SugarRecord

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What is SugarRecord?

SugarRecord is a persistence wrapper designed to make working with persistence solutions like CoreData/Realm/... in a much easier way. Thanks to SugarRecord you'll be able to use CoreData with just a few lines of code: Just choose your stack and start playing with your data.

The library is maintained by @pepibumur. You can reach me at pepibumur@gmail.com for help or whatever you need to commend about the library.

Features

• Swift 2.3 compatible (Xcode 7.3).
• Fully rewritten from the version 1.0.
• Reactive API (using ReactiveCocoa).
• Protocols based design.
• For beginners and advanced users
• Fully customizable. Build your own stack!
• Friendly syntax (fluent)
• Away from Singleton patterns! No shared states 🎉
• Compatible with OSX/iOS/watchOS/tvOS
• Fully tested (thanks Nimble and Quick)
• Actively supported

Setup

CocoaPods

1. Install CocoaPods. You can do it with gem install cocoapods
2. Edit your Podfile file and add the following line pod 'SugarRecord'
3. Update your pods with the command pod install
4. Open the project from the generated workspace (.xcworkspace file).

Note: You can also test the last commits by specifying it directly in the Podfile line

Available specs Choose the right one depending ton the configuration you need for you app.

pod "SugarRecord/CoreData"
pod "SugarRecord/CoreData+iCloud"
pod "SugarRecord/CoreData+RX"
pod "SugarRecord/CoreData+RX+iCloud"
pod "SugarRecord/CoreData+RAC"
pod "SugarRecord/CoreData+RAC+iCloud"
pod "SugarRecord/Realm"
pod "SugarRecord/Realm+RX"
pod "SugarRecord/Realm+RAC"

Carthage

1. Install Carthage on your computer using brew install carthage
2. Edit your Cartfile file adding the following line github "pepibumur/sugarrecord"
3. Update and build frameworks with carthage update
4. Add generated frameworks to your app main target following the steps here
5. Link your target with CoreData library (from Build Phases)

Notes

• Carthage integration includes both, CoreData and Realm. We're planning to separate it in multiple frameworks. Task
• SugarRecord 2.0 is not compatible with the 1.x interface. If you were using that version you'll have to update your project to support this version.

Reference

You can check generated SugarRecord documentation here generated automatically with CocoaDocs

How to use

Creating your Storage

A storage represents your database, Realm, or CoreData. The first step to start using SugarRecord is initializing the storage. SugarRecord provides two default storages, one for CoreData, CoreDataDefaultStorage and another one for Realm, RealmDefaultStorage.

// Initializing CoreDataDefaultStorage
func coreDataStorage() -> CoreDataDefaultStorage {
    let store = CoreData.Store.Named("db")
    let bundle = NSBundle(forClass: self.classForCoder())
    let model = CoreData.ObjectModel.Merged([bundle])
    let defaultStorage = try! CoreDataDefaultStorage(store: store, model: model)
    return defaultStorage
}

// Initializing RealmDefaultStorage
func realmStorage() -> RealmDefaultStorage {
  return RealmDefaultStorage()
}

Creating an iCloud Storage

SugarRecord supports the integration of CoreData with iCloud. It's very easy to setup since it's implemented in its own storage that you can use from your app, CoreDataiCloudStorage:

// Initializes the CoreDataiCloudStorage
func icloudStorage() -> CoreDataiCloudStorage {
    let bundle = NSBundle(forClass: self.classForCoder())
    let model = CoreData.ObjectModel.Merged([bundle])
    let icloudConfig = iCloudConfig(ubiquitousContentName: "MyDb", ubiquitousContentURL: "Path/", ubiquitousContainerIdentifier: "com.company.MyApp.anothercontainer")
    return CoreDataiCloudStorage(model: model, iCloud: icloudConfig)
}

Contexts

Storages offer multiple kind of contexts that are the entry points to the database. For curious developers, in case of CoreData a context is a wrapper around NSManagedObjectContext, in case of Realm a wrapper around Realm. The available contexts are:

• MainContext: Use it for main thread operations, for example fetches whose data will be presented in the UI.
• SaveContext: Use this context for background operations. The context is initialized when the storage instance is created. That context is used for storage operations.
• MemoryContext: Use this context when you want to do some tests and you don't want your changes to be persisted.

Fetching data

let pedros: [Person] = try! db.fetch(Request<Person>().filteredWith("name", equalTo: "Pedro"))
let tasks: [Task] = try! db.fetch(Request<Task>())
let citiesByName: [City] = try! db.fetch(Request<City>().sortedWith("name", ascending: true))
let predicate: NSPredicate = NSPredicate(format: "id == %@", "AAAA")
let john: User? = try! db.fetch(Request<User>().filteredWith(predicate: predicate)).first

Remove/Insert/Update operations

Although Contexts offer insertion and deletion methods that you can use it directly SugarRecords aims at using the operation method method provided by the storage for operations that imply modifications of the database models:

• Context: You can use it for fetching, inserting, deleting. Whatever you need to do with your data.
• Save: All the changes you apply to that context are in a memory state unless you call the save() method. That method will persist the changes to your store and propagate them across all the available contexts.

do {
  db.operation { (context, save) throws -> Void in
    // Do your operations here
    save()
  }
}
catch {
  // There was an error in the operation
}

New model

You can use the context new() method to initialize a model without inserting it in the context:

do {
  db.operation { (context, save) throws -> Void in
    let newTask: Track = try! context.new()
    newTask.name = "Make CoreData easier!"
    try! context.insert(newTask)
    save()
  }
}
catch {
  // There was an error in the operation
}

In order to insert the model into the context you use the insert() method.

Creating a model

You can use the create() for initializing and inserting in the context in the same operation:

do {
  db.operation { (context, save) throws -> Void in
    let newTask: Track = try! context.create()
    newTask.name = "Make CoreData easier!"
    save()
  }
}
catch {
  // There was an error in the operation
}

Delete a model

In a similar way you can use the remove() method from the context passing the objects you want to remove from the database:

do {
  db.operation { (context, save) -> Void in
    let john: User? = try! context.request(User.self).filteredWith("id", equalTo: "1234").fetch().first
    if let john = john {
      try! context.remove([john])
      save()
    }
  }
}
catch {
  // There was an error in the operation
}

Reactive Interface

Storages offer a reactive API that you can use if your app follows the Reactive paradigm. SugarRecord supports the two main Reactive libraries for Swift, ReactiveCocoa and RxSwift. Methods prefixes are rac_ and rx_ respectively:

// Executes the operation and notifies the completion/error to the producer. Optionally returns an object from the operation (such as the id of a newly created object)
func rac_operation<T>(operation: (context: Context, save: Saver) -> T) -> SignalProducer<T, NoError>
func rx_operation<T>(operation: (context: Context, save: Saver) -> T) -> Observable<T>

// Executes the operation in background and notifies the completion/error to the producer. Optionally returns an object from the operation (such as the id of a newly created object)
func rac_backgroundOperation<T>(operation: (context: Context, save: Saver) -> T) -> SignalProducer<T, NoError>
func rx_backgroundOperation<T>(operation: (context: Context, save: Saver) -> T) -> Observable<T>

// Executes a fetch in a background thread mapping them into thread safe plain entities forwarding the results to the producer.
func rac_backgroundFetch<T, U>(request: Request<T>, mapper: T -> U) -> SignalProducer<[U], Error>
func rx_backgroundFetch<T, U>(request: Request<T>, mapper: T -> U) -> Observable<[U]>

// Executes the fetch in the main thread forwarding the results to the producer.
func rac_fetch<T>(request: Request<T>) -> SignalProducer<[T], Error>
func rx_fetch<T>(request: Request<T>) -> Observable<[T]>

> This is the first approach of SugarRecord for the interface. We'll improve it with the feedback you can report and according to the use of the framework. Do not hesitate to reach us with your proposals. Everything that has to be with making the use of CoreData/Realm easier, funnier, and enjoyable is welcome! 🎉

RequestObservable

SugarRecord provides a component, RequestObservable that allows observing changes in the DataBase. It uses Realm notifications and CoreData NSFetchedResultsController under the hood.

Observing

class Presenter {
  var observable: RequestObservable<Track>!

  func setup() {
      let request: Request<Track> = Request<Track>().filteredWith("artist", equalTo: "pedro")
      self.observable = storage.instance.observable(request)
      self.observable.observe { changes in
        case .Initial(let objects):
          print("\(objects.count) objects in the database")
        case .Update(let deletions, let insertions, let modifications):
          print("\(deletions.count) deleted | \(insertions.count) inserted | \(modifications.count) modified")
        case .Error(let error):
          print("Something went wrong")
      }
  }
}

Retain: RequestObservable must be retained during the observation lifecycle. When the RequestObservable instance gets released from memory it stops observing changes from your storage.

NOTE: This was renamed from Observable -> RequestObservable so we are no longer stomping on the RxSwift Observable namespace.

Reactive: Observables can be also observed as Reactive sources using rx_observe or rac_observe. In this case there's no need to retain the RequestObservable but dispose it whenever you're not interested anymore in observing changes.

⚠️ RequestObservable is not available for CoreData + OSX

Example project

There's an example project available in Example folder.

1. Open the folder and execute pod install
2. Open the project using SugarRecordExamples.xcworkspace

Feel free to propose new examples using SugarRecord ❤️

Contributing

Support

If you want to communicate any issue, suggestion or even make a contribution, you have to keep in mind the flow bellow:

• If you need help, ask your doubt in Stack Overflow using the tag 'sugarrecord'
• If you want to ask something in general, use Stack Overflow too.
• Open an issue either when you have an error to report or a feature request.
• If you want to contribute, submit a pull request, and remember the rules to follow related with the code style, testing, ...

Contribution

• You'll find more details about contributing to SugarRecord in contributing

Resources

• Quick
• Nimble
• CoreData and threads with GCD
• Jazzy
• iCloud + CoreData (objc.io)

Code of conduct

This project adheres to the [Open Code of Conduct][code-of-conduct]. By participating, you are expected to honor this code. [code-of-conduct]: http://todogroup.org/opencodeofconduct/#SugarRecord/pepibumur@gmail.com

License

The MIT License (MIT)

Copyright (c) <2014> <Pedro Piñera>

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Who uses SugarRecord?

Are you using SugarRecord? Let us know, and we'll list you here. We ❤️ to hear about companies, apps that are using us with CoreData.