Daikiri

Description

Its a lighweight and simple library to work with models allowing the JSON to Model to Core Data both ways. Really useful for server / app synchronization.

Installation

Using pods:

pod 'daikiri'

Usage

Create a model that inherts from Daikiri and add the properties you want to be automatically converted Note that submodels will automatically be converted if they also inhert from Daikiri

JSON

#import "Daikiri.h"
#import "Headquarter.h"

@interface Hero : Daikiri

@property (strong,nonatomic) NSString* name;
@property (strong,nonatomic) NSNumber* age;
@property (strong,nonatomic) Headquarter* headquarter;

@end

Then you can do:

NSDictionary* d = @{
    @"name" : @"Batman",
    @"age"  : @10,
    @"headquarter":@{
        @"address" : @"patata",
        @"isActive" : @1,
        @"vehicles"   : @[
            @{@"model" : @"Batmobile"},
            @{@"model" : @"Batwing"},
            @{@"model" : @"Tumbler"},
        ]
    }
};

Hero * model = [Hero fromDictionary:d];    

And convert it back

NSDictionary* modelToDict = [model toDictionary];
NSLog(@"Model to dict: %@",modelToDict);

You can also convert the arrays to its class, for doing so you need to create the method -(Class)property_DaikiriArray where property is the name of the NSArray property.

In the previous case we have the model Headquarter like this

@interface Headquarter : Daikiri

@property(strong,nonatomic) NSString* address;
@property(strong,nonatomic) NSNumber* isActive;
@property(strong,nonatomic) NSArray*  vehicles;

@end

with the following method

-(Class)vehicles_DaikiriArray{
    return [Vehicle class];
}

And vehicles will be converted automatically.

CORE DATA

Setup

Daikiri Comes with a CoreData manager. It creaes the managedObjectContents and connects to the database named yourprojectname.sqlite at applicationDocumentsDirectory.

You can change the project name by setting the property databaseName of the DaikiriCoreData manager

[DaikiriCoreData manager].databaseName = @"youdatabasename";

You should place this call before any other CoreData call so it's recomended to do it at didFinishLaunchingWithOptions.

The only thing you need to do is to add a call to [[DaikiriCoreData manager] saveContex] in your app delegate -(void)applicationWillTerminate:(UIApplication *)application to save the context even if there is a crash.

However, you can also use you custom CoreData manager by overridin the +(NSManagedObjectContext*)managedObjectContext function in your model.

+(NSManagedObjectContext*)managedObjectContext{
    NSManagedObjectContext *context = [(AppDelegate *)[[UIApplication sharedApplication] delegate] managedObjectContext];
    return context;
}

Core data models

With a Daikiri model we can work with coredata in an active recod like way. You just need to name the model the same way it is in the database .xcdatamodeld

A Daikiri model comes with an id property that is the primary key used for all the following methods

Then you can do the following

[model create] //It creates a new record in the database needs to have the id

model.name = "Bruce wayne";
model.age  = @10;

[model save]    //Updates the record saved in the database (if it doesn't exists, it will create it)

We can also

// Get an specific hero
Hero* batman = [Hero find:@10]; //Search the model in the database
[batman delete];                //Deletes it from the database

// Get all heros
NSArray* allHeros = [Hero all];    

If you want, there are the convenience methods to to those basic actions directly from a dictionary

+(bool)createWith:(NSDictionary*)dict;
+(bool)updateWith:(NSDictionary*)dict;    
+(bool)deleteWith:(NSNumber*)id;

Relationships

Alongs with the find and all When your models are in the database you have diferent ways to acces their relationships

belongsTo, hasMany and belongsToMany.

Check the examples below to understand them

//Add models to database
Hero * batman               = [Hero createWith:@{@"id":@1, @"name":@"Batman"         ,@"age":@49}];
Hero * spiderman            = [Hero createWith:@{@"id":@2, @"name":@"Spiderman"      ,@"age":@19}];
Hero * superman             = [Hero createWith:@{@"id":@3, @"name":@"Superman"       ,@"age":@99}];

Enemy* luxor                = [Enemy createWith:@{@"id":@1, @"name":@"Luxor"          ,@"age":@32}];
Enemy* greenGoblin          = [Enemy createWith:@{@"id":@2, @"name":@"Green Goblin"   ,@"age":@56}];
Enemy* joker                = [Enemy createWith:@{@"id":@4, @"name":@"Joker"          ,@"age":@45}];

Friend* robin               = [Friend createWith:@{@"id":@1, @"name":@"Robin"         ,@"hero_id":batman.id}];
Friend* maryJane            = [Friend createWith:@{@"id":@2, @"name":@"Mary Jane"     ,@"hero_id":spiderman.id}];
Friend* blackCat            = [Friend createWith:@{@"id":@3, @"name":@"Black cat"     ,@"hero_id":spiderman.id}];

EnemyHero* luxorBatman      = [EnemyHero createWith:@{@"id":@1, @"hero_id":batman.id      ,@"enemy_id":luxor.id, @"level":@7}];
EnemyHero* luxorSuperman    = [EnemyHero createWith:@{@"id":@2, @"hero_id":superman.id    ,@"enemy_id":luxor.id, @"level":@5}];
EnemyHero* jokerBatman      = [EnemyHero createWith:@{@"id":@3, @"hero_id":batman.id      ,@"enemy_id":joker.id, @"level":@10}];
EnemyHero* greenGoblinSpider= [EnemyHero createWith:@{@"id":@4, @"hero_id":spiderman.id   ,@"enemy_id":greenGoblin.id, @"level":@10}];


NSLog(@"Robin's hero is: %@",robin.hero.name);      //Belongs to

for(Friend* friend in spiderman.friends){           //has many
    NSLog(@"Spiderman friend: %@",friend.name);
}

for(Enemy* enemy in batman.enemies){                //Belongs to many
    NSLog(@"Batman enemy: %@ with level: %@",enemy.name, ((EnemyHero*)enemy.pivot).level);
}

Query builder

We have a QueryBuilder to create custom queries, you can do things like

EnemyHero * enemyHero = [[EnemyHero.query
                            where:@"hero_id"  is:batman.id]
                            where:@"enemy_id" is:joker.id]
                        .first;

NSArray * heroes = [[Hero.query 
                        where:@"id" operator:@">" value:@2] 
                        orderBy:@"age"]
                    .get;

for(Hero * hero in heroes){
    NSLog(@"Hero: %@",hero.name);
}

If you class names use a prefix (two chars) and your entities don't, you can override the function usesPrefix to return true. This will remove the prefix when fetching to the DB