Is it possible to use an Xcode build script to download JSON files to the app bundle?

Here's how I did the same thing in my project.

I went to my target -> Build Phases -> + -> 'New Run Script Phase' and added the following script:

curl -o ${BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR}/${PRODUCT_NAME}.app/your_file.json http://localhost:3000/your_file.jsonecho "Your file downloaded to ${BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR}/${PRODUCT_NAME}.app/your_file.json"

I am currently working on adding some validation to the process, but as a starting point this is working for me.

Hope that helps!

UPDATE

Here is the same code with some added JSON validation:

YOUR_DATA=$(curl -s "http://localhost:3000/your_file.json" | python -m json.tool);if [ -n "$YOUR_DATA" ];thenecho "$YOUR_DATA" > ${BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR}/${PRODUCT_NAME}.app/your_file.json;fi

Not sure if I'm getting your specifications right here but this is what I have implemented as well as some help from this solution: How can I save a JSON response to a file that would be accessible from within a local HTML file loaded inside UIWebWiew

(1) Here is the function that will grab the json file. This function is basically assigningthe url you are targeting to a string. Then formatting it to a NSURL. This is then formatted as NSData which will grab the contents of the url. The data will be serialised andthen ready to target the appropriate elements.

    - (void)fetchJson       {           NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);        NSString *documentsDirectory = [paths objectAtIndex:0];        NSString *urlString = @"localhost:3000/example";        NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:urlString];        NSData *jsonData = [NSData dataWithContentsOfURL:url];        NSError *error = nil;        if(jsonData != nil)        {            NSError *error = nil;            id result = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:jsonData options:NSJSONReadingMutableContainers error:&error];            if (error == nil)                NSLog(@"%@", result);           // (2) This part is dependent on how your json data is arranged (Target the            // right elements).           _endpoint = [result objectForKey:@"endpoint"];           if(_endpoint == null){                  NSLog(@"%@", result);           }           else{               //(3) This will save your data into the specified file name under the application documents directory.              NSString *filePath = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@/%@", documentsDirectory,@"example.json"];             [result writeToFile:filePath atomically:YES];             }         }         else {             NSLog(@"%@", error);         }    }

(4) To refer to the file in the application documents directory

      NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);      NSString *documentsDirectory = [paths objectAtIndex:0];      NSError *jsonError = nil;      NSString *jsonFilePath = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@/%@", documentsDirectory,@"data.json"];      NSData *jsonData = [NSData dataWithContentsOfFile:jsonFilePath options:kNilOptions error:&jsonError ];