Protocols

NSCoding

Adopted By: NSObject

Declared In: Foundation/NSObject.h

Protocol Description

The NSCoding protocol declares the two methods that a class must implement so that objects of that class can be encoded and decoded. This capability provides the basis for archiving (where objects and other structures are stored on disk) and distribution (where objects are copied to different address spaces).

When an object receives an encodeWithCoder: message, it should write its instance variables (and, through a message to super, the instance variables that it inherits) to the supplied NSCoder. Similarly, when an object receives an initWithCoder: message, it should initialize its instance variables (and inherited instance variables, again through a message to super) from the data in the supplied NSCoder. See the NSCoder and NSArchiver class specifications for more complete information.

Encoding and Decoding Objects

- (void)encodeWithCoder:(NSCoder *)aCoder Encodes the receiver using aCoder.

- (id)initWithCoder:(NSCoder *)aDecoder Initializes and returns a new instance from data in aDecoder.