How to load RubyMotion table view cell data from file - rubymotion

Question

I'm getting started with RubyMotion and ProMotion. I'm building a table view and I would like to move the data out into an external file to make it easier to manage. Here's what I have so far:
class MasterScreen < PM::TableScreen
title 'States'
def table_data
[{
title: "Northwest States",
cells: [
{ title: "Oregon", action: :view_details, arguments: { state: #oregon }},
{ title: "Washington", action: :view_details, arguments: { state: #washington }}
]
}]
end
def view_details
open DetailScreen.new(nav_bar: true)
end
end
I'd like to move the names of the states (basically the cell titles) into something like a YAML or JSON file that I can load and iterate over. How can I achieve something like this?
Update: I managed to figure out how to load text from a file.
First I added bubble-wrap to my Gemfile and ran bundle install. BubbleWrap provides the helper method App.resources_path.
In my_app/resources/states.txt I have a list of states, separated by new lines:
Oregon
Washington
Foobar
In my Table View Controller, I read the file and split the file into an array of lines.
class MasterScreen < PM::TableScreen
title 'States'
def on_load
data = File.read("#{App.resources_path}/states.txt")
#states = data.lines
end
def table_data
[{
title: "Northwest States",
cells: #states.map do |state|
{
title: state,
action: :view_details,
arguments: { state: state }
}
end
}]
end
def view_details(arguments)
open DetailScreen.new(nav_bar: true, title: arguments[:state])
end
end
This works, but it's only part of what I was trying to do. I would still like to use a structure like YAML to represent titles and subtitles. What would be the RubyMotion way to do this sort of thing?

Answer 1

Figured out how to do it. I came across a RubyMotion gem called motion-yaml. Simply add it to your Gemfile, add your YAML file to your resources directory, and use it like you would YAML in Ruby.
data = YAML.load(File.read("#{App.resources_path}/my_yaml_file.yml"))
Note: You will need to add bubble-wrap to your Gemfile in order to have the App.resources_path. I'm not sure if there is an easy way to do it without bubble-wrap.