NSData(contentsOfURL: url) always returning nil

Question

I have this code in a new playground

import Foundation

let blogsURL: NSURL = NSURL(fileURLWithPath: "/Users/Francis/Documents/Xcode_projects/KM registratie/blogs.json")
let data = NSData(contentsOfURL: blogsURL)

On the second line the playground tells me that it (correctly) initialised the URL referring to file:///Users/Francis/Documents/Xcode_projects/KM%20registratie/blogs.json and on the third line the playground tells me that data is nil

I already googled around but no question seems to be the exact same problem. I found this "NSData contentsOfURL constructor returns nil", but neither restarting Xcode nor restarting my entire computer fixes the problem.

Not sure about the %20, but it should probably be an escaped space instead of encoded : `"/Users/Francis/Documents/Xcode_projects/KM\ registratie/blogs.json"` — Wain, Nov 13 '15 at 17:28
you only escape when you don't put parentheses around a path right? In that case there's no need to escape the space. But I tried it anyway, it gives a syntax error on the back slash — Fr4nc3sc0NL, Nov 13 '15 at 17:37
I guess, the playground is in its own sandbox and cannot access files outside. — vadian, Nov 13 '15 at 17:37
maybe need 2 slashes so you aren't escaping in the `String` but you are in the path creation, though it may be that %20 is appropriate — Wain, Nov 13 '15 at 17:39
I already answered the question, thanks to @vadian, but I do wonder now if %20 is appropriate in a system path :p — Fr4nc3sc0NL, Nov 13 '15 at 17:47
@Fr4nc3sc0NL any space character in an URL has to be percent escaped even in a file system URL — vadian, Nov 13 '15 at 23:16

score 0 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:00

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playgrounds are sandboxed and it seems that there isn't an easy way to reach outside their "box". XML parsing in swift the title of this question is a bit misleading, the answer on it does answer this question

edited May 23 '17 at 12:00

Community

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answered Nov 13 '15 at 17:46

Fr4nc3sc0NL

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score 0 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:22

It's answered here:

XML parsing in swift

The problem is that your URL isn't pointing where you think it is. You're trying to open a URL in a subdirectory in your sandbox, and it doesn't exist.

You'll need to open the package contents of your playground (right click on the playground and select "Show Package Contents", add a folder called "Resources", and copy your file directly there.

Then you can get the file from the main bundle:

let url: NSURL! = NSBundle.mainBundle().URLForResource("blogs", withExtension: "json")

NSData(contentsOfURL: url) always returning nil

2 Answers2