iOS Data Storage Guidelines issues for a backwards-compatible app

Question

I'm developing an iOS app that has to support iOS 5+. I've read the iOS Data Storage Guidelines in order to prepare the app for the submission and read several questions and solutions about those guidelines here in Stackoverflow, but I still have some doubts about how I should handle this.

I have an sqlite database whose tables are defined in an .sqlite file. I copy this file into \Documents folder when app starts, and I keep such file always there in \Documents. This database firstly contains some collections of fixed data that app may need (lists of cities to select and things like that), and the rest is user-dependent data that will be downloaded. I've read this post: Apps must follow the iOS Data Storage Guidelines or they will be rejected in app that contains .sqlite3, but I still don't know what criteria should I apply. The .sqlite is not downloadable, it is included in Supported Files of the Xcode project, and some of the initial data is inserted from inside the app and it is neither downloadable. The user-dependent data, well, I can download it whenever I need. I've not integrated any iCloud stuff in my app. So, should it be correct to keep the .sqlite file always in Documents? AFAIK, you need the file to be there for performing all database operations...

As I said, I've not included any iCloud related code in my app, and in fact I don´t know how iCloud is managed because I've never told to do it, are backups of the app made anyway? Should I use the flags the iOS Data Storage Guidelines says in order to prevent files to be backuped? I need some guidence regarding backups and iCloud considerations.

And there is another thing: my app also downloads some user-dependent images. I show them in several views throughout the app, so I need them to persist while the normal working of the app. However, it is downloadable content. So, where should I place them?

Thanks a lot!

Answer 1

I believe your .sqlite file should be in Documents, this is the correct place for it.

You downloaded images should probably be in Caches, but you could also get away with them in documents as long as you set the "do not backup" attribute.

You can set the skip backup attribute like this:

    BOOL success = [url setResourceValue: [NSNumber numberWithBool: skip]
                                  forKey: NSURLIsExcludedFromBackupKey error: &error];