I have a non-document app that displays its data (a mutable array of General/CustomObject instances) in a table view and writes data from the model objects (all of whose ivars are strings) in property list format as follows in the data source for the table:

• ( void ) saveData { General/NSSavePanel *saveRecords = [ General/NSSavePanel savePanel ]; [ saveRecords setTitle: @”Save Data” ];

  // Save data as XML dictionary

  if ( [ saveRecords runModal ] == General/NSOKButton ) { General/NSEnumerator *en = [ dataArray objectEnumerator ]; General/CustomObject *obj; General/NSMutableArray *records = [ General/NSMutableArray array ];

    while ( obj = [ en nextObject ] )
    {
        General/NSMutableDictionary *record = [ General/NSMutableDictionary dictionary ];
        [ record setObject: [ obj data1 ] forKey: @"data1" ];
        [ record setObject: [ obj data2  ] forKey: @"data2" ];
        [ records addObject: record ];
    }
    [ records writeToFile: [ saveRecords filename ] atomically: YES ];   } }
  

The file gets written properly as far as I can tell. Inspecting it shows a Root object with a number of dictionaries corresponding to how many custom objects were saved. All of the fields in these dictionaries contain the strings from the interface at the time the file was saved. Bottom line, the data ARE saved to the file.

The code for loading the data is:

• ( void ) loadData { loadRecords = [ General/NSOpenPanel openPanel ];

  [ loadRecords beginSheetForDirectory: nil file: nil types: [ General/NSArray arrayWithObject: @”” ] modalForWindow: mainWindow modalDelegate: self didEndSelector: @selector( openPanelDidEnd: returnCode: contextInfo: ) contextInfo: nil ]; }

• ( void ) openPanelDidEnd: ( General/NSOpenPanel * ) panel returnCode: ( int ) code contextInfo: ( void * ) info { if ( code == General/NSOKButton ) { General/NSString *path = [ loadRecords filename ]; [ dataArray release ];

    dataArray = [ [ General/NSMutableArray alloc ] initWithContentsOfFile: path ];   }
  

  [ tableView reloadData ]; }

When I load the data, a number of rows in the table view are filled with stuff I can’t see. I know it’s there because subsequent records added to the table are appended below these rows. What is it that I am so clueless about?

This very much follows the pattern of published examples I have seen online, except for using the Save and Open panels.

I have tried setting the types for my file in various ways, nothing seems to work.

Yes, of course I could have made my life much easier by adopting the document architecture - I am only trying to learn something here.

In your save routine, dataArray contains custom objects, which you translate to General/NSDictionaries. When you load the file, you just set the array of dictionaries directly to dataArray, without translating back to your custom objects. Unless you’re doing something very strange, you have to translate those dictionaries back, as the opposite of your translation step in -saveData.

---

Absolutely correct. I uncovered the above problem when I tried to save a file loaded from the XML. That, of course, did not work.

The correct solution for openPanelDidEnd: is

• ( void ) openPanelDidEnd: ( General/NSOpenPanel * ) panel returnCode: ( int ) code contextInfo: ( void * ) info { if ( code == General/NSOKButton ) { General/NSArray *tempArray; // array of General/NSDictionary when loading from XML file General/NSEnumerator *en; // to extract the strings from temp array General/NSDictionary *dict; // for dict objects extracted from temp array

    General/NSString *path = [ loadRecords filename ];
    [ dataArray release ];
  	
    dataArray = [ [ General/NSMutableArray array ] retain ];
    tempArray = [ [ General/NSArray alloc ] initWithContentsOfFile: path ];
    en = [ tempArray objectEnumerator ];
    while ( dict = [ en nextObject ] )
    {
        General/DSContact *contact = [ [ General/DSContact alloc ] init ];
        [ customObj setData1: [ dict objectForKey: @"data1" ] ];
        [ customObj setData2: [ dict objectForKey: @"data2" ] ];
        [ dataArray addObject: contact ];
    }   }
  

  [ tableView reloadData ]; }