Structs to Core Data

Remember, we have a struct and want to automatically convert this to NSManagedObject (Core Data).

If we want to support different structs or even types, we can implement this as a protocol and then make sure our desired types conform to it. So which functionality should our imaginary protocol offer?

• First, it should allow us to define the name of the Core Data Entity that we want to create
• Second, it should have a way to tell it to convert itself to an NSManagedObject

Our protocol could look something like this:

protocol StructDecoder {

     // The name of our Core Data Entity

     static var EntityName: String { get }

     // Return an NSManagedObject with our properties set

     func toCoreData(context: NSManagedObjectContext) throws -> NSManagedObject

}

The toCoreData method uses exception handling to throw an error, if the conversion fails. There're several possible error cases, which are outlined in the ErrorType enum below:

enum SerializationError: ErrorType {

     // We only support structs

     case structRequired

     // The entity does not exist in the Core Data Model

     case unknownEntity(name: String)

     // The provided type cannot be stored in core data

     case unsupportedSubType(label: String?)

}

We have three error cases that our conversion has to look out for. The first one is that we're trying to apply it to something that is not a struct. The second is that the entity we're trying to create does not exist in our Core Data Model. The third is that we're trying to write something into Core Data which can not be stored there (i.e. an enum).

Let's create a struct and add protocol conformance:

Bookmark struct

struct Bookmark {

    let title: String

    let url: URL

    let pagerank: Int

    let created: Date

}

Next, we'd like to implement the toCoreData method.

Protocol Extension

We could, of course, write this anew for each struct, but that's a lot of work. Structs do not support inheritance, so we can't use a base class. However, we can use a protocol extension to extend to all conforming structs:

extension StructDecoder {

     func toCoreData(context: NSManagedObjectContext) throws -> NSManagedObject {

     }

}

As this extension is being applied to our conforming structs, this method will be called in the structs context. Thus, within the extension, self refers to the struct which we'd like to analyze.

So, the first step for us is to create an NSManagedObject into which we can then write the values from our Bookmark struct. How do we do that?

A Bit of Core Data

Core Data is a tad verbose, so in order to create an object, we need the following steps:

1. Get the name of the entity which we'd like to create (as a string)
2. Take the NSManagedObjectContext, and create an NSEntityDescription for our entity
3. Create an NSManagedObject with this information.

When we implement this, we have:

// Get the name of the Core Data Entity

let entityName = type(of: self).EntityName



// Create the Entity Description

// The entity may not exist, so we're using a 'guard let' to throw 

// an error in case it does not exist in our core data model

guard let desc = NSEntityDescription.entityForName(entityName, inManagedObjectContext: context)

     else { throw unknownEntity(name: entityName) }



// Create the NSManagedObject

let managedObject = NSManagedObject(entity: desc, insertIntoManagedObjectContext: context)

Implementing the Reflection

Next up, we'd like to use the Reflection API to read our bookmarks properties and write it into our NSManagedObject instance.

// Create a Mirror

let mirror = Mirror(reflecting: self)



// Make sure we're analyzing a struct

guard mirror.displayStyle == .struct else { throw SerializationError.structRequired }

We're making sure that this is indeed a struct by testing the displayStyle property.

So now we have a Mirror that allows us to read properties, and we have a NSManagedObject which we can set properties on. As the mirror offers a way to read all children, we can iterate over them and set the values. So let's do that.

for case let (label?, value) in mirror.children {

     managedObject.setValue(value, forKey: label)

}

Now, the only thing left to do is return our NSManagedObject. The complete code looks like this:

extension StructDecoder {

     func toCoreData(context: NSManagedObjectContext) throws -> NSManagedObject {

         let entityName = type(of:self).EntityName



         // Create the Entity Description

         guard let desc = NSEntityDescription.entityForName(entityName, inManagedObjectContext: context)

             else { throw UnknownEntity(name: entityName) }



         // Create the NSManagedObject

         let managedObject = NSManagedObject(entity: desc, insertIntoManagedObjectContext: context)



         // Create a Mirror

         let mirror = Mirror(reflecting: self)



         // Make sure we're analyzing a struct

         guard mirror.displayStyle == .Struct else { throw SerializationError.structRequired }



         for case let (label?, anyValue) in mirror.children {

             managedObject.setValue(anyValue, forKey: label)

         }



         return managedObject

     }

}

That's it. We're converting our struct to NSManagedObject.