What's best practice when it comes to Info.plist Variables in iOS development?

Question

I recently started developing iOS Apps, and I found a Environment Variables tab in my Info.plist file. What's best practice when it comes to these variables? Can I use them throughout my code base? As long as I reference them in the correct manner?

For example if I was trying to access a Var to change the background color I could access the value this way, but is it reliable? Is it best practice? I simply can see the benefit of being able to access these vars across multiple ViewControllers and Delegates.

Devonna

Can you show me what you're talking about? I don't remember seeing a plist with tabs in Xcode before. – Princeling

@Princeling Updated! – Devonna

Constants like that should always be define in code. There's no good reason I can think of do so in the plist file. Remember that every forced unwrap or cast can potentially cause a crash in the future. – Princeling

Answer 1

It's much easier to define constants like that in code.

1. You know their type for sure -> no typecasting needed
2. You could document them properly
3. You don't have to remember their keys in the info.plist. Xcode's code-completion will help you when you use the constants
4. Constants defined in code can't be manipulated by the user as easy as in the info.plist

Lohengrin