iPhone App : Where do I put a config file ?

Question

In my app, I have a simple ASCII file which stores some config info and other small info which it uses and changes. I want to copy that file to the iPhone with the app.

1) Please tell me where I should put this file (config.txt) in xcode. Should I put it under Resources ?

2) How will I access it in the iPhone ? Can I just use

str = [NSString stringWithContentsOfFile:@"config.txt"]

or do I have to use a more complete path; if yes, what is that ?

Answer 1

You should use NSUserDefaults to store user settings, if the application can change them. The documentation is here.

The settings are stored as a plist file, so you can store NSDictionary instances, NSArray instances, etc.

If you want to pre-populate your NSUserDefaults with some settings, you can do so with some code like this one:

NSString *filePath = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"defaults" ofType:@"plist"];
NSDictionary *defaultsDict = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithContentsOfFile:filePath];
[[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] registerDefaults:defaultsDict];

You need to put a defaults.plist file on your Resources folder with the default settings, and use the code above. I run that code from the AppDelegate's +(void)initialize method, but you can choose another place to call it.

Answer 2

You can put it in Resources, yes. To get the file, then, you can simply use:

[[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"config" ofType:@"txt" inDirectory:@""]]

May I suggest NSUserDefaults for your settings, however? It will save you plenty of trouble in reading and writing them.

Answer 3

If nsuserdefaults doesn't meet your needs, you could store the config information in a file in the Documents directory. If the file doesn't exist on startup, then read the version you have in Resources.