ExtendedAttributes

This library handles file extended attributes by extending URL struct.

Requirements

• Swift 4.0 or higher
• macOS, iOS, tvOS or Linux
• XCode 9.0

Installation

First you must clone this project from github:

git clone https://github.com/amosavian/ExtendedAttributes

Then you can either install manually by adding Sources/ExtendedAttributes directory to your project or create a xcodeproj file and add it as a dynamic framework:

swift package generate-xcodeproj

Usage

Extended attributes only work with urls that begins with file:///.

Listing

To get which extended attributes are set for file:

do {
    print(try url.listExtendedAttributes())
} catch {
    print(error.localizedDescription)
}

Retrieving

To check either a specific extended attribute exists or not:

if url.hasExtendedAttribute(forName: "eaName") {
    // Do something
}

To retrieve raw data for an extended attribute, simply use this code as template, Please note if extended attribute doesn’t exist, it will throw an error.

do {
    let data = try url.extendedAttribute(forName: "eaName")
    print(data as NSData)
} catch {
    print(error.localizedDescription)
}

You can retrieve values of extended attributes if they are set with standard plist binary format. This can be String, Int/NSNumber, Double, Bool, URL, Date, Array or Dictionary. Arrays should not contain nil value.

To retrieve raw data for an extended attribute, simply use this code as template:

do {
    let notes: String = try url.extendedAttributeValue(forName: "notes")
    print("Notes:", notes)
    let isDownloeded: Bool = try url.extendedAttributeValue(forName: "isdownloaded")
    print("isDownloaded:", isDownloeded)
    let originURL: URL = try url.extendedAttributeValue(forName: "originurl")
    print("Original url:", originurl)
} catch {
    print(error.localizedDescription)
}

or to list all values of a file:

do {
    for name in try url.listExtendedAttributes() {
        let value = try url.extendedAttributeValue(forName: name)
        print(name, ":" , value)
    }
} catch {
    print(error.localizedDescription)
}

Setting attributes

To set raw data for an extended attribute:

do {
    try url.setExtendedAttribute(data: Data(bytes: [0xFF, 0x20]), forName: "data")
} catch {
    print(error.localizedDescription)
}

To set a value for an extended attribute:

do {
    let dictionary: [String: Any] = ["name": "Amir", "age": 30]
    try url.setExtendedAttribute(value: dictionary, forName: "identity")
} catch {
    print(error.localizedDescription)
}

Removing

To remove an extended attribute:

do {
    try url.removeExtendedAttribute(forName: "identity")
} catch {
    print(error.localizedDescription)
}

Known issues

Check Issues page.

Contribute

We would love for you to contribute to ExtendedAttributes, check the LICENSE file for more info.