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Avoiding Ten Big Mistakes iOS Developers

Make with Core Data

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developers make with Core Data. It also touches on Core Datas

benefits, terminology, versioning, migration, performance, and
iCloud integration pitfalls and how you can avoid them.
Core Data is an Apple framework for Mac and iOS, which primarily allows you to
persist data. For a lot of people, it has a steep learning curve. This means that
without the right approach it can be difficult to understand, let alone master. This
leads developers to make common mistakes that can otherwise be easily avoided.
This article outlines each mistake, and then goes on to explain how you can avoid
making them yourself.

1. Not Knowing the Key Terminology

Learning Core Data is an essential part of being an iOS Developer. Most iOS Apps
couldnt exist without it. As you poke around the Internet searching for tutorials
to learn Core Data, its easy to become intimidated by all the new terminology. In
fact, most articles assume you already know the terminology, and yet if you dont,
youre in for a world of confusion. So lets get the key terminology straight. Heres
a high level cheat-sheet you can use for reference as you learn Core Data, which
shows the key terms:
Term

Also Known As

What is it?

Managed Object
Model

The Model,

A file containing the definition of an

application's data structure.

Data Model,
Schema or Object Graph
Persistent Store

The Store
or Database

Managed Object

A file containing application data that

will survive even when the device is
turned off.
Some data from a Persistent Store.

Managed Object
Context

The Context, or
MOC

An area in memory where you interact with Managed Objects.

Persistent Store
Coordinator

The Coordinator

An object that mediates between Persistent Store(s) and Managed Object

Context(s) as per the Managed Object
Model.

Entity

Defines Managed Objects.

Attribute

A property of an Entity.

Relationship

Joins Entities.

Fetch Request

A way of retrieving Managed Objects

from a Persistent Store.

Predicate

Sort Descriptor

Filter

A way of limiting the managed objects that a Fetch Request will return.
A way of ordering the managed objects that a Fetch Request will return.

There are plenty more terms youll come across, however those are the fundamental ones to focus on first.

2. Ignoring Core Data Altogether

When a technology has a reputation for being difficult to learn, you might be
tempted to ignore it. This is particularly true when youre short on time and you
just want to get the app out the door!
A common alternative to Core Data for persisting application data is to use XML
Property Lists. Although property lists might make your life easier today, they
could come back to bite you later. You see, whenever you edit a property list, the
changes are atomic. This means that even minor changes require that the whole
file be loaded into memory, and then the whole file be written back to disk when it
is saved. As the data grows, the application will slow. If, however, youre using
Core Data with an SQLite database, changes can be made incrementally instead.
This keeps memory usage low, which in turn ensures that the app remains responsive and prevents memory pressure crashes. Essentially, Core Data is more
scalable than property lists because it supports using a database as a persistent
store.
Scalability isnt the only benefit of using Core Data. The ability to organize data
into entities structured with relationships is where more of its true power lies. For
example, consider the following entity that represents a task:

The Task entity contains a name and subtask_name attribute. When a managed
object is created from this Task entity, it will have a name and subtask_name
property. Without relationships, this data model supports only one subtask. Now
consider the following entities:

The line with the double-headed arrow indicates a to-many relationship from the
Task entity to the Subtask entity. This means that a task can now have multiple
subtasks, not to mention that reference to the parent task can be obtained
through the inverse relationship! This flexibility is not only more convenient, but
also saves space in the database because the parent task name only has to be
stored once.
If you wanted to get really advanced and enable support for tasks to have subtasks of subtasks, what then? Consider the re-architected Task entity below:

The model now supports an unlimited depth of subtasks because the Task entity
is related to itself!
The scalability and flexibility of Core Data is only scratching the surface of its benefits. Core Data not only leverages the benefits of a relational database, you dont
even have to write any SQL to use it! Core Data takes on that responsibility for
you, and optimizes the generated SQL for you automatically. I havent even begun
to dive into the myriad of the other value-add that you get for free, such as model
versioning, migration, validation, change management and iCloud synchronization, to name a few. If theres any iOS framework thats worth investing your time

in, its Core Data.

3. Not Using Model Versioning and Migration

If youve ever edited a managed object model, odds are youve come across the
following error:

"The model used to open the store is incompatible with the one used to create the
store."
When you create a persistent store, it is based on a specific managed object model. If the structure of the model ever changes, then the persistent store must be
updated to match. If you dont do this, the store will be incompatible and wont
open anymore. If your customers are using stores based on a model you have
since edited without versioning, your app is destined to crash. To ensure the model migration process works, you need to ensure youre careful to add a model version before editing the model. As a side note, some changes such as attribute defaults, validation rules, and fetch request templates can be modified without consequence.

4. Using Model Versioning and Migration Too Much

Once developers come to terms with how simple it is to maintain versions of a
managed object model, some have a tendency to overuse it. This can lead to an
overcomplicated version history if you add a version for every change, which only
slows down the model migrations. The thing to remember here is that its only the
persistent store on customer devices that matters.
Before you release a Core Data app to the App Store, you can ignore versioning
and edit the model as many times as you like. To avoid the the store is incompatible error, simply delete the app from your development device and run it from
Xcode again. This will deploy a new persistent store using the updated model, and
the crash will be resolved. Once youve released version 1 of your model to the
App Store, however, all of your customers will have a version 1 persistent store.
From that point on you must add a new version if you update the model.
Lets assume for example that your customers are using model version 1. While
developing an updated app, youve added model versions 2, 3 and 4. Instead of
releasing model versions 2, 3 and 4, use this trick to reduce version history:
Delete the contents of model 2
Copy the contents of model 4 to model 2
Set model 2 as the current model
Delete model 3 and model 4
Of course, youll need to consider how the entities in model 1 map to the now
more radical model 2, particularly if youre not using lightweight migration. For a
full step-by-step guide to model versioning and migration, look no further than a
complete chapter excerpt from Learning Core Data for iOS. Share the love and
tweet it to your friends!

5. Leaving Everything in Memory

As you focus on functionality and features, its easy to forget the less glamorous
topics like keeping memory usage low. The temptation to release an application
before a good round of performance testing, especially when youre on a deadline,
can sometimes be too much. Luckily its pretty easy to put steps in place to help
keep memory usage low.
When you work with managed objects, you do so in memory using a managed object context. Once youre finished with managed objects, you should remove them
from memory by calling one of the following NSManagedObjectContext instance
methods:
Use reset to remove all managed objects from a context
Use refreshObject:mergeChanges and pass NO to remove a specific
object from a context
Using either of those methods will ensure that unused objects arent floating
around wasting space. To increase your visibility of the number of objects in a
context, log the results of [[context registeredObjects] count] to the de-

bug console regularly.

6. Designing a Slow Managed Object Model

If youre storing large objects such as photos, audio or video, you need to be very
careful with your model design. The key point to remember is that when you bring
a managed object into a context, youre bringing all of its data into memory. If
large photos are within managed objects cut from the same entity that drives a table-view, performance will suffer. Even if youre using a fetched results controller,
you could still be loading over a dozen high-resolution images at once, which
isnt going to be instant. To get around this issue, attributes that will hold large
objects should be split off into a related entity. This way the large objects can remain in the persistent store and can be represented by a fault instead, until they
really are needed. If you need to display photos in a table view, you should use
auto-generated thumbnail images instead.

7. Not Preloading Data

When you ship a new model version with an updated application, you need to be
careful not to accidentally ship a default data store based on an old model. If you
do, the update will probably crash on launch for some (if not all) users. This threat
can deter developers from shipping a default data store at all!
If default data is included with an application, it becomes easier to learn to use.
The easier a program is to use, the more likely it is that people will continue to
use it. The longer people use an application, the more chance that word about the
application will spread, thus increasing sales potential.
To avoid crashing updates while still providing default data, you need a good testing strategy. In addition, you also need a strong understanding of exactly what
model versions and stores youve shipped to the App Store. You should deploy an
untouched App Store version of the application to your device, add some data,
and then test the upgrade process thoroughly.

8. Not Using Multiple Contexts

At a minimum, a Core Data implementation should have one context operating on
the main thread. The user interface also operates on the main thread, so any slowdowns to the main thread will impact application responsiveness. While it is easier
to use only one context, performance issues can creep in unless your data set is
extremely small. For example, if you wanted to generate photo thumbnails or import some data, the application would appear to lock up for the duration of these
processes.
Since iOS 5, managing multiple contexts has become a lot easier. You can now
configure a context hierarchy and run some contexts in the foreground and others
in the background. By positioning a background context as a parent of a foreground context, you can implement background save. By positioning a background context as a child of a foreground context, you can implement an import
context that automatically updates the user interface as objects are imported.

9. Not Understanding the Limitations of iCloud

Integration
Since iOS 7, Core Data integration with iCloud has become much easier to implement. A key limitation of iCloud, however, is that its data is constrained to one
iCloud account. Because iCloud accounts are deeply intertwined with many aspects
of user devices, it is not practical or recommended to share iCloud accounts. This
means that iCloud cannot be used to collaborate. For example, assume a husband
and wife wanted to contribute to the same shopping list. This isnt currently possible with iCloud.
Beyond account limitations, iCloud has no support for ordered relationships and
also limits your lightweight model migration. Thinking outside the box, if youre
interested in gathering analytical stats about your apps usage, you might consider
using a Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS) instead. On that note, using a BaaS will also
enable synchronization with other platforms, such as Android or HTML5.

10. Integrating with iCloud Without Respect to

Existing Customer Data

Because iCloud integration with Core Data is now easier to implement with iOS 7,
many developers are confident enough to support it in their apps. Historically it
has been too unstable to trust with precious customer data. This has resulted in
many existing apps having only local stores, such as my own Teamwork app,
which I swear Ill update one of these days!
One of the key simplifications of iCloud under iOS 7 is the introduction of the fallback store. This store allows a seamless transition between iCloud accounts and
the toggling of iCloud Documents and Data. Users can start using an app with
iCloud even if they have no network connection, and they will be none the wiser as
their data is merged with iCloud once the network is available. While all of this is
fantastic, the existing pre-iOS 7 local store full of your customers data should not
be forgotten. If you just turn on iCloud, youll be using a different store and youll
need to merge the users local data with iCloud. Before you attempt to merge the
users local data, youll need to check:
Is the user signed in to iCloud?
Does the user want to use iCloud with this application?
Does the user want to merge their local data with iCloud?
If the answer to any of those questions is no, the app should be positioned to
handle a different answer in the future. If all answers are yes, then youll need to
manage the seeding process of the users local data to iCloud. When users have
multiple devices with local data, things can get really interesting. In that case,
youll need to consider a de-duplication strategy, too.

Conclusion
If theres any iOS framework thats worth investing your time in, its Core Data.
Knowing this solid technology pays dividends, and once youve picked it up youll
never look back. If youre interested in learning Core Data, consider my new book,
Learning Core Data for iOS. This iOS 7 based book takes you on the complete
journey from knowing nothing about Core Data to producing Grocery Dude,
which is available for free on the App Store today. Everything is explained in succinct detail so you can apply what youve learned straight away. Ive put a chapter
summary up here. Happy coding!

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