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iOS Can NSFileManager open remote files?

gameplayerxp

gameplayerxp

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 1, 2010
23
0
Sydney
Hi,

I have couple text files stored on a website and can be accessed via http protocol. Can NSFileManager query and open these files? I tried to construct a URL like this:

Code: 
NSFileManager *fileManager = [NSFileManager defaultManager];
NSURL *onlineURL = [NSURL URLWithString: @"http://www.myweb.com/temp"];
NSError *error = nil;
NSArray *onlineFiles = [fileManager contentsOfDirectoryAtURL:onlineURL includingPropertiesForKeys:[NSArray array] options:0 error:&error];

But seemed that NSFileManager does not work.

Any hints?

Thanks.

-Ray
 
gameplayerxp

gameplayerxp

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 1, 2010
23
0
Sydney
dejo said:
Does not work how? Please be specific. Are you getting compile-time warnings or errors? What about at run-time? It is crashing? If so, have you checked the crash logs? What debugging have you already done? Etc.
Click to expand...

The error happens at runt time. "contentsOfDirectoryAtURL" returns nil and error is "The operation couldn’t be completed. (Cocoa error 260.)". I'm running it in the simulator and the internet connection is available.

Btw, is there any way to copy files to simulator? Thanks.
 
dejo

dejo

Moderator emeritus
Sep 2, 2004
15,982
452
The Centennial State
gameplayerxp said:
The error happens at runt time. "contentsOfDirectoryAtURL" returns nil and error is "The operation couldn’t be completed. (Cocoa error 260.)". I'm running it in the simulator and the internet connection is available.
Click to expand...
Sounds like a server-side issue to me. Are you sure that your web server allows you to query a directory remotely? Just kinda guessing here, though. :)

P.S. Are the files you're accessing static in name? If so, why not access them directly?
 
PhoneyDeveloper

PhoneyDeveloper

macrumors 68040
Sep 2, 2008
3,114
93
NSFileManager only works with file URLs.

The iPhone Sim folder hierarchy is inside ~/Library/Application Support/iPhone Simulator. You can manipulate the files in there from the Finder (add, remove, delete, etc.) You can of course print out a full path to a file in your app's sandbox to see exactly where it is on your Mac.
 
PhoneyDeveloper

PhoneyDeveloper

macrumors 68040
Sep 2, 2008
3,114
93
@dejo, I don't really understand what you're asking. For some reason Apple likes referencing file system files as URLs and it's added a bunch of new File System APIs over the past couple years that prefer URLs. But the only URLs that work are file system URLs (file:///path/to/my/file).

The API you mention is one of these new URL APIs.

If I'm wrong you can easily prove it by loading up a remote file. But I don't think it will work.
 
dejo

dejo

Moderator emeritus
Sep 2, 2004
15,982
452
The Centennial State
Ah, so you're saying you can only use that API to access local files and not remote ones. Wow, that's quite the abuse of the U in URL! ;)
 
gameplayerxp

gameplayerxp

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 1, 2010
23
0
Sydney
PhoneyDeveloper said:
@dejo, I don't really understand what you're asking. For some reason Apple likes referencing file system files as URLs and it's added a bunch of new File System APIs over the past couple years that prefer URLs. But the only URLs that work are file system URLs (file:///path/to/my/file).

The API you mention is one of these new URL APIs.

If I'm wrong you can easily prove it by loading up a remote file. But I don't think it will work.
Click to expand...

Then that's what I guess. Thanks
 
PhoneyDeveloper

PhoneyDeveloper

macrumors 68040
Sep 2, 2008
3,114
93
OK, that post and the NSURL docs do clarify things somewhat. As of MacOS X 10.6 and iOS 4.0 there have been some additions to NSURL to make it work better with files.

However, quite a number of these new APIs are available on iOS 4.0 and later but not implemented. File reference URLs and bookmarks are unimplemented on iOS. They probably wouldn't be of much use anyway since users don't have direct access to the file system.

File properties moves some functionality from NSFileManager directly into NSURL. That's a kind of distinction without a difference.

The mentioned speed improvements might be useful if true. I don't see any real description of this or even a mention of this in the docs.

I guess we can look forward to a deprecation of NSFileManager methods and NSString methods that deal with files soon. Oh joy.
 
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