Filestuff

A Swift framework for reading and managing directory trees that is suitable for building a Finder-style file browser interface.

Overview

A Filestuff object lets you read the contents of a directory along with the metadata for the directory and its contents. To build a Finder-style file browser interface, the Directory object could be used directly as your data source for the UITableView or UICollectionView or, if desired, you can create a wrapper around the Directory object to format the data for display or manipulate the data in any way necessary.

If the directory loader is not extended, the default set of metadata will be loaded upon reading the directory's content. To load metadata not included in the default set, you can add additional metadata to be loaded and extend the FilestuffContainer to expose the extra metadata for your consumption.

Getting Started

Installation

Note: There are no plans to support Carthage or CocoaPods package managers.

Swift Package

Swift Package Manager is a tool for managing the distribution of Swift code.

For Swift Package Project

After you set up your Package.swift manifest file in your project, you can add Filestuff as a dependency by adding it to your Package.swift dependencies value.

dependencies: [ .package(url: "https://github.com/weyhan/Filestuff.git", from: "1.0.0") ]

For Xcode Project

1. Using Xcode 11 or above, go to File > Add Package Dependencies….
2. Paste the project URL: https://github.com/weyhan/Filestuff.git in the search field.
3. Select the project target from the search result list if not already selected.
4. Configure the dependency rules to your preferences.
5. Click Add Package to add Filestuff to your project.

Note: The Add Package Dependencies interface could change from version to version of Xcode.

Git Submodule

On the Terminal.app, go to the root folder of the git repository you want to add the Filestuff framework and then add the submodule folder.

git submodule add https://github.com/weyhan/filestuff.git
git submodule init
git submodule update

To add Filestuff to your project, locate the project file Filestuff.xcodeproj on Finder and drag it into your project's Xcode Project Navigator pane.

Build From Source

On the Terminal.app, type the following command to clone the Filestuff repository and build:

git clone https://github.com/weyhan/filestuff.git
cd filestuff
source build-xcframework.sh

The resulting framework file Filestuff.xcframework will be placed in the build directory.

To add Filestuff to your project, locate the framework file Filestuff.xcframework on Finder and drag it into your project's Xcode Project Navigator pane.

Usage

Importing Filestuff

To start using Filestuff, import the Filestuff framework in the source file.

import Filestuff

Reading Directory Content

There are two modes of reading directories.

• Shallow read (default):

let homeUrl = FileManager.default.urls(for: .documentDirectory, in: .userDomainMask).first!.deletingLastPathComponent()

do {
	let directory = try Directory.load(url: homeUrl)
} catch {
	// Handle error
}

Example result of shallow read where "…" is not read:

.
├── Documents
│   └── …
├── Library
│   └── …
├── SystemData
└── tmp

• Deep read:

let homeUrl = FileManager.default.urls(for: .documentDirectory, in: .userDomainMask).first!.deletingLastPathComponent()

do {
	let directory = try Directory.load(url: homeUrl, shallow: false)
} catch {
	// Handle error
}

Example result of deep read where the whole tree is loaded:

.
├── Documents
│   ├── mytext.txt
│   ├── presentation.pdf
│   └── settings.json
├── Library
│   ├── Caches
│   ├── Preferences
│   └── Saved Application State
│       └── com.myapp.savedState
│           └── KnownSceneSessions
│               └── data.data
├── SystemData
└── tmp

The deep read will load the whole directory tree with the following exception:

1. Will not follow into Symbolic link to a directory.
2. Will not descend into bundle or package type directories.

Iterating Over the Content of a Directory

Print all files and directories in the Directory container at the specific URL.

directory.forEach { file in 
	print("filename: \(file.name)")
}

File / Directory Attributes

• url: URL
  The URL value pointing to the file or directory on the filesystem where this FilestuffContainer represents.

• attribute: URLResourceValues
  The file's metadata represented as URLResourceValues

• size: Int?
  The file’s size, in bytes.

• type: URLFileResourceType?
  The filesystem type as URLFileResourceType.

• created: Date?
  The file's creation date.

• modified: Date?
  The file's last modified date.

• name: String
  The file's name.

• ext: String
  The file's extension.

• displayName: String
  The file's name without the file extension.

• path: String
  The file's path on the filesystem.

• isRegularFile: Bool?
  A Boolean value indicating whether the file is a regular file.

• isDirectory: Bool?
  A Boolean value indicating whether the file is a directory.

• isSymbolicLink: Bool?
  A Boolean value indicating whether the file is a symbolic link.

• contentType: UTType?
  The resource’s type of the file as UTType.

• contentTypeIdentifier: String?
  A String value representation of the file's resource type.

Loading More Attribute

There are two ways to ask Filestuff to load additional resources from the filesystem when available.

Adding resource keys to the whole session

To load additional attributes while reading directories, add URLResourceKey using addFileResourceKey convenience method. e.g.:

FilestuffUtils.add(resourceKeys: .totalFileAllocatedSizeKey)

Note: The additional keys will persist in the same session but not across sessions. In other words, the keys once added, will immediately take effect and continue to be in effect until the app quits. Any subsequent read will include the additional keys.

Adding resource keys to a one-time load method

To load additional attributes on a one-time basis, pass the corresponding keys to the load convenience method as the optional argument extraResourceKeys. e.g.:

	let homeUrl = FileManager.default.urls(for: .documentDirectory, in: .userDomainMask).first!.deletingLastPathComponent()

	do {
		let directory = try Directory.load(url: homeUrl, extraResourceKeys: [isAliasFileKey])
	} catch {
		// Handle error
	}

Note: See below to add access to added extra resource keys

Accessing resource values loaded by adding resource keys

To access the value of the additional attributes, it is necessary to extend the FilestuffContainer by adding computed properties to retrieve the value. e.g.:

	extension FilestuffContainer {
		var totalFileAllocatedSize: Int? { attribute.totalFileAllocatedSize } 
	}

It's also possible to extend FilestuffContainer by adding functions that accept arguments and manipulate attribute values to suit your needs.