Raleigh, NC—Developers are always looking for shortcuts. On the Apple platforms, Core Data is a terrific shortcut that does a lot of the hard work for you.
Whether you are developing for Mac OS X or the iPhone, at some point your Cocoa application is probably going to need to save data and read it back later. You could struggle with the raw SQLite database included on the iPhone, generate cumbersome XML, or create your own binary format from scratch. Or, you can save time and energy by taking advantage of Apple's Core Data framework instead.
In Core Data: Apple's API for Persisting Data on Mac OS X (Pragmatic Bookshelf, $32.95 USD), author Marcus Zarra says, "If you plan on writing an application that saves data to disk, then you should be taking a very long look at Core Data. Whether you are focusing on the desktop or the iPhone, Core Data is the most efficient solution to data persistence."
Core Data makes it easy for you to work with object graphs and to persist data--but there are plenty of pitfalls and issues to watch out for. This book shows you everything you need from versioning to integrating with Quick Look, Sync Services, and Spotlight. You'll see how to boost performance and work in multithreaded applications, and work with Core Data on both the desktop and the iPhone.
As an extra bonus, you'll see numerous recipes that are useful in unusual situations, or even in places where you wouldn't have thought to use the Core Data API before. It will become another indispensable tool in your kit.
Advance Praise
"At last we have a book to introduce people to this fantastic developer technology. Starting with a high-level overview and ending with advanced techniques, Marcus expertly guides developers on their journey from Core Data noob to expert."
--Steve Scott (Scotty), The Mac Developer Network
For a review copy or more information please email pragprogpr@oreilly.com. Please include your delivery address and contact information.
Marcus S. Zarra is the owner of Zarra Studios LLC and the creator of seSales and iWeb Buddy. In addition, he is a co-author of Cocoa Is My Girlfriend, a wildly popular blog covering all aspects of Cocoa development.
Additional Resources
For more information about the book, including code, errata, discussions, full table of contents, excerpts from the book and more, see the catalog page for Core Data.
Publisher: Pragmatic Bookshelf
Marcus S. Zarra
ISBN: 9781934356326, 256 pages,
Book Price: $32.95 USD, £25.50 GBP
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