How to create a file and save it as a text file in iPad through the application?. If I had to read that file at a later stage how to specify the absolute path. Could some one help on this.
Is it possible to display the text file created using the iPad app in the device homescreen, so that user's will be able to modify it.
To Write a file to documents directory use following code, (you may need to do some syntax correction as not tested)
NSArray *documentPaths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
NSString *documentsDir =[documentPaths objectAtIndex:0];
NSString *filePath = [documentsDir stringByAppendingPathComponent:yourFileName];
NSFileManager *fileManager = [NSFileManager defaultManager];
[fileManager createFileAtPath:filePath contents:nil attributes:nil];
// Open a handle to it.
NSFileHandle* pfile = [NSFileHandle fileHandleForWritingAtPath:filePath];
[pfile writeData:[[NSString stringWithString:#"YourData"] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
And to provide user facility to edit it you can use, one option I can see.
Enable "Application supports iTunes file sharing"in plist file of the application so that user would be able to see the documents through the itunes.
You need to read and check the content though to track the changes done to document.
Related
I'm trying to create a folder in my documents directory and I want to be able to do it without typing out /Users/(username)/Documents/Foo/Bar
NSString *directoryPath = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#/Documents/Foo/Bar", NSHomeDirectory()];
BOOL isDir;
NSFileManager *fileManager= [NSFileManager defaultManager];
if(![fileManager fileExistsAtPath:directoryPath isDirectory:&isDir])
if(![fileManager createDirectoryAtPath:directoryPath withIntermediateDirectories:YES attributes:nil error:NULL])
NSLog(#"Error: Create folder failed %#", directoryPath);
This doesn't work when I try using NSHomeDirectory() with it. But if I typed out the full path /Users/(username)/Documents/Foo/Ba it works. How can it be done to not have to know the users folder?
EDIT:
directoryPath becomes
/Users/(username)/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Devices/FAB78255-38D2-49BE-9683-7A0676EA2288/data/Containers/Data/Application/67B0AACE-572A-4808-9535-D221AEEB9EFA/Foo/Bar
I just want /Users/(username)
This is an iOS app. The "Documents" folder of an iOS app's sandbox is not at all related to the user's "Documents" folder on their computer.
Since you appear to be running your iOS in the simulator, the path you are getting is more like what you should be seeing. You do not want a path in the user's home directory.
Keep in mind that you can't get access to the "Documents" folder of an iOS app using NSHomeDirectory(). That may have worked in older versions of iOS but it fails in iOS 8 and later. The proper code needs to be something like this:
NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
NSString *documentsFolder = paths[0];
NSString *directoryPath = [documentsFolder stringByAppendingPathComponent:#"Foo/Bar"];
My app uses iTunes File Share. I used the code to delete a single file:
It worked the first time. On the second try, however, iTunes showed a empty share directory. It turns out all data files are gone. Can I recover those data files from the iPad? Thanks
- (void) deleteFileFromDisk: (NSString*) fileName {
if([self fileExists: fileName]) {
NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES) ;
NSString *documentsDirectory = [paths objectAtIndex: 0];
NSString* theFile = [documentsDirectory stringByAppendingPathComponent: fileName];
NSError *error;
[[NSFileManager defaultManager] removeItemAtPath: theFile error: &error];
There's no "restore" feature on the iPad. But in all probability there's nothing to worry about.
There's nothing about your code that would delete multiple files. It would delete just that file from the Documents directory that you supplied the name of as fileName. If you didn't call deleteFileFromDisk: multiple times, you didn't delete multiple files.
Perhaps at some point you deleted the app. That would delete its entire sandbox and thus would take with it anything in the Documents directory. That sort of thing is perfectly normal during repeated testing.
I'm using this code to read data from a local (in the XCode project) .plist file.
NSError *error;
NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
NSString *documentsDirectory = [paths objectAtIndex:0];
NSString *path = [documentsDirectory stringByAppendingPathComponent:#"GameData.plist"];
NSFileManager *fileManager = [NSFileManager defaultManager];
if (![fileManager fileExistsAtPath: path])
{
NSString *bundle = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:#"GameData" ofType:#"plist"];
[fileManager copyItemAtPath:bundle toPath: path error:&error];
}
gameData = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] initWithContentsOfFile: path];
And it worked great the start, but now I find when I step through the code in the simulator that my game is using a version of the .plist file that existed right at the start, and the new fields I've set up in my new GameData.plist file is not appearing.
I presume that's because it doesn't get the data again if the file already exists? but then how do I get the new version of the .plist file? I tried removing the if statement, but I get a runtime error saying the file already exists.
It sounds like you need to setup a version system. But, the only reason to copy a file from the bundle to the documents folder is so you can edit it, so you need to think about how to merge the updated file in the bundle and the users additions in the documents folder.
Once you have a plan for merging the files, then you can change your if statement so it doesn't just check if the file already exists (if it does, you need to delete it before you can replace it) but also considers the version. You may want to store the currently copied version number in user defaults and add a version number to the file in the bundle. You may also want to keep the user modified data in a different file and use that as overrides.
I'm using NSFileManager and i'm trying to copy a file to path "/var/mobile/Applications/7AC2295E-2775-41EA-B017-AB4048A09F0C/Document" the file will copy fine.
but the path of "7AC2295E-2775-41EA-B017-AB4048A09F0C" is randomly changed in every time i delete and install the app again. So, is there a way to get the correct path of my app or search for file name, If file exist then replace\delete..etc the file? thanks alot.
The proper way to get access to the Documents directory in your app's sandbox is:
NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
NSString *documentsDirectory = paths[0];
Then you create your path:
NSString *filePath = [documentsDirectory stringByAppendingPathComponent:#"filename.ext"];
You don't have to use the absolute path, use something like
NSString *documentsDirectory = [NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES)objectAtIndex:0];
[[NSFileManager defaultManager] copyItemAtPath:[[NSBundle mainBundle]pathForResource:#"test" ofType:#"txt"] toPath:[documentsDirectory stringByAppendingPathComponent:#"test.txt"] error:nil];
This demonstrates copying the file test.txt from the apps bundle to the documents directory.
Do something like this to create a file test.txt
[[NSFileManager defaultManager] createFileAtPath:[documentsDirectory stringByAppendingPathComponent:#"test.txt"] contents:[NSData dataWithContentsOfURL:[NSURL URLWithString:#"http://a-cstudios.com/text.json"]] attributes:nil];
EDIT
If your using this and want to use it on a jailbroken device, to put something in the sandbox is the same as I said before, so you still don't have to use the UUID. If you want to put something in a system directory, that is when you would use something like /usr/include/, or wherever you want to. To put something in another apps sandbox, you would have to use the complete path, and you would have to know the UUID, as thats not part of your sandbox. So, unless you're copying a file to an app that you made, you have to use the complete path.
If your application needs to write a file to its Documents directory.
use something like :
NSString *filePath = NSHomeDirectory();
then append your actual file name to filePath.
then use filePath in your FileManager calls.
My app allows users to create and delete files from the documents folder within the app. They can do it through the app itself or manually using itunes. Is there are way to access what's left in the documents folder without any hardcoding of the filenames?
Thank you.
You can get NSArray with all items in given directory using contentsOfDirectoryAtPath:error: method in NSFileMamanger:
NSString *documentsDirectory = [NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES) objectAtIndex:0];
NSArray *allItems = [[NSFileManager sharedFileManager] contentsOfDirectoryAtPath:documentsDirectory error:NULL];