Is it advisable to send/return data in .plist format to/from an API being accessed via iOS?

Question

We're deciding between using JSON vs. Property List (binary) for our API, which will be accessed by iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch.

Are there any speed advantages?

Answer 1

According to Sam Soffes, JSON.

edit: he talks about xml-based plists, not binary plists. Either way, json will typically be easier to generate from web based api's.

Answer 2

The server guys are going to understand JSON better.

Plists work really well and have much, much better type safety. The real issue you'll run into with JSON is someone server side adds a few quotes around a number and suddenly your app is crashing.

But, JSON is compact, easy to read (unlike binary plists), and as noted is really well understood. So just be very careful in the parsing code, and try out JSON.