Saving Dictionary with NSAttributed String into a PList or into NSUserDefaults

[Rko]

Hi,

I've a Dictionary with an NSAttributtedString

{
        9 =     {
            9x0 =         {
                UserID = 123;
                formattedMessage = "Hi... How are you ?{\n    CTForegroundColor = \"<CGColor 0x601e460> [<CGColorSpace 0x6010020> (kCGColorSpaceDeviceGray)] ( 0 1 )\";\n    NSFont = \"CTFont <name: Cochin-BoldItalic, size: 17.000000, matrix: 0x0>\\nCTFontDescriptor <attributes: <CFBasicHash 0x6070640 [0x11f8400]>{type = mutable dict, count = 1,\\nentries =>\\n\\t1 : <CFString 0xf4d5c4 [0x11f8400]>{contents = \\\"NSFontNameAttribute\\\"} = <CFString 0x60707f0 [0x11f8400]>{contents = \\\"Cochin-BoldItalic\\\"}\\n}\\n>\";\n}";
                isDeleted = 0;
                isEdited = 0;
                lastModifiedDate = "2011-10-19 17:27:38 +0000";
                message = "Hi... How are you ?";
            };
        };
    }

I tried Saving this Dictionary as a Plist in the Documents folder
and also,
save the dictionary in NSUserDefaults.
Neither of it worked.
Both methods work if the attributed string in the dictionary is removed.

Code used to save to Plist in Documents folder :

	
NSString *aDocumentsDirectory = [NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES) lastObject];
NSString *aFilePath = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@/ChatHistory.plist",aDocumentsDirectory];
BOOL aStatus = [aDictionary writeToFile:aFilePath atomically:YES];

Code used to save Dictionary in NSUserDefaults :

	
NSUserDefaults *defaults = [NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults];
[defaults setObject:aDictionary forKey:@"ChatHistory"];

Someone please help. Am I missing something ?

[Rko]

boosting it up... any solutions ?

[baja_yu]

You can't. NSAttributedString isn't a property list object. Here's an excerpt from the docs on NSUserDefaults:

The NSUserDefaults class provides convenience methods for accessing common types such as floats, doubles, integers, Booleans, and URLs. A default object must be a property list, that is, an instance of (or for collections a combination of instances of): NSData, NSString, NSNumber, NSDate, NSArray, or NSDictionary. If you want to store any other type of object, you should typically archive it to create an instance of NSData.

NSAttributedString doesn't inherit from NSString, so it's a no go. You'll have to archive it to NSData before saving.

[Rko]

Thanks for the lead

Really new to archiving.
Tried :

NSData *aStringData = [NSKeyedArchiver archivedDataWithRootObject:self.attributedMessage];

app crashed with :

-[__NSCFType encodeWithCoder:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x604e3d0
*** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInvalidArgumentException', reason: '-[__NSCFType encodeWithCoder:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x604e3d0'

Can you please help me out with this ?

[Rko]

An interesting Implementation.
Guess this is a solution :

https://devforums.apple.com/message/340283#340283

will explore this now..