Does an iOS App Have Write Access Inside Its Bundle

Does an iOS app have write access inside its bundle?

The bundle is read-only. You don't want to mess around with it for two reasons:

• Code Signing: the signature is verified by against the contents of the bundle; if you mess around with the bundle, you break the signature.
• App Updates: updates work by replacing the entire app bundle with a newly downloaded one; any changes you make will get lost.

Where you should save stuff:

• Documents: if you want it to persist and be backed up
• Library/Caches: if you just want to cache downloaded data, like profile pics; will be auto deleted by the system if it is low on room unless you specify with a special do-not-delete flag.
• tmp: temporary files, deleted when your app is not running

For a full explanation check out File System Programming Guide and QA1719.

How to access file included in app bundle in Swift?

Simply by searching in the app bundle for the resource

var filePath = NSBundle.mainBundle().URLForResource("file", withExtension: "txt")

However you can't write to it because it is in the app resources directory and you have to create it in the document directory to write to it

var documentsDirectory: NSURL?
var fileURL: NSURL?

documentsDirectory = NSFileManager.defaultManager().URLsForDirectory(.DocumentDirectory, inDomains: .UserDomainMask).last!
fileURL = documentsDirectory!.URLByAppendingPathComponent("file.txt")

if (fileURL!.checkResourceIsReachableAndReturnError(nil)) {
    print("file exist")
}else{
    print("file doesnt exist")
    NSData().writeToURL(fileURL!,atomically:true)
}

now you can access it from fileURL

EDIT - 28 August 2018

This is how to do it in Swift 4.2

var filePath = Bundle.main.url(forResource: "file", withExtension: "txt")

To create it in the document directory

if let documentsDirectory = FileManager.default.urls(for: .documentDirectory, in: .userDomainMask).last {
   let fileURL = documentsDirectory.appendingPathComponent("file.txt")
   do {
       if try fileURL.checkResourceIsReachable() {
           print("file exist")
       } else {
           print("file doesnt exist")
           do {
            try Data().write(to: fileURL)
           } catch {
               print("an error happened while creating the file")
           }
       }
   } catch {
       print("an error happened while checking for the file")
   }
}

How To write into text File at my application's bundle in xcode

The bundle is read-only. You don't want to mess around with it for two reasons:

Code Signing: the signature is verified by against the contents of the bundle; if you mess around with the bundle, you break the signature.

App Updates: updates work by replacing the entire app bundle with a newly downloaded one; any changes you make will get lost.

Where you should save stuff:

Documents: if you want it to persist and be backed up

Library/Caches: if you just want to cache downloaded data, like profile pics; will be auto deleted by the system if it is low on room unless you specify with a special do-not-delete flag.

tmp: temporary files, deleted when your app is not running
For a full explanation check out File System Programming Guide and QA1719.

From following SO Answer:

Write a File into the App Bundle

Ok, based on your comment, here's what you need (I think - still not completely clear on the question, but let me know if this works for you).

• Create an empty file (say news.plist) in your project folder (SRCROOT). Add this to your repo.
• Add this file in your project's resources and add it in Copy Bundle Resources step in Build Phases
• When you download content from internet, save it to project's temporary folder, then copy it to SRCROOT/news.plist overwriting existing file (optionally add a check on file checksum to avoid unnecessary change). This step is required ONLY when running on simulator.
• Whenever developers check-in, the updated news.plist should be checked in to the repo.

To make SRCROOT available in code, add SRCROOT=\"${SRCROOT}\" to GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS.

Other developer won't need to do anything except the last step - check in the updated file every time it changes.

Does this help?

How do you access a file from inside an app directory

You might be looking for NSBundle.mainBundle which returns a reference to the NSBundle for the application. Using this and the various instance methods provided by NSBundle you may then determine the paths/URLs of the files packaged within the application bundle.

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