#SwiftDataContainerSingleton

A demonstration of using a data container singleton to save application state and share it between objects.

The DataContainerSingleton class is the actual singleton.

It uses a static constant sharedDataContainer to save a reference to the singleton.

To access the singleton, use the syntax

DataContainerSingleton.sharedDataContainer

The sample project defines 3 properties in the data container:

  var someString: String?
  var someOtherString: String?
  var someInt: Int?

To load the someInt property from the data container, you'd use code like this:

let theInt = DataContainerSingleton.sharedDataContainer.someInt

To save a value to someInt, you'd use the syntax:

DataContainerSingleton.sharedDataContainer.someInt = 3

The DataContainerSingleton's init method adds an observer for the UIApplicationDidEnterBackgroundNotification. That code looks like this:

goToBackgroundObserver = NSNotificationCenter.defaultCenter().addObserverForName(
  UIApplicationDidEnterBackgroundNotification,
  object: nil,
  queue: nil)
  {
    (note: NSNotification!) -> Void in
    let defaults = NSUserDefaults.standardUserDefaults()
    //-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    //This code saves the singleton's properties to NSUserDefaults.
    //edit this code to save your custom properties
    defaults.setObject( self.someString, forKey: DefaultsKeys.someString)
    defaults.setObject( self.someOtherString, forKey: DefaultsKeys.someOtherString)
    defaults.setObject( self.someInt, forKey: DefaultsKeys.someInt)
    //-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

    //Tell NSUserDefaults to save to disk now.
    defaults.synchronize()
}

In the observer code it saves the data container's properties to NSUserDefaults. You can also use NSCoding, Core Data, or various other methods for saving state data.

The DataContainerSingleton's init method also tries to load saved values for it's properties.

That portion of the init method looks like this:

let defaults = NSUserDefaults.standardUserDefaults()
//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
//This code reads the singleton's properties from NSUserDefaults.
//edit this code to load your custom properties
someString = defaults.objectForKey(DefaultsKeys.someString) as! String?
someOtherString = defaults.objectForKey(DefaultsKeys.someOtherString) as! String?
someInt = defaults.objectForKey(DefaultsKeys.someInt) as! Int?
//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The keys for loading and saving values into NSUserDefaults are stored as string constants that are part of a struct DefaultsKeys, defined like this:

struct DefaultsKeys
{
  static let someString  = "someString"
  static let someOtherString  = "someOtherString"
  static let someInt  = "someInt"
}

You reference one of these constants like this:

DefaultsKeys.someInt

##Using the data container singleton:

This sample application makes trival use of the data container singleton.

There are two view controllers. The first is a custom subclass of UIViewController ViewController, and the second one is a custom subclass of UIViewController SecondVC.

Both view controllers have a text field on them, and both load a value from the data container singlelton's someInt property into the text field in their viewWillAppear method, and both save the current value from the text field back into the `someInt' of the data container.

The code to load the value into the text field is in the viewWillAppear: method:

override func viewWillAppear(animated: Bool)
{
  //Load the value "someInt" from our shared ata container singleton
  let value = DataContainerSingleton.sharedDataContainer.someInt ?? 0
  
  //Install the value into the text field.
  textField.text =  "\(value)"
}

The code to save the user-edited value back to the data container is in the view controllers' textFieldShouldEndEditing methods:

 func textFieldShouldEndEditing(textField: UITextField) -> Bool
 {
   //Save the changed value back to our data container singleton
   DataContainerSingleton.sharedDataContainer.someInt = textField.text!.toInt()
   return true
 }

You should load values into your user interface in viewWillAppear rather than viewDidLoad so that your UI updates each time the view controller is displayed.