NetworkObjects

NetworkObjects is a distributed object graph inspired by Apple's WebObjects. This framework compiles for OS X and iOS and serves as the foundation for building powerful Objective-C servers as well as serving as a cross-platform alternative to Cocoa's Distributed Objects. Powered by Core Data and Grand Central Dispatch, the framework comes with server and client classes which abstract away advanced networking code so the developer can focus on distributing Core Data entities over a network.

This framework compiles for OS X 10.9 and iOS 7. It cannot be ported to older versions since it uses NSURLSession and the new Base64 categories.

1. Drag the NetworkObjects project into your project to add it.
2. In your project go to General -> Linked Frameworks and Libraries and add the NetworkObjects framework. Make sure it's NetworkObjects.framework and not libNetworkObjects.a.
3. In Build Phases -> Target Dependencies add the OS X framework.
4. In Build Phases -> Copy Files add the OS X framework and set Destination to Frameworks.

1. Drag the NetworkObjects project into your project to add it.
2. In your project go to General -> Linked Frameworks and Libraries and add the NetworkObjects framework. Make sure it's libNetworkObjects.a and not NetworkObjects.framework.
3. In Build Phases -> Target Dependencies add the iOS framework.
4. In Build Settings add -all_load to Other Linker Flags.

If you plan on building seperate server and client apps, as opposed to a single app with server and client capabilities, make sure that they both use the same .xcdatamodel but different implementations. The entities will be exacly the same but their NSManagedObject subclass implementations should be different.

To broadcast a Core Data context over the network with NetworkObjects, a NOStore instance must first be initialized.

For initialization of NOStore, the default -init method should only be used if the NOStore will be in-memory only. Else, use

-(id)initWithManagedObjectModel:(NSManagedObjectModel *)model
	             lastIDsURL:(NSURL *)lastIDsURL

The lastIDsURL argument specifies where a PLIST should be saved. This parameter must be set to a valid value for the store to work. Make sure to add a NSPersistentStore to NOStore's self.context.persistentStoreCoordinator property.

For example

// get paths

NSString *sqliteFilePath = [self.appSupportFolderPath stringByAppendingPathComponent:@"NOExample.sqlite"];

NSURL *sqlURL = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:sqliteFilePath];

NSString *lastIDsPath = [self.appSupportFolderPath stringByAppendingPathComponent:@"lastIDs.plist"];

NSURL *lastIDsURL = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:lastIDsPath];

// setup store

_store = [[NOStore alloc] initWithManagedObjectModel:nil
                                          lastIDsURL:lastIDsURL];


// add persistance

NSError *addPersistentStoreError;
[_store.context.persistentStoreCoordinator addPersistentStoreWithType:NSSQLiteStoreType
                                                        configuration:nil
                                                                  URL:sqlURL
                                                              options:nil
                                                                error:&addPersistentStoreError];

Next, initialize an instance of NOServer

_server = [[NOServer alloc] initWithStore:_store
                              userEntityName:@"User"
                            sessionEntityName:@"Session"
                            clientEntityName:@"Client"
                                   loginPath:@"login"];

Once those two instances are initialized you can start broadcasting by sending -(NSError *)startOnPort:(NSUInteger)port to the NOStore instance.

NetworkObjects provides convenient controller and store client classes so that you don't have to know how NOServer's URLs and authentication work. With these classes you dont have to write code to connect to the server.

NOAPI is a controller that connects to a NetworkObjects server and returns JSON NSDictionaries. You must make sure to the the necesary properties such as the 'model' and 'serverURL' properties are set to a valid value for it to work.

NOAPICachedStore is store that takes a NOAPI instance as a property and uses it to connect to the server and cache the remote object graph using Core Data. You must initialize a persistent store coordinator and add a persistent store to the 'context' property so it can function.

To implement client functionality, initialize instances of NOAPI and NOAPICachedStore.

// initialize cache store and API configuration
    _cacheStore = [[NOAPICachedStore alloc] init];
    _cacheStore.api = [[NOAPI alloc] init];
    _cacheStore.api.model = [NSManagedObjectModel mergedModelFromBundles:nil];
    _cacheStore.api.urlSession = [NSURLSession sessionWithConfiguration:[NSURLSessionConfiguration defaultSessionConfiguration]];
    _cacheStore.api.sessionEntityName = @"Session";
    _cacheStore.api.userEntityName = @"User";
    _cacheStore.api.clientEntityName = @"Client";
    _cacheStore.api.prettyPrintJSON = YES;
    _cacheStore.api.loginPath = @"login";
    
    // add persistent store
    _cacheStore.context.persistentStoreCoordinator = [[NSPersistentStoreCoordinator alloc] initWithManagedObjectModel:_cacheStore.api.model];
    
    NSError *error;
    
    [_cacheStore.context.persistentStoreCoordinator addPersistentStoreWithType:NSInMemoryStoreType configuration:nil URL:nil options:nil error:&error];
    
    NSAssert(!error, @"Could not create In-Memory store");

#Example

NetworkObjects includes example client and server apps. The server runs on OS X and the client on iOS. In order to test the functionality compile and run both. Make sure to create a new client entity in the server app since the app is empty upon first launch. On the iOS client, set fill out the session variables in the login screen to login or register a new user.

If you have any questions you can contact me at @colemancda