Objective-C boilerplate generator

Run Extra D.R.Y. in your Objective-C project folder to automatically add (upon your request):

@property, @synthesize, field declarations,
initializing constructors,
missing release calls in dealloc,
initWithDictionary, dictionaryRepresentation based on the chosen fields.

Installation

Install the command-line utility via RubyGems:

sudo gem install xdry

Basic Usage

Tell XD.R.Y. which changes you want done using bang-commands. For example, add !p to a field declaration line to generate a property:

// Foo.h
@interface Foo {
  Bar *value; !p
}

@end

// Foo.m
@implementation Foo
@end

// Foo.h
@interface Foo {
  Bar *value;
}

@property(nonatomic, retain) Bar *value;

@end

// Foo.m
@implementation Foo

@synthesize value;

- (void)dealloc {
  [value release], value = nil;
  [super dealloc];
}

@end

To run XD.R.Y., open a Terminal, cd to your project folder and execute xdry:

cd ~/Documents/HelloWorld
xdry

Automatic Changes

Without any instructions from your side, XD.R.Y. automatically applies the following changes:

Adds missing release calls to dealloc methods:

@interface Foo {
  NSString *value;
}
@end

@implementation Foo
@end

@interface Foo {
  NSString *value;
}
@end

@implementation Foo

- (void)dealloc {
  [value release], value = nil;
  [super dealloc];
}

@end

Adds missing @synthesize declarations for properties with no explicit accessor methods:

@interface Foo {
  NSString *value;
}

@property(nonatomic, copy) NSString *value;

@end

@implementation Foo
@end

@interface Foo {
  NSString *value;
}

@property(nonatomic, copy) NSString *value;

@end

@implementation Foo

@synthesize value;

@end

Adds missing fields for declared properties:

@interface Foo {
}

@property(nonatomic, copy) NSString *value;

@end

@interface Foo {
  NSString *value;
}

@property(nonatomic, copy) NSString *value;

@end

Properties, Fields, Constructors

!p — generate a property for the given field:

@interface Foo {
  Bar *value; !p
}

@end

@implementation Foo
@end

@interface Foo {
  Bar *value;
}

@property(nonatomic, retain) Bar *value;

@end

@implementation Foo

@synthesize value;

- (void)dealloc {
  [value release], value = nil;
  [super dealloc];
}

@end

!c — generate an initializing constructor for the given field(s):

@interface Foo {
  NSString *_something; !c
}
@end

@implementation Foo
@end

@interface Foo {
  NSString *_something;
}

- (id)initWithSomething:(NSString *)something;

@end

@implementation Foo

- (id)initWithSomething:(NSString *)something {
  if (self = [super init]) {
    _something = [something copy];
  }
  return self;
}

@end

Dictionary Coding

XD.R.Y. can generate initWithDictionary:(NSDictionary *)dictionary method, useful for loading objects from a plist. Similarly, an (NSDictionary *)dictionaryRepresentation method is generated to produce a plist-friendly dictionary from an object.

// persistent marks a block of fields to read from a dictionary / serialize into a dictionary:

@interface Foo {
  // persistent
  NSString *_something;
}
@end

@implementation Foo
@end

@interface Foo {
  // persistent
  NSString *_something;
}
@end

#define SomethingKey @"Something"

@implementation Foo

- (id)initWithDictionary:(NSDictionary *)dictionary {
  if (self = [super init]) {
    id somethingRaw = [dictionary objectForKey:SomethingKey];
    if (somethingRaw != nil) {
      _something = [somethingRaw copy];
    }
  }
  return self;
}

- (NSDictionary *)dictionaryRepresentation {
  NSMutableDictionary *dictionary = [NSMutableDictionary dictionary];
  [dictionary setObject:_something forKey:SomethingKey];
  return dictionary;
}

@end

To correctly handle serialization and deserialization of arrays, you need to hint XD.R.Y. about the item type:

@interface Foo {
  // persistent
  NSArray *_bars; // of Bar
}
@end

@implementation Foo
@end

@interface Foo {
  // persistent
  NSArray *_bars; // of Bar
}
@end

@implementation Foo
#define BarsKey @"Bars"

@implementation Foo

- (id)initWithDictionary:(NSDictionary *)dictionary {
  if (self = [super init]) {
    id barsRaw = [dictionary objectForKey:BarsKey];
    if (barsRaw != nil) {
      NSMutableArray *barsArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
      for (NSDictionary *barsItemDict in (NSArray *) barsRaw) {
        Bar *barsItem = [[Bar alloc] initWithDictionary:barsItemDict];
        [barsArray addObject:barsItem];
        [barsItem release];
      }
      _bars = barsArray;
    }
  }
  return self;
}

- (NSDictionary *)dictionaryRepresentation {
  NSMutableDictionary *dictionary = [NSMutableDictionary dictionary];
  NSMutableArray *barsArray = [NSMutableArray array];
  for (Bar *barsItem in _bars) {
    [barsArray addObject:[barsItem dictionaryRepresentation]];
  }
  [dictionary setObject:barsArray forKey:BarsKey];
  return dictionary;
}

- (void)dealloc {
  [_bars release], _bars = nil;
  [super dealloc];
}

@end

License and Authors

Distributed under the MIT license, see LICENSE file for details.

Contributing

Fork the source on GitHub: http://github.com/andreyvit/xdry.

Add a test, make a change, verify that all tests pass, update the docs in site/index.md, send me a pull request.

Testing prerequisites:

sudo gem install rake rspec diff-lcs

The simplest way to run the tests:

rake

Get a nice colorful table with test results:

rspec -b -c -fd .

When something goes wrong, you want a verbose output:

VERBOSE=1 rake

Site (documentation) prerequisites:

sudo gem install jekyll
sudo easy_install Pygments

Regenerate the site using:

rake site:build

(open site/_site/index.html to view the results). Don’t bother with gh-pages branch.