Question

I’m trying to save an array to a .plist file on my iphone but it won’t save to it. When i try it on the simulator it works. But when i run it on the iphone it doesn’t work. I check if the file exists on the device and it does and i can read the data from the file, but it won’t write to it. Here is the code when i add the data to the .plist file.

//Sorts the arrays
    [self sortArrays];

    NSString *sString = [[NSString alloc] initWithFormat:@"Schema%i", currentIndex];
    NSString *daPath = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:sString ofType:@"plist"];
    NSLog(@"Path: %@", daPath);

    //Checks if the file exists
    BOOL exists;
    NSFileManager *fileManager = [NSFileManager defaultManager];
    exists = [fileManager fileExistsAtPath:daPath];
    if(!exists)
        NSLog(@"PATH %@ DOES NOT EXIST", daPath);
    else
        NSLog(@"PATH %@ DO EXIST!!", daPath);

    //Writes out the array to check if it gots any elements
    for (int i = 0; i < [itemsArray count]; i++)
        NSLog(@"%i: %@", i, [(NSMutableArray*)[itemsArray objectAtIndex:i] objectAtIndex:0]);

    //Writes the array to the .plist
    [itemsArray writeToFile:daPath atomically:YES];

    //Gets the .plist file
    NSMutableArray *tmpA2 = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:daPath];

    //Checks if the new elements that got added is there.
    for (int i = 0; i < [tmpA2 count]; i++)
        NSLog(@"FILE: %i: %@", i, [(NSMutableArray*)[tmpA2 objectAtIndex:i] objectAtIndex:0]);

    [sString release];
    [itemsArray release];
    sString = nil;
    itemsArray = nil;

Does anyone know why it doesn’t work?

Answer 1

You can not write into the app bundle, you need to write to the app’s document directory.

NSString *fileName = @"fileName";
NSArray *searchPath = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
NSString *documentDirectoryPath = [searchPath objectAtIndex:0];
NSString *filePath = [documentDirectoryPath stringByAppendingPathComponent:fileName]; 

If there is initial data in a file in the app bundle on startup copy it to the document directory if it does not exist and then it can be read, modified and written..