Professional iPhone® and iPad™ Database Application Programming

Chapter 9. Core Data Migration and Performance

WHAT'S IN THIS CHAPTER?

• Managing database schema changes with versioning and migration

• Implementing a threaded Core Data application

• Understanding and optimizing Core Data performance and memory usage

• Analyzing Core Data performance with the Instruments tool

In the preceding chapters, you learned about the Core Data framework and how to use it to provide the data storage capability in your applications. In this chapter, you will take a closer look at some advanced topics related to Core Data, including migration from one database schema to another and optimizing the performance of your Core Data–based application.

In this chapter, you learn how to handle change in your application data model using model versioning and migration. You also learn how to effectively manage memory when building a Core Data–based solution, safely implement a threaded Core Data application, and troubleshoot and analyze your Core Data application using the Instruments tool.

MODEL VERSIONING AND SCHEMA MIGRATION

It is very rare that a finished application turns out the way that you imagined when you started. In fact, many applications are never truly finished. If your customers like your application, you will almost certainly want to enhance it and build upon its existing feature set. Often, you will get feature requests from customers and clients, which can be a continuing source of revenue for you, the developer.

When you first sat down to design your application, ...