Core Data - Add Static / Lookup Data

Question

I am creating an application, and am using Core Data as my backend data source.

I am wondering how I can manually add entries into a Core Data Entity which can be used to hold static data which will never change throughout the applications lifetime.

Answer 1

I have never tried this, however I think you can populate core data with an example program which you run in the simulator which populates the database with the data.

Then you can get .sqlite database out of the simulator and into Xcode resource folder.

Every time your app starts, even first run the database will contain the objects you first populated it with in the example program.

Answer 2

There are many solutions to this issue. First, for data entry, you can create a trivial desktop application in a couple of minutes that will let you do the data input. Since the underlying sqlite file is the same, you can then copy the file to your project.

As for accessing it, depends on your data structure. If you have entities that are both static and editable (such as a look up list that can be added to), then I suggest carrying the sqlite file in your bundle and on first launch copy it to the documents directory.

If the tables are NEVER writable then you can leave the static data in your bundle and create a second store in the documents directory that is writable. You can then bundle the two together on creation of your Core Data stack and the rest of your application will treat them as if they are a single database/object graph. The only issue with this is that you cannot have relationships across files.