All class properties accessible from another class EXCEPT NSDictionary? Anyone know why?

Question

I've searched pretty far and wide for the past several days and have little to show except a few hairs pulled from my head.

I'm trying to pass my object data from one class to another via @properties, and all is working well with my NSString objects. But I cannot access my NSDictionary (and/or NSMutableDictionary) data. In fact, I've tried switching my NSDictionary to an NSMutableDictionary, switching between retain and copy, and a few other variations to no avail.

Here's a breakdown. My NSDictionary object I'm passing is projectMessagesList. I hope this is enough of the code to be brief, yet, provide enough information:

DBSProject.h

@interface DBSProject : NSObject <NSCoding>
@property (nonatomic, retain) NSDictionary *projectMessagesList;
@end

DBSProject.m

@implementation DBSProject
@synthesize projectMessagesList=_projectMessagesList;
-(id)init {
    self = [super init];
    if (self) {
        [self setProjectCode:@"CODE"];
        NSMutableDictionary *projectMessagesList = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init];
        DBSMessage *message = [[DBSMessage alloc] init];

        [message setMessageDate:[NSDate date]];
        [message setMessageText:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"This is a message"]];
        [projectMessagesList setObject:message forKey:@"msg"];
        NSLog(@"%@", [projectMessagesList objectForKey:@"msg"]);
        }
    }
    return self;
}

The NSLog at the end of my object's class correctly prints out "This is a message" in the console.

Now let's jump to my other class, a ViewController:

DBSDetailViewController.h

#import "DBSProject.h"
#import "DBSMessage.h"

@interface DBSDetailViewController : UIViewController

@property (strong, nonatomic) DBSProject *myProject;
@property (strong, nonatomic) IBOutlet UILabel *clientCode;
@end

DBSDetailViewController.m

- (void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
    [super viewWillAppear:animated];

    NSString *clientProjectString = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@ %@", self.myProject.clientCode, self.myProject.projectCode];

    self.title = self.myProject.projectCode;
    self.projectCode.text = clientProjectString;
    self.projectDescription.text = self.myProject.projectDescription;
    self.projectBudget.text = self.myProject.projectBudget;
    self.projectDueDate.text = self.myProject.projectDueDate;

    DBSMessage *tmpMessage = [[DBSMessage alloc] init];
    tmpMessage = [self.myProject.projectMessagesList objectForKey:@"msg"];

    NSLog(@"%@", self.myProject.projectCode);
    NSLog(@"%@", [tmpMessage messageText]);
}

This properly prints out my projectCode, but the projectMessagesList (my NSDictionary) is a (null).

So, I'm able to access everything except my NSDictionary. Would anyone have any suggestions as to my error? Thank you so much!

Solution

Change your code, it's a very simple bug

-(id)init {
    self = [super init];
    if (self) {
        [self setProjectCode:@"CODE"];
        //you are not assigning the object into ivar..you are creating a local object
        //NSMutableDictionary *projectMessagesList = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init];
        //into
        projectMessagesList = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init];
        DBSMessage *message = [[DBSMessage alloc] init];

        [message setMessageDate:[NSDate date]];
        [message setMessageText:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"This is a message"]];
        [projectMessagesList setObject:message forKey:@"msg"];
        NSLog(@"%@", [projectMessagesList objectForKey:@"msg"]);
        }
    }
    return self;
}

Comments

[Scott Sullivan]

Slaps hand on face. Wow. Thank you. That makes perfect sense and explains why I missed it. I was looking way too deep and missed the obvious. (I did change it to be: "self.projectMessageList" since I have my @synthesize set to _projectMessagesList, but you nailed it. THANKS!