Save CCColor to NSUser Defaults? - cocos2d-iphone

Question

Here is the code for my 3 CCSliders, they change the bat color fine, I saved the sliders and those are working fine, but I need to save the _SettingBat.color to load across the app, this is where I am having issues saving the color to NSUserDefaults.
CCColor *batColor;
-(void)redSlider
{
batColor = [CCColor colorWithRed:_redSlider.sliderValue green:_greenSlider.sliderValue blue:_blueSlider.sliderValue];
_settingsBat.color = batColor;
}
-(void)greenSlider
{
batColor = [CCColor colorWithRed:_redSlider.sliderValue green:_greenSlider.sliderValue blue:_blueSlider.sliderValue];
_settingsBat.color = batColor;
}
-(void)blueSlider
{
batColor = [CCColor colorWithRed:_redSlider.sliderValue green:_greenSlider.sliderValue blue:_blueSlider.sliderValue];
_settingsBat.color = batColor;
}
-(void)save
{
NSLog(#"The Color is, %#",_settingsBat.color);
[[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] setFloat:_redSlider.sliderValue forKey:#"redSlider"];
[[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] setFloat:_greenSlider.sliderValue forKey:#"greenSlider"];
[[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] setFloat:_blueSlider.sliderValue forKey:#"blueSlider"];
[[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults]synchronize];
_savedLabel.visible = TRUE;
NSLog(#"My Key is, %#",[[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] stringForKey:#"batColor"]);
}

Answer 1

This works for cocos2D V3
Get a UIColor instance:
UIColor *spriteUIColor = [_spriteColor.color UIColor];
Archive it:
NSData *colorData = [NSKeyedArchiver archivedDataWithRootObject:spriteUIColor];
[[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] setObject:colorData forKey:#"mySavedColor"];
To restore it:
NSData *colorData = [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] objectForKey:#"mySavedColor"];
UIColor *restoredUIColor = [NSKeyedUnarchiver unarchiveObjectWithData:colorData];

Answer 2

I generally disagree with archiving objects as a means to save a simple value. Besides not being very efficient, you also violate separation of data from your implementation (maybe not a big deal here, but...), you can run into issues when the class implementation changes, etc.
I would say to avoid saving the channels individually too, since they are really one value. I would personally save the color as a numeric RGB value then use something like this macro:
#define UIColorFromRGB(rgbValue) [UIColor colorWithRed:((float)((rgbValue & 0xFF0000) >> 16))/255.0 green:((float)((rgbValue & 0xFF00) >> 8))/255.0 blue:((float)(rgbValue & 0xFF))/255.0 alpha:1.0]`
(taken from this SO answer)
to create your UIColor at load time from the stored RGB value.
Read this SO Q/A to understand how the bits need to be packed/unpacked into the 32bit number. Traditionally you do this by using the first byte as the A channel, second as R, third G, and the last is B. In your case it doesn't really matter how you pack them as long as you unpack them the same, but the macro I posted expects ARGB.
I can update my answer with an example of how to store the color as a single 32 bit number if you need; as well as how to reconstitute a UIColor from the number.