How can I use a plist from the internet?

Using Swift
1

I want to make a Mac app that downloads official Apple firmware for Mac. To do this I need to get information from their plist.

Is there an API to parse that plist for me so I can more easily query it?

2

You can parse a property list into:

  • An object graph, using PropertyListSerialization

  • A model type, using PropertyListDecoder

Be warned, however, that unless Apple has officially documented the location and structure of this property list — and I don’t we have — your overall might run into problems down the line if that location or format changes.

Share and Enjoy

Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ DTS @ Apple

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3

You you can also use Foundation XMLParser to parse it. Or any 3rd party XML parser you may prefer.

4

Nice, I see I can use:

PropertyListSerialization.propertyList(from: myDataFromInternet)

but this returns an Any what do I do with that?

5

You have a dictionary with 2 keys at the root level, so that Any you can cast to [String: Any] like so:

let result = PropertyListSerialization.propertyList(from: myDataFromInternet) as? [String: Any]
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6

andreas66 wrote:

You you can also use Foundation XMLParser to parse it. Or any 3rd
party XML parser you may prefer.

I wouldn’t recommend using an XML parser to parse property lists. To start, it’s a bunch of extra work relative to the property list API. Also, those APIs handle other property list formats, most notably binary property lists.

danmihai wrote:

but this returns an Any what do I do with that?

You can, as costinAndronache suggested, conditionally cast it to the type you’re expecting. However, if you’re parsing a property list with a known schema [1], it’s often a lot easier to declare a set of Codable model types and parse into that using PropertyListDecoder.

Share and Enjoy

Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ DTS @ Apple

[1] Not that the property list has a known schema, as per the warning in my previous response.

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