Constants in Objective-C

Question

I\'m developing a Cocoa application, and I\'m using constant NSStrings as ways to store key names for my preferences.

I understand this is a good idea b

Answer 1

I use a singleton class, so that I can mock the class and change the constants if necessary for testing. The constants class looks like this:

#import 

@interface iCode_Framework : NSObject

@property (readonly, nonatomic) unsigned int iBufCapacity;
@property (readonly, nonatomic) unsigned int iPort;
@property (readonly, nonatomic) NSString * urlStr;

@end

#import "iCode_Framework.h"

static iCode_Framework * instance;

@implementation iCode_Framework

@dynamic iBufCapacity;
@dynamic iPort;
@dynamic urlStr;

- (unsigned int)iBufCapacity
{
    return 1024u;
};

- (unsigned int)iPort
{
    return 1978u;
};

- (NSString *)urlStr
{
    return @"localhost";
};

+ (void)initialize
{
    if (!instance) {
        instance = [[super allocWithZone:NULL] init];
    }
}

+ (id)allocWithZone:(NSZone * const)notUsed
{
    return instance;
}

@end

And it is used like this (note the use of a shorthand for the constants c - it saves typing [[Constants alloc] init] every time):

#import "iCode_FrameworkTests.h"
#import "iCode_Framework.h"

static iCode_Framework * c; // Shorthand

@implementation iCode_FrameworkTests

+ (void)initialize
{
    c  = [[iCode_Framework alloc] init]; // Used like normal class; easy to mock!
}

- (void)testSingleton
{
    STAssertNotNil(c, nil);
    STAssertEqualObjects(c, [iCode_Framework alloc], nil);
    STAssertEquals(c.iBufCapacity, 1024u, nil);
}

@end