iPhone: Should I move data from the application bundle to the documents directory?

Question

I have noticed that in the CoreDataBooks example a default database is copied to the documents directory if the file doesn't already exist there:

if (![fileManager fileExistsAtPath:storePath]) {
    NSString *defaultStorePath = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"CoreDataBooks" ofType:@"sqlite"];
    if (defaultStorePath) {
        [fileManager copyItemAtPath:defaultStorePath toPath:storePath error:NULL];
    }
}

My question is, does this double the space it takes up?
i.e. There are now 2 databases, one in the bundle one in the documents folder.

I have a much larger database and a whole bunch of images totaling to about 50mb. Is there another way to go about this without copying the data?

Answer 1

In the example this is done so there is a default file to write to. If this is not done, one would have to create the file in code. The reason for this is because the app bundle is in a sandbox where it is forbidden to write to.

If you need the database to be editable, you must move it outside the app bundle.

Answer 2

AFAIK, Apple strongly recommends against modifying files in the bundle. So if the data are read-only (like, most likely, your images), it's OK to keep it in the bundle. A mutable database is a whole another matter.