Streamlined Core Data for RubyMotion

Core Data Query (CDQ) is a library to help you manage your Core Data stack while using RubyMotion. It uses a data model file, which you can generate in XCode, or you can use ruby-xcdm. CDQ aims to streamline the process of getting you up and running Core Data, while avoiding too much abstraction or method pollution on top of the SDK.

CDQ began its life as a fork of MotionData, but it became obvious I wanted to take things in a different direction, so I cut loose and ended up rewriting almost everything. If you pay attention, you can still find the genetic traces, so thanks to @alloy for sharing his work and letting me learn so much.

Why use a static Data Model?

By using a real data model file that gets compiled and included in your bundle, you can take advantage of automatic migration, which simplifies managing your schema as it grows, if you can follow a few simple rules.

Installing

Using Bundler:

gem 'cdq'

If you want to see bleeding-edge changes, point Bundler at the git repo:

gem 'cdq', git: 'git://github.com/infinitered/cdq.git'

Setting up your stack

You will need a data model file. If you've created one in XCode, move or copy it to your resources file and make sure it's named the same as your RubyMotion project. If you're using ruby-xcdm (which I highly recommend) then it will create the datamodel file automatically and put it in the right place.

Now include the setup code in your app_delegate.rb file:

class AppDelegate
  include CDQ

  def application(application, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:launchOptions)
    cdq.setup
    true
  end
end

class TopLevel
  include CDQ
end

That's it! You can create specific implementation classes for your entities if you want, but it's not required. You can start running queries on the console or in your code right away.

Creating new objects

CDQ maintains a stack of NSManagedObjectContexts for you, and any create operations will insert new, unsaved objects into the context currently on top of the stack. cdq.save will save the whole stack, including correctly using private threads if appropriate.

cdq('Author').create(name: "Le Guin", publish_count: 150, first_published: 1970)
cdq('Author').create(name: "Shakespeare", publish_count: 400, first_published: 1550)
cdq('Author').create(name: "Blake", publish_count: 100, first_published: 1778)
cdq.save

Queries

A quick aside about queries in Core Data. You should avoid them whenever possible in your production code. Core Data is designed to work efficiently when you hang on to references to specific objects and use them as you would any in-memory object, letting Core Data handle your memory usage for you. If you're coming from a server-side rails background, this can be pretty hard to get used to, but this is a very different environment. So if you find yourself running queries that only return a single object, consider rearchitecting. That said, queries are sometimes the only solution, and it's very handy to be able to use them easily when debugging from the console, or in unit tests.

With that out of the way, here are some samples:

# Simple Queries
cdq('Author').where(:name).eq('Shakespeare') 
cdq('Author').where(:publish_count).gt(10)

# sort, limit, and offset
cdq('Author').sort_by(:created_at).limit(1).offset(10)

# Compound queries
cdq('Author').where(:name).eq('Blake').and(:first_published).le(Time.local(1700))

# Multiple comparisons against the same attribute
cdq('Author').where(:created_at).ge(yesterday).and.lt(today)

Named Scopes

You can save up partially-constructed queries for later use using named scopes, even combining them seamlessly with other queries or other named scopes:

cdq('Author').scope :a_authors, cdq(:name).begins_with('A')
cdq('Author').scope :prolific, cdq(:publish_count).gt(99)

cdq('Author').prolific.a_authors.limit(5)

NOTE: strings and symbols are NOT interchangeable. cdq('Entity') gives you a query generator for an entity, but cdq(:attribute) starts a predicate for an attribute.

Dedicated Models

If you're using CDQ in a brand new project, you'll probably want to use dedicated model classes for your entities. It will enable the usual class-level customization of your model objects, and also a somewhat more familiar-looking and natural syntax for queries and scopes:

class Author < CDQManagedOjbect
  scope :a_authors, cdq(:name).begins_with('A')
  scope :prolific, cdq(:publish_count).gt(99)
end

Now you can change the queries above to:

Author.where(:name).eq('Shakespeare') 
Author.where(:publish_count).gt(10)
Author.where(:name).eq('Blake').and(:first_published).le(Time.local(1700))
Author.where(:created_at).ge(yesterday).and.lt(today)
Author.prolific.a_authors.limit(5)

Anything you can do with cdq('Author') you can now do with just Author. If you have a pre-existing implementation class that you can't turn into a CDQManagedObject, you can also just wrap the class: cdq(Author).

Using CDQ with a pre-existing model

If you have an existing app that already manages its own data model, you can use that, too, and override CDQ's stack at any layer:

cdq.setup(context: App.delegate.mainContext) # don't set up model or store coordinator
cdq.setup(store: App.delegate.persistentStoreCoordinator) # Don't set up model
cdq.setup(model: App.delegate.managedObjectModel) # Don't load model

You cannot use CDQManagedObject as a base class when overriding this way, you'll need to use cdq('Entity'). If you have an existing model and want to use it with CDQManagedObject without changing its name, You'll need to use a cdq.yml config file. See CDQConfig.

Things that are currently missing

• There is no facility for custom migrations yet
• There are no explicit validations (but you can define them on your data model)