Rails plugin for easily adding a binary plist format. The binary plist format is ideal for transferring data to an Objective-C based application.

Note: This is still a work in progress. It should be ready to use for most applications. The most noticeable issue is the lack of support for large integers.

Add the following line to your bundle and run bundle install.

gem "binary_plist"

All you have to do is add the plist format to your respond_to block:

def index
  @posts = Post.all
  respond_to do |format|
    format.html
    format.plist { render :plist => @posts }
  end
end

You can do the combined style if you're support multiple formats like json or xml.

def index
  @posts = Post.all
  respond_to do |format|
    format.html
    format.any(:json, :plist) { render request.format.to_sym => @posts }
  end
end

On the Objective-C side, it's ridiculously easy to consume the plist data.

NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:@"http://localhost:3000/posts.plist"];
NSArray *posts = [NSArray arrayWithContentsOfURL:url];

You can also use the more flexible syntax:

NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:@"http://localhost:3000/posts.plist"];
NSDate *date = [NSData dataWithContentsOfURL:url];
id result = [NSPropertyListSerialization propertyListFromData:data 
             mutabilityOption:NSPropertyListImmutable format:NULL errorDescription:nil];

if ([result isKindOfClass:[NSArray class]]) {
  // Handle array response
} else if ([result isKindOfClass:[NSDictionary class]]) {
  // Handle dictionary response
} else {
  // Etc...
}

The encoder is largely based on Apple Binary Property List serializer.

Copyright (c) 2010-2011 Sam Soffes, released under the MIT license