KSFileUtilities contains a variety of useful methods for handling URLs, paths and other aspects of file management. Here's a selection of them grouped by purpose:

Query Parameters

It's common for URLs to split their query string up into a dictionary-like series of parameters. e.g.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Main_page&action=raw

KSURLQueryUtilities has an easy solution for getting that into a more Cocoa-friendly form:

- (NSDictionary *)ks_queryParameters;

There are also APIs for creating/deriving new URLs from a dictionary:

- (NSURL *)ks_URLWithQueryParameters:(NSDictionary *)parameters;

+ (NSURL *)ks_URLWithScheme:(NSString *)scheme
                       host:(NSString *)host
                       path:(NSString *)path
            queryParameters:(NSDictionary *)parameters;

KSURLFormatter

An NSFormatter subclass for a variety of URL display and input tasks.

• Non-complete URLs like example and example.com generate full http://example.com/ URL
• Host URLs have a slash appended to them. e.g. http://example.com is displayed/interpreted as http://example.com/
• Convenience +URLFromString: method that takes care of unescaped characters

KSURLFormatter can encode Internationalized Domain Names if it has a suitable backend. For Mac OS X projects, you can include KSEncodeURLString.* and link against WebKit.framework to get this for free. For other projects, supply your own by one of:

• Call +[KSURLFormatter setEncodeStringValueTransformer:]
• Call +[NSValueTransformer setValueTransformer:forName:] before +encodeStringValueTransformer is called
• Name your custom class KSEncodeURLString

Decoding is performed by IFUnicodeURL. Make sure you handle its licensing appropriately — see the Licensing section of this document for details.

KSURLComponents

A clone of NSURLComponents for Cocoa releases older than iOS 7.

URL Normalization

The KSURLNormalization category implements normalization as documented by Wikipedia.

Relative Strings

NSURL is fully equipped to resolve relative strings against another URL, but sadly there's no API to go in the opposite direction. KSURLUtilities to the rescue!

- (NSString *)ks_stringRelativeToURL:(NSURL *)URL;
- (NSURL *)ks_URLRelativeToURL:(NSURL *)URL;

How's this work? Well, everyone loves examples right?

Receiver	relativeToURL:	Return Value
http://karelia.com/foo/bar/	http://karelia.com/	foo/bar/
http://karelia.com/foo/example.png	http://karelia.com/	foo/example.png
http://karelia.com/foo/bar/	http://example.com/	http://karelia.com/foo/bar/
http://karelia.com/	http://karelia.com/foo/bar/	../../
http://karelia.com/baz/index.xml	http://karelia.com/foo/bar/	../../baz/index.xml

Relative Paths

KSPathUtilities has an equivalent for operating on path strings: -ks_pathRelativeToDirectory:

Subpaths

To test if one URL/path contains another:

- [NSURL ks_isSubpathOfURL:]
- [NSString ks_isSubpathOfPath:]

Host

Nothing fancy here, just a few additions to the built-in -[NSURL host] method.

- (NSURL *)ks_hostURL;

Strips a URL down to nothing but its scheme and host. e.g. http://karelia.com/foo/bar/ becomes http://karelia.com/

- (NSArray *)ks_domains;

Splits the host up into its domains. e.g. http://www.karelia.com gives (www, karelia, com)

URL Paths

Mac OS X 10.6 gave us a bunch of new URL methods like -URLByDeletingLastPathComponent. If you wanted access to this behaviour before, it necessitated much tedious mucking about with NSString path methods, or using CFURL functions. KSURLUtilities gives simple Cocoa APIs for all these tasks on 10.5 and earlier:

- (NSString *)ks_lastPathComponent;
- (NSString *)ks_pathExtension;
- (NSURL *)ks_URLByAppendingPathExtension:(NSString *)pathExtension;
- (NSURL *)ks_URLByDeletingLastPathComponent;
- (NSURL *)ks_URLByDeletingPathExtension;
- (BOOL)ks_hasDirectoryPath;
- (NSURL *)ks_URLByAppendingPathComponent:(NSString *)pathComponent isDirectory:(BOOL)isDirectory;

Incrementing a Path

On occasion there is a need to try to find the best available filename/path for a task. e.g. Choosing a filename that won't conflict with any existing file. To simplify this, -[NSString ks_stringByIncrementingPath:] is offered. Given the path example.png, it will cycle through like so:

example.png
example-2.png
example-3.png
example-4.png
…

More information on the implementation and use of this method is on Mike's blog

KSFilePromise

Simplifies handling file promises from drag & drop in a document-based application. KSFilePromise instances are created from NSDraggingInfo, and take responsibility for management of the received file.

KSWebLocation

A simple class that represents a URL, optionally with a title attached. Features:

• Handles Web Location files (e.g. those created by dragging a URL from Safari)
• NSCoding
• NSCopying

You can pull in the WebKit.framework-dependent KSWebLocationPasteboardAdditions too, to (unsurprisingly) gain support for reading and writing Web Locations from/to the pasteboard.

Other file/URL utilities

• PRHDataURL

License

Copyright © 2005-2013 Karelia Software

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

IFUnicodeURL

If using KSURLFormatter, it relies upon IFUnicodeURL which has the following license:

Copyright 2010 Iconfactory, Inc. All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY Iconfactory, Inc. ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL Iconfactory, Inc. OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

The views and conclusions contained in the software and documentation are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing official policies, either expressed or implied, of Iconfactory, Inc.

IDN SDK

And IFUnicodeURL in turn relies upon VeriSign's IDN SDK:

// / / / VeriSign XCode (encode/decode) IDN Library / / / / A library for encoding / decoding of domain strings. / / / / (c) VeriSign Inc., 2003, All rights reserved / / / //

// / / / Copyright (c) 2003, VeriSign Inc. / / All rights reserved. / / / / Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or / / without modification, are permitted provided that the following / / conditions are met: / / / / 1) Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright / / notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. / / / / 2) Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright / / notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in / / the documentation and/or other materials provided with the / / distribution. / / / / 3) Neither the name of the VeriSign Inc. nor the names of its / / contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived / / from this software without specific prior written permission. / / / / THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS / / "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT / / LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS / / FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE / / COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, / / INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, / / BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS / / OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED / / AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT / / LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN / / ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE / / POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. / / / / This software is licensed under the BSD open source license. For more / / information visit www.opensource.org. / / / //

// / / / Authors: / / / / John Colosi (VeriSign) / / Lihui Zhang (VeriSign) / / Srikanth Veeramachaneni (VeriSign) / / Jim Mathies (VeriSign) / / / //