Share Plist between iOS App and WatchKit Extension

Question

I have an app that saves and uses data from a plist file. I'm working on a WatchKit extension that needs to access the same plist file to display data and save to the file. I know I need to be using app groups but I don't know how to share the plist between the iOS app and the WatchKit extension.

Here is how I'm saving to the plist in the iOS app currently.

NSFileManager *fileManager = [NSFileManager defaultManager];
    NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
    NSString *docPath = [[paths objectAtIndex:0]stringByAppendingPathComponent:@"locations.plist"];
    BOOL fileExists = [fileManager fileExistsAtPath:docPath];
    NSError *error = nil;

    if (!fileExists) {
        NSString *strSourcePath = [[NSBundle mainBundle]pathForResource:@"locations" ofType:@"plist"];
        [fileManager copyItemAtPath:strSourcePath toPath:docPath error:&error];
    }

    NSString *path = docPath;
    NSMutableArray *plistArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc]initWithContentsOfFile:path];
    NSDictionary *locationDictionary = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:self.locationNameTextField.text, @"locationName", latString, @"latitude", longString, @"longitude", nil];
    [plistArray insertObject:locationDictionary atIndex:0];
    [plistArray writeToFile:docPath atomically:YES];

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 23 '15 at 15:41

Once you've setup your app group (in both your primary iPhone app and the Watch Extension), you can get the path to the shared folder:

NSURL *groupContainerURL = [[NSFileManager defaultManager] containerURLForSecurityApplicationGroupIdentifier:@"YourAppGroupSuiteName"];
NSString *groupContainerPath = [groupContainerURL path];

You can then use the groupContainerPath to build your docPath. Otherwise, your code should work as-is.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 17 '15 at 16:07

I was able to successfully use plist data from my main existing iPhone app in my WatchKit app using Swift.

There are two steps:

Enable WatchKit App Extension Target Membership for each plist you want to use. Click on the plist, then:

enter image description here

Here's the Swift code I used to read the plist, which has "id" and "name" fields.

func valueFromPlist(value: Int, file: String) -> String? {
    if let plistpath = NSBundle.mainBundle().pathForResource(file as String, ofType: "plist") {

        if let entries = NSArray(contentsOfFile: plistpath) as Array? {
            var entry = Dictionary<String, Int>()

            for entry in entries {
                if let id = entry.objectForKey("id") as? Int {
                    if id == value {
                        if let name = entry.objectForKey("name") as? String {
                            return name
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
    return nil
}

Share Plist between iOS App and WatchKit Extension

2 Answers2