Question

I am having some problems with NSString retaining. My problem is that on the second function (runItem) it doesn’t seem to picking up on the value of the item1. No matter what I set it to, it seems that it is just set to nil. I am programming for Cocoa (desktop, versus iPhone), and I haven’t had this type of problem with NSString before. I’m not sure what I’m doing to cause it, so if anyone can help me on this I would really appreciate it! My code in my AppController.h file:

@interface AppController : NSObject {
    NSString *item1;
}
@property (retain) NSString *item1;

- (IBAction)runItem:(id)sender;

@end

And AppController.m:

@synthesize item1;

- (void)awakeFromNib: {
    NSDictionary *savedFile = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithContentsOfFile:@"Users/me/Desktop/Testing.plist"];
    if (savedFile != nil) {
        item1 = [savedFile objectForKey:@"Item Title"];
        AppController *runFunction = [[AppController alloc] init];
        [runFunction runItem:self];
    }
    else {
        item1 = nil;
    }
}

- (IBAction)runItem:(id)sender 
    NSLog(@"%@", item1);
}

Answer 1

Umm, although you set item1 in the first AppController object (the one that is created by the application because it was associated with a NIB file), you are creating a second AppController object (directly, through the default “init” constructor), whose item1 was never set. And then you ask for that second object’s item1, so of course it is nil.

Perhaps this is because you think that awakeFromNib is called whenever an object is initialized? But this is completely not true. awakeFromNib is only called for objects that are created when a NIB file is loaded.