships should each have an inverse (in this case, be inverse of each other). This allows Core Data to properly manage the relationship and allows you to set it conveniently while navigating it in both directions. It also properly represents the relationship.
The predicate should be:
NSPredicate *p = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"camera == %#", self.selectedCamera];
to use the camera relationship on the Roll entity and check that it contains the provided self.selectedCamera entity instance.

Filter NSFetchedResultsController to get only objects with some relationship

I have two entities, A and B, and the following relationships:
A -> B - To many
B -> A - To one
In other words: A can have zero or more B and B can have only one A.
I want to use NSFetchedResultsController to show my A entries in a table view, but i want to filter the results by A -> B relationship.
To do so, i have a UISegmentedControl, if the user taps the first segment i want to show only the A entries that have at least one relationship with B, and if the second segment is tapped i want to show only the entries with no relationships with B.
I'm using CoreData's NSManagedObject, so my A object has a NSSet property with all B entries in a relationships with A.
This is how i'm instantiating my NSFetchedResultsController:
NSManagedObjectContext *context = self.managedObjectContext;
NSFetchRequest *fetchRequest = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] init];
NSEntityDescription *entity = [NSEntityDescription entityForName:"A" inManagedObjectContext:self.managedObjectContext];
NSSortDescriptor *sortDescriptor = [[NSSortDescriptor alloc] initWithKey:descriptorKey ascending:NO];
NSArray *sortDescriptors = [[NSArray alloc] initWithObjects:sortDescriptor, nil];
[fetchRequest setSortDescriptors:sortDescriptors];
[fetchRequest setEntity:entity];
NSFetchedResultsController *controller = [[NSFetchedResultsController alloc]
initWithFetchRequest:fetchRequest
managedObjectContext:context
sectionNameKeyPath:controllerKey
cacheName:nil];
NSError *error;
BOOL success = [controller performFetch:&error];
if (success) {
return controller;
}
This code get all A entries, how can i make that filter?
You need to add a predicate to your fetch request:
e.g.
NSPredicate *predicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"B.#count == 0"];
[fetchRequest setPredicate:predicate];
This will filter As that don't have any related B objects.
As #Abizern mentioned in comments, you need to add a NSPredicate to your NSFetchedResultsController. The predicate would be something like:
[fetchRequest setPredicate:[NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"b == %#", myVarReferenceToB]];
If you only have a unique identifier in B (lets call it identifier) instead of an object reference you could write it as:
[fetchRequest setPredicate:[NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"b.identifier == %#", myVarReferenceToBIdentifier]];
This will produce your filter.
Every time the user changes the segmented control you will need to re-build the fetch or you will need to keep one NSFetchedResultsController around per segment.

Fetching specific data from a selected entry

I am new to iOS Developing, and I'm getting my feet wet in Core Data. I've got an app that I'm slowly piecing together (thanks to help from this site!), but I'm stuck on how to fetch data.
The app:
My app has two main screens, both UITableViews: A "Class List" view where they can add new classes, and an "Add My data model has two entities: Course (for class) and Student, with a to-many relationship from Course-Student. Right now I have it working so that when a I tap on a class in the "Class List" view I am taken to the "Add Students" view where I can add students to the class, but my fetch results controller is returning all students that I have added. My question: how do I format the fetch request in the "Add Students" view to fetch only those students that should belong to that class? Here is the fetched results controller I have right now:
-(NSFetchedResultsController *) fetchedResultsController {
if (_fetchedResultsController !=nil) {
return _fetchedResultsController;
}
NSFetchRequest *fetchRequest = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] init];
NSEntityDescription *entity = [NSEntityDescription entityForName:#"Student" inManagedObjectContext:self.managedObjectContext];
[fetchRequest setEntity:entity];
NSSortDescriptor *sortDescriptor = [[NSSortDescriptor alloc] initWithKey:#"name" ascending:YES];
NSArray *sortDescriptors = [[NSArray alloc] initWithObjects:sortDescriptor, nil];
[fetchRequest setSortDescriptors:sortDescriptors];
_fetchedResultsController = [[NSFetchedResultsController alloc] initWithFetchRequest:fetchRequest managedObjectContext:self.managedObjectContext sectionNameKeyPath:#"name" cacheName:nil];
_fetchedResultsController.delegate = self;
return _fetchedResultsController;
}
I'm guessing it has something to do with predicates, but I haven't gotten that far in my learning. Any help at all would be appreciated. Thanks!
You are guessing right. To fetch all students that belong to a particular course,
add the following predicate to the fetch request:
Course *theCourse = ...; // your Course object
NSPredicate *predicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"course = %#", theCourse];
[fetchRequest setPredicate:predicate];
(assuming that the to-one relationship from Student to Course is called "course").

Core Data and Table Views

Scenario :
I have an expense tracking iOS Application and I am storing expenses from a expense detail view controller into a table view that shows the list of expenses along with the category and amount.
On the top of the tableview, is a UIView with CALENDAR button, a UILabel text showing the date (for example: Oct 23, 2012 (Sun)) and 2 more buttons on the side.
The pressing of the calendar button opens up a custom calendar with the current date and the two buttons are for decrementing and incrementing the date correspondingly.
I want to save the expenses according to the date which is an attribute in my Core data entity "Expense".
Question: Suppose I press the calendar button and choose some random date from there, the table view underneath it, should show that day's particular expenses. What I mean is I want the table view to just show a particular date's expenses and if I press the button for incrementing the date or decrementing the date, the table view should show that day's expenses. I am using NSFetchedResultsController and Core Data in order to save my expenses.
Any thoughts on how I would achieve this? Here's the code for FRC.
-(NSFetchedResultsController *)fetchedResultsController
{
if(_fetchedResultsController != nil)
{
return _fetchedResultsController;
}
AppDelegate * applicationDelegate = (AppDelegate *) [[UIApplication sharedApplication] delegate];
NSManagedObjectContext * context = [applicationDelegate managedObjectContext];
NSFetchRequest * request = [[NSFetchRequest alloc]init];
[request setEntity:[NSEntityDescription entityForName:#"Money" inManagedObjectContext:context]];
NSSortDescriptor *sortDescriptor1 =
[[NSSortDescriptor alloc] initWithKey:#"rowNumber"
ascending:YES];
NSArray * descriptors = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:sortDescriptor1, nil];
[request setSortDescriptors: descriptors];
[request setResultType: NSManagedObjectResultType];
[request setIncludesSubentities:YES];
[sortDescriptor1 release];
self.fetchedResultsController = [[NSFetchedResultsController alloc] initWithFetchRequest:request
managedObjectContext:context
sectionNameKeyPath:nil
cacheName:nil];
self.fetchedResultsController.delegate = self;
[request release];
NSError *anyError = nil;
if(![_fetchedResultsController performFetch:&anyError])
{
NSLog(#"error fetching:%#", anyError);
}
return _fetchedResultsController;
}
Thanks guys.
You would have to create a new NSFetchedResultsController with a new NSFetchRequest that has an appropriately set NSPredicate:
NSPredicate *predicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"(date == %#)", dateToFilterFor];
NSFetchRequest *fetchRequest = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] init];
// Edit the entity name as appropriate.
NSEntityDescription *entity = [NSEntityDescription entityForName:#"Expense" inManagedObjectContext:self.managedObjectContext];
[fetchRequest setEntity:entity];
[fetchRequest setPredicate:predicate];
// ...
NSFetchedResultsController *aFetchedResultsController = [[NSFetchedResultsController alloc] initWithFetchRequest:fetchRequest managedObjectContext:self.managedObjectContext sectionNameKeyPath:nil cacheName:#"SomeCacheName"];
aFetchedResultsController.delegate = self;
self.fetchedResultsController = aFetchedResultsController;
Don't forget to call [self.tableView reloadData]; after assigning the new FRC.
Edit:
You can assign a predicate to an NSFetchRequest which then is assigned to the fetchedResultsController. You can think of the predicate as a filter.
NSPredicate *predicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"(date == %#)", dateToFilterFor];
If you add this to the fetch request by calling [fetchRequest setPredicate:predicate]; you tell the fetched request to only fetch results where to date property of the NSManagedObject matches the date you provide in the predicate. Which is exactly what you want here.
So if you have a method that's called after the user selected a date you could modify it like this:
- (void)userDidSelectDate:(NSDate *)date
{
NSFetchRequest *fetchRequest = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] init];
// Edit the entity name as appropriate.
NSEntityDescription *entity = [NSEntityDescription entityForName:#"Event" inManagedObjectContext:self.managedObjectContext];
[fetchRequest setEntity:entity];
//Here you create the predicate that filters the results to only show the ones with the selected date
NSPredicate *predicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:#"(date == %#)", date];
[fetchRequest setPredicate:predicate];
// Set the batch size to a suitable number.
[fetchRequest setFetchBatchSize:20];
// Edit the sort key as appropriate.
NSSortDescriptor *sortDescriptor = [[NSSortDescriptor alloc] initWithKey:#"timeStamp" ascending:NO];
NSArray *sortDescriptors = #[sortDescriptor];
[fetchRequest setSortDescriptors:sortDescriptors];
// Edit the section name key path and cache name if appropriate.
// nil for section name key path means "no sections".
NSFetchedResultsController *aFetchedResultsController = [[NSFetchedResultsController alloc] initWithFetchRequest:fetchRequest managedObjectContext:self.managedObjectContext sectionNameKeyPath:nil cacheName:#"Master"];
aFetchedResultsController.delegate = self;
//Here you replace the old FRC by this newly created
self.fetchedResultsController = aFetchedResultsController;
NSError *error = nil;
if (![self.fetchedResultsController performFetch:&error]) {
// Replace this implementation with code to handle the error appropriately.
// abort() causes the application to generate a crash log and terminate. You should not use this function in a shipping application, although it may be useful during development.
NSLog(#"Unresolved error %#, %#", error, [error userInfo]);
abort();
}
//Finally you tell the tableView to reload it's data, it will then ask your NEW FRC for the new data
[self.tableView reloadData];
}
Notice that if you're not using ARC (which you should) you'd have to release the allocated objects appropriately.

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