NSUndoManager undo Not Working With Core Data

Question

I am trying to create an iPhone application where the user can add entries. When he presses a new entry, a box will popup asking him for some information. Then he can either press "Cancel" or "Save" to discard the data or save it to disk.

For saving, I am using the Core Data framework, which works pretty well. However, I cannot get the "Cancel" button to work. When the window pops up, asking for information, I create a new object in the managed object context (MOC). Then when the user presses cancel, I try to use the NSUndoManager belonging to the MOC.

I would also like to do it using nested undo groups, because there might be nested groups.

To test this, I wrote a simple application. The application is just the "Window based application" template with Core Data enabled. For the Core Data model, I create a single entity called "Entity" with integer attribute "x". Then inside the applicationDidFinishLaunching, I add this code:

- (void)applicationDidFinishLaunching:(UIApplication *)application {    

  // Override point for customization after app launch    

  unsigned int x=arc4random()%1000;
  [self.managedObjectContext processPendingChanges];
  [self.managedObjectContext.undoManager beginUndoGrouping];

  NSManagedObject *entity=[NSEntityDescription insertNewObjectForEntityForName:@"Entity" 
                                                        inManagedObjectContext:self.managedObjectContext];
  [entity setValue:[NSNumber numberWithInt:x] forKey:@"x"];
  NSLog(@"Insert Value %d",x);

  [self.managedObjectContext processPendingChanges];
  [self.managedObjectContext.undoManager endUndoGrouping];
  [self.managedObjectContext.undoManager undoNestedGroup];

  NSFetchRequest *fetchRequest=[[NSFetchRequest alloc] init];
  NSEntityDescription *entityEntity=[NSEntityDescription entityForName:@"Entity"
                                                inManagedObjectContext:self.managedObjectContext];
  [fetchRequest setEntity:entityEntity];
  NSArray *result=[self.managedObjectContext executeFetchRequest:fetchRequest error:nil];
  for(entity in result) {
    NSLog(@"FETCHED ENTITY %d",[[entity valueForKey:@"x"] intValue]);
  }

    [window makeKeyAndVisible];
}

The idea is simple. Try to insert a new Entity object, undo it, fetch all Entity objects in the MOC and print them out. If everything worked correctly, there should be no objects at the end.

However, I get this output:

[Session started at 2010-02-20 13:41:49 -0800.]
2010-02-20 13:41:51.695 Untitledundotes[7373:20b] Insert Value 136
2010-02-20 13:41:51.715 Untitledundotes[7373:20b] FETCHED ENTITY 136

As you can see, the object is present in the MOC after I try to undo its creation. Any suggestions as to what I am doing wrong?

Moitoso

Hi Im having the very same problem. Did you find a solution? Have you tried using "undo" instead of "undoNestedGroup"? Thanks gonso – Eiger

Answer 1

Your problem is caused by the fact that, unlike OS X, the iPhone managed object context does not contain an undo manager by default. You need to explicitly add one.

Change the generated code in the app delegate for the managedObjectContext property to look like this:

- (NSManagedObjectContext *) managedObjectContext {

    if (managedObjectContext != nil) {
        return managedObjectContext;
    }

    NSPersistentStoreCoordinator *coordinator = [self persistentStoreCoordinator];
    if (coordinator != nil) {
        managedObjectContext = [[NSManagedObjectContext alloc] init];
        //add the following 3 lines of code
        NSUndoManager *undoManager = [[NSUndoManager alloc] init];
        [managedObjectContext setUndoManager:undoManager];
        [undoManager release];
        [managedObjectContext setPersistentStoreCoordinator: coordinator];
    }

    return managedObjectContext;

}

After making that change, the 2nd log message is no longer printed.

Hope that helps...

Dave

Ski

Just found this while Googling a similar question. Dave, I'm assuming there's a good reason that the undoManager is nil by default? Like, if I go ahead and implement this, am I going to get memory-related headaches? – Farron

Answer 2

I tried Dave approach, but did not work for me. I finally found the solution in Apple's example CoreDataBooks

The trick is to create a new context that shares the coordinator with you App's context. To discard the changes you dont need to do a thing, just discard the new context object. Since you share the coordinator, saving updates your main context.

Here is my adapted version, where I use a static object for the temp context to create a new ChannelMO object.

//Gets a new ChannelMO that is part of the addingManagedContext
+(ChannelMO*) getNewChannelMO{

    // Create a new managed object context for the new channel -- set its persistent store coordinator to the same as that from the fetched results controller's context.
    NSManagedObjectContext *addingContext = [[NSManagedObjectContext alloc] init];
    addingManagedObjectContext = addingContext;

    [addingManagedObjectContext setPersistentStoreCoordinator:[[self getContext] persistentStoreCoordinator]];

    ChannelMO* aux = (ChannelMO *)[NSEntityDescription insertNewObjectForEntityForName:@"ChannelMO" inManagedObjectContext:addingManagedObjectContext];
    return aux;
}

+(void) saveAddingContext{
    NSNotificationCenter *dnc = [NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter];
    [dnc addObserver:self selector:@selector(addControllerContextDidSave:) 
                name:NSManagedObjectContextDidSaveNotification object:addingManagedObjectContext];

    NSError *error;
    if (![addingManagedObjectContext save:&error]) {
        // Update to handle the error appropriately.
        NSLog(@"Unresolved error %@, %@", error, [error userInfo]);
        exit(-1);  // Fail
    }
    [dnc removeObserver:self name:NSManagedObjectContextDidSaveNotification object:addingManagedObjectContext];

    // Release the adding managed object context.
    addingManagedObjectContext = nil;
}

I hope it helps

Gonso

Eiger

What if your save fails? How are you going to undo those changes that have already been put into the context and then caused the fail? E.g. validation. – Hanako

Answer 3

It should work. Did you correctly assign the undo manager to your managedObjectContext? If you have rightly done that, it by default has undo registration enabled, and you should be good to go. There is a good article on core data here. There is a good tutorial on core data and NSUndoManager here. Hope that helps.

Isidor