OSReflectionKit

OSReflectionKit is a lightweight object reflection library for iOS and Mac OS X, that allows you to instantiate objects from a simple NSDictionary objects or JSON strings. For example, here's how easy it is to instantiate an object from a dictionary or even directly from a JSON string:

Loading from a JSON string

NSString *jsonString = nil;

// ... Obtain the jsonString data
jsonString = @"{\"name\" : \"Champions\", \"imageURL\" : \"http://www.cruzeiro.com.br/imagem/imgs/escudo.png\"}"; // Sample
// ...

// Instantiate the Category object with the content from the JSON string
Category *category = [Category objectFromJSON:jsonString];

Version 0.7 now supports serializing/deserializing NSSet properties to JSON strings by automatically converting them into NSArray during the serialization/deserialization process.

Loading from a dictionary

NSDictionary *categoryDict = nil;

// ... Obtain the dictionary data
categoryDict = @{@"name" : @"Champions", @"imageURL" : @"http://www.cruzeiro.com.br/imagem/imgs/escudo.png"}; // Sample
// ...

// Instantiate the Category object with the content from the dictionary
Category *category = [Category objectFromDictionary:categoryDict];

Core Data

OSReflectionKit also supports NSManagedObject objects.

If you want to try it out, you can download the project and open the OSReflectionKit+CoreDataExample project :)

How To Install

• CocoaPods is the recommended way to add OSReflectionKit or OSReflectionKit+CoreData to your project.
• If you prefer, you can simply download OSReflectionKit and add the files from the OSReflectionKit folder to your project.

Requirements

OSReflectionKit

• iOS 5.0 or greater.
• Mac OS X 10.7 or greater.
• ARC.

OSReflectionKit+CoreData

• OSReflectionKit
• iOS 5.0 or greater.
• ARC.

Cocoapods

OSReflectionKit

1. Add a pod entry for OSReflectionKit to your Podfile pod 'OSReflectionKit', '~> 0.7'
2. Install the pod(s) by running pod install.
3. Include OSReflectionKit wherever you need it with #import "NSObject+OSReflectionKit.h".

OSReflectionKit+CoreData

1. Add a pod entry for OSReflectionKit+CoreData to your Podfile pod 'OSReflectionKit+CoreData', '~> 0.7'
2. Install the pod(s) by running pod install.
3. Include OSReflectionKit+CoreData wherever you need it with #import "NSManagedObject+OSReflectionKit.h".

Yep, that simple.

Example Usage

Download the project and open the OSReflectionKitExample project and play a little bit with the code :)

There is also an example project for using OSReflectionKit+CoreData.

Non-ARC Usage

• The library files are based on ARC, so if you want to use it in a non-ARC project, please add -fobjc-arc compiler flag to the library files.

To set a compiler flag in Xcode, go to your active target and select the "Build Phases" tab. Now select all OSReflectionKit source files, press Enter, insert -fobjc-arc and then "Done" to enable ARC for OSReflectionKit.

Samples

Custom Class

Supposing you have a simple class with the following code:

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

@interface Category : NSObject

@property (nonatomic, strong) NSNumber *categoryId;
@property (nonatomic, strong) NSString *name;
@property (nonatomic, strong) NSURL *imageURL;

@end

To enable object reflection for this class, all you have to is import the NSObject+OSReflectionKit.h file where you want to call the reflection methods. You can also import the NSObject+OSReflectionKit.h file in the project prefix.pch file to make it available all over the project.

#import "NSObject+OSReflectionKit.h"

// ...

categoryDict = @{@"categoryId" : @(1),
                 @"name" : @"Champions",
                 @"imageURL" : @"http://www.cruzeiro.com.br/imagem/imgs/escudo.png"}; // Sample dictionary

// Instantiate the Category object with the content from the dictionary
Category *category = [Category objectFromDictionary:categoryDict];

NSLog(@"Category description: %@", [category fullDescription]);

The library will automatically match the dictionary keys to the property names of the class Category. If you have different keys in the dictionary like below:

categoryDict = @{@"id" : @(1),
                 @"name" : @"Champions",
                 @"image" : @"http://www.cruzeiro.com.br/imagem/imgs/escudo.png"};

You can implement a custom mapping method in the Category class, translating each different key to the destination property:

#import "Category.h"

@implementation Category

+ (NSDictionary *)reflectionMapping
{
    return @{@"id":@"categoryId", @"image":@"imageURL,*"};
}

- (void)reflectionTranformsValue:(id)value forKey:(NSString *)propertyName
{
    if([propertyName isEqualToString:@"imageURL"])
    {
        NSString *imageURLString = value;
        if(imageURLString)
            self.imageURL = [NSURL URLWithString:imageURLString];
    }
}

@end

The reflectionMapping dictionary may include a custom class @"customObject,<CustomClass>" or a custom transformation by including an * in the mapping string, like for the imageURL property above.

License

Copyright (c) 2013 iAOS Software. All rights reserved.

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

If you happen to meet one of the copyright holders in a bar you are obligated to buy them one pint of beer.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.