Store user info at login for later use - ios

Question

I am building an app where at login, the correct combination of username/password returns some basic user info (firstName, lastName, userType, companyID, etc).
I will be needing those values and strings throughout my application to retrieve user-specific data.
Could I store all those values and strings at login in an NSObject or NSData subclass so that I can later call it to retrieve the items I need? How can I do this? or is there a better alternative?

Answer 1

If you are just storing the data returned from a successful login like you say, First Name, Last Name etc. I would use NSUserDefaults.
If you intend to store any sensitive information such as username or password or anything else requiring additional confidentiality I would recommend using the keychain.

Answer 2

I would use Keychain since it is secure. Check this STKeychain

Answer 3

You can use NSUserDefaults. Create a User Model. Implement NSCoding protocol. Archive while storing and unarchive while fetching from NSUserDefaults.
#interface User: NSObject<NSCoding>
#property (nonatomic, copy) NSString *firstName;
#property (nonatomic, copy) NSString *lastName;
- (void)save;
+ (id)savedUser;
//User.m
#define kSavedUser #"SavedUser"
#pragma mark - Encoding
- (void)encodeWithCoder:(NSCoder *)encoder
{
[encoder encodeObject:self.firstName forKey:#"FirstName"];
[encoder encodeObject:self.lastName forKey:#"LastName"]
}
#pragma mark - Decoding
- (id)initWithCoder:(NSCoder *)decoder
{
self = [super init];
if (self)
{
_firstName = [decoder decodeObjectForKey:#"FirstName"];
_lastName = [decoder decodeObjectForKey:#"LastName"];
}
return self;
}
-(void)save
{
NSUserDefaults *defaults = [NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults];
NSData *data = [NSKeyedArchiver archivedDataWithRootObject:self];
[defaults setObject:data forKey:kSavedUser];
[defaults synchronize];
}
+ (id)savedUser
{
NSUserDefaults *defaults = [NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults];
NSData *data = [defaults objectForKey:kSavedUser];
if (data)
{
return [NSKeyedUnarchiver unarchiveObjectWithData:data];
}
return nil;
}
+ (void)clearUser
{
NSUserDefaults *defaults = [NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults];
[defaults removeObjectForKey:kSavedUser];
[defaults synchronize];
}
Now you can create an instance of
User *user = [[User alloc]init];
user.firstName = #"";
user.lastName = #"";
[user save];
When you want to retrieve
User *user = [User savedUser];
EDIT:
If you want to clear the data, call the static method to remove saved user info
[User clearUser];