Mac® Application Development For Dummies®

Chapter 8

Maintaining Your Users’ Data

In This Chapter

Storing data in files

Storing data in a database

Storing your users’ preferences

Exporting data to a text file

Your app is going to take all kinds of input from the users who download it. Additionally, your users will expect your app to maintain this data because that’s what computers do. Your app has to keep track of the important pieces of information that your users provide.

Apple provides a number of options for storing and retrieving any data that your app may need to store. Your app may not have to store every action a user takes, but if necessary, you can do that, too, up to the limits of available storage space. In this chapter, I show you the options you have for storing data, giving you the information you’ll use to decide the best approach for keeping your users’ information safe and sound. I also give you an example of how to output your app’s data to a generic text format, so that your users can make use of their data in other applications.

Analyzing the Data

Your app will likely use a variety of data, for all the ...