Saving PDF Files with Swift in iOS and display them

Question

I want to build an app which also includes the possibility to show and save PDFs inside the app and display them (as a FileSystem) within a tableview and open them when I tap on one PDF.

Here are my important questions for that:

1. How do I save a PDF local on my app ( for example if the user can enter a url) and where exactly will it save it ?

2. When saved, how can I show all the local storaged files within a tableview to open them?

Answer 1

Since several people requested this, here is the equivalent to the first answer in Swift:

//The URL to Save
let yourURL = NSURL(string: "http://somewebsite.com/somefile.pdf")
//Create a URL request
let urlRequest = NSURLRequest(URL: yourURL!)
//get the data
let theData = NSURLConnection.sendSynchronousRequest(urlRequest, returningResponse: nil, error: nil)

//Get the local docs directory and append your local filename.
var docURL = (NSFileManager.defaultManager().URLsForDirectory(.DocumentDirectory, inDomains: .UserDomainMask)).last as? NSURL

docURL = docURL?.URLByAppendingPathComponent( "myFileName.pdf")

//Lastly, write your file to the disk.
theData?.writeToURL(docURL!, atomically: true)

Also, since this code uses a synchronous network request, I highly recommend dispatching it to a background queue:

dispatch_async(dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_DEFAULT, 0), { () -> Void in
    //The URL to Save
    let yourURL = NSURL(string: "http://somewebsite.com/somefile.pdf")
    //Create a URL request
    let urlRequest = NSURLRequest(URL: yourURL!)
    //get the data
    let theData = NSURLConnection.sendSynchronousRequest(urlRequest, returningResponse: nil, error: nil)

    //Get the local docs directory and append your local filename.
    var docURL = (NSFileManager.defaultManager().URLsForDirectory(.DocumentDirectory, inDomains: .UserDomainMask)).last as? NSURL

    docURL = docURL?.URLByAppendingPathComponent( "myFileName.pdf")

    //Lastly, write your file to the disk.
    theData?.writeToURL(docURL!, atomically: true)
})

And the answer to second question in Swift:

//Getting a list of the docs directory
let docURL = (NSFileManager.defaultManager().URLsForDirectory(.DocumentDirectory, inDomains: .UserDomainMask).last) as? NSURL

//put the contents in an array.
var contents = (NSFileManager.defaultManager().contentsOfDirectoryAtURL(docURL!, includingPropertiesForKeys: nil, options: NSDirectoryEnumerationOptions.SkipsHiddenFiles, error: nil))
//print the file listing to the console
println(contents)