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Using CoreData with MagicalRecord

Updated to work with newest MagicalRecord version, as of April 13th 2013

So I have used CoreData before in my iOS applications, but until now I’ve always sticked to Apple’s CoreData Template Project. Yesterday I came across the MagicalRecord project on GitHub which promises a cleaner and simpler approach to working with CoreData.

At first I was confused on how exactly to set up a new project with CoreData and MagicalRecord. Since there were practically no tutorials / guides on the web on how to use MagicalRecord except of course for the Repository Description, I've decided to write a easy to follow step by step guide.

  1. Create a new project in XCode and be sure not to check "Use Core Data"
  2. Download the MagicalRecord source from GitHub and add it to your project
  3. Add the CoreData framework to your project

    4. "Targets -> Build Phases -> Link Binary with Libraries" & then add CoreData.framework

  4. Import the MagicalRecord main header file in the projects .pch file
    5. #import "MagicalRecord.h"
  5. In the AppDelegate's application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:

    6. Call following method to setup CoreData and MagicalRecord ... see the MagicalRecord GitHub page for more setup possibilities.

    [MagicalRecord setupAutoMigratingCoreDataStack];

    Well that was the basic setup, easy right? Now on to the important stuff...

Create

Person *alex = [Person MR_createEntity];
alex.name = @"Alex";
alex.age = @23;

Select

//Retrieve all for aNSManagedObject subclass
NSArray *people = [Person MR_findAll];

//Retrieve first record
Person *aPerson = [Person MR_findFirst];

//Retrieve records conditionally & sort
NSArray *people = [Person MR_findByAttribute:@"name" withValue:@"alex" andOrderBy:@"age" ascending:YES];

Update

//Updating a retrieved entity is as easy as manipulating it's properties
aPerson.age = @56;

Delete

//Remove all records
[Person MR_truncateAll];

//Delete single record, after retrieving it
[alex MR_deleteEntity];

Save

//For any entities to actually be saved / updated / deleted on disk call following method
[[NSManagedObjectContext MR_defaultContext] saveToPersistentStoreAndWait];

//Again check the MagicalRecord repo for more save options

Misc

//If you want to omit the "MR_" prefix to all MagicalRecord realted method calls define following before importing the MagicalRecord header
#define MR_SHORTHAND

//Turn off MagicalRecord logging, again by defining following before header import
#define MR_ENABLE_ACTIVE_RECORD_LOGGING 0

Thats pretty much all there is to say about this great library, You can download the source code I created showcasing MagicalRecord integration here:

Source Code
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