Question

So as a learning exercise, I am trying to make a simple file browser that interfaces with a file storage mechanism. (Think dropbox or box.net) I want to add a feature that would allow the user to flag a file for local storage so they could view it when they were not connected to the network. Is there an apple API that allows for something like that.

Perhaps there is a way to add the documents to the local bundle and then access the files that way at a later time? I haven’t been able to find much documentation on this. Any insight, guidance or just general advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Answer 1

You can find the application’s document directory thus:

/**
 Returns the path to the application's Documents directory.
*/
- (NSString *)applicationDocumentsDirectory {
    return [NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES) lastObject];
}

Then get the URL (i.e. pathname) of a file within that directory:

NSURL *fileURL = [NSURL fileURLWithPath: [[self applicationDocumentsDirectory] stringByAppendingPathComponent:theFilename]];

and use Cocoa file-writing methods (e.g. of NSString, NSData), or you can just use ordinary stdio and so on.