Plist corrupted when storing list of records

[surrealroad]

If I do wf's set_value("cacheData", data, cacheFile) where "data" is a list of records, the plist file gets created but with no data.

[qlassiqa]

Hey there,

It's definitely a problem on your side of things, maybe you're doing something wrong. I've tried running the following code samples, and all produced a good plist structure, so maybe you're saving improper data or data that contains something that just can't go inside a plist file.... I can't know until I see what data you're trying to save.

1. saving a simple record
wf's set_value("cacheData", {a:2}, "data.plist")

which produced:

...
<key>cacheData</key>
<dict>
    <key>a</key>
    <integer>2</integer>
</dict>
...

2. saving a complex record
wf's set_value("cacheData", {b:3, ok:true}, "data.plist")

which produced:

...
<key>cacheData</key>
<dict>
    <key>b</key>
    <integer>3</integer>
    <key>ok</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
...

3. saving a list of records like you mentioned
wf's set_value("cacheData", { {a:2}, {b:3, ok:true} }, "data.plist")

which produced:

...
<key>cacheData</key>
<array>
    <dict>
        <key>a</key>
        <integer>2</integer>
    </dict>
    <dict>
        <key>b</key>
        <integer>3</integer>
        <key>ok</key>
        <true/>
    </dict>
</array>
...

Try them out yourself, and eventually use them as guidelines on how to structure your data. Let me know how it went :)

[surrealroad]

yeah sorry, I just realised there's both a set_value and set_values.

EDIT: It also turns out I can't use "name" as a record property :/)

[qlassiqa]

You're obviously doing it the wrong way, because I just tried setting a "name" property with success. The below code runs perfectly fine, and the plist file contains the "name" property ;)

wf's set_value("name", "OK", "")

If you've tried using {name: "value"} as a record, obviously it won't work because name is a reserved word in AppleScript and has other uses, so the only thing you can do if you really want to use name is to enclose it within vertical bars: { |name|: "value" }

However, make sure you read the documentation and look at the provided examples on how to use set_values & set_value, because they don't use that type of records. Here are a few VALID examples on how these methods should be used:

SET_VALUE:

wf's set_value("name", "mike", "")
wf's set_value("my first list", {1, 2, 3, "bob"}, "settings.plist")

SET_VALUES:

set theList to {{theKey:"name", theValue:"mike"}, {theKey:"hobbies", theValue:{"sports", "music"}}}
wf's set_values(theList, "settings.plist")

As you can see, these are the only ways of setting values in a plist file ;)

[surrealroad]

Just to let you know, wf's set_value("cacheData", { {a:2}, {b:3, ok:true} }, "data.plist") appears not to work in OS 10.9 (the other two simpler examples you listed do work)

[qlassiqa]

Well, OS 10.9 hasn't been officially released yet, therefore that OS version might still have bugs

[surrealroad]

sure, just wanted to give you a heads up.