Paul's recent article on his favorite new Swift API from iOS 15 was about url.lines. In the first portion, where he lists quotes from a hard-coded URL (URL(string: "https://hws.dev/quotes.txt")!. If, instead of a hard-coded URL, the user had a choice, eg. from a local or iCloud file, what would be the best way to make such a choice. I've been trying with .fileImporter, but getting confused...

My question was likely too vague to get a response. Here is the code I've been trying. if I uncomment the portion that Paul uses in his example, it works as expected. However, if I comment that out and use my line: let url = URL(string: String(describing: settings.fileURL))! then it does not list the contents of the file. Any suggestions?

Here is the full code for ContentView:

//  ContentView.swift
//  URLlines
//
// Based on Paul Hudson code:
// https://www.hackingwithswift.com/articles/241/how-to-fetch-remote-data-the-easy-way-with-url-lines
// trying to import the URL for use with url.lines

import SwiftUI

class Settings: ObservableObject {
    @Published var fileURL: URL?
}

struct ContentView: View {

    @State var imported = false
    @ObservedObject var settings = Settings()
    @State private var contents = [String]()

    var body: some View {
        VStack (spacing: 30) {
            Button(action: {imported.toggle()}, label: {
                Text("Push to browse to the location of the data input file")
                    .padding(/*@START_MENU_TOKEN@*/.all/*@END_MENU_TOKEN@*/)
                    .background(Color(red: 0, green: 0.5, blue: 0.0))
                    .foregroundColor(.white)
                    .clipShape(Capsule())
            })

            if imported {

                List(contents, id: \.self, rowContent: Text.init)

                    .task {
                        do {
//                       let url = URL(string: "https://hws.dev/quotes.txt")!   //This works, from HWS
                     let url = URL(string: String(describing: settings.fileURL))! //This is what I'm trying, and doesn't work
                            imported = true
                            for try await line in url.lines {
                                contents.append(line)
                            }
                        } catch {
                            // Stop adding content when an error is thrown
                        }
                    }
            }
        }

        .fileImporter(
            isPresented: $imported,
            allowedContentTypes: [.plainText]) { res in
            do {
                settings.fileURL = try res.get()
                print("---> fileURL: \(String(describing: settings.fileURL))")
            } catch {
                print ("error reading: \(error.localizedDescription)")
            }
        }
    }
}

Thank you, roosterboy! I've used your suggestion to get this past the url hurdle. (I'm currently in an absurd situation where I click on the button to go to the file, choose the file, but then am presented with the button again, choose it, and then finally the List of contents shows up, but with the menu to choose a file still there. I've been staring at this to long...)

Anyway, for those interested here's the code that sort of works, except for the absurdity...

//  ContentView.swift
//  URLlines
//
// Based on Paul Hudson code:
// https://www.hackingwithswift.com/articles/241/how-to-fetch-remote-data-the-easy-way-with-url-lines
// trying to import the URL for use with url.lines

import SwiftUI

class Settings: ObservableObject {
    @Published var fileURL: URL?
}

struct ContentView: View {

    @State var imported = false
    @ObservedObject var settings = Settings()
    @State private var contents = [String]()

    var body: some View {
        VStack (spacing: 30) {

            if !imported {
                Button(action: {imported.toggle()}, label: {
                    Text("Push to browse to the location of the data input file")
                        .padding(/*@START_MENU_TOKEN@*/.all/*@END_MENU_TOKEN@*/)
                        .background(Color(red: 0, green: 0.5, blue: 0.0))
                        .foregroundColor(.white)
                        .clipShape(Capsule())
                })

            } else {

                Text("Count: \(contents.count)")
                List(contents, id: \.self, rowContent: Text.init)

                    .task {
                        do {
                            if let url = settings.fileURL {
                                for try await line in url.lines {
                                    contents.append(line)
                                }
                            }
                            imported = true
                        } catch {
                            // Stop adding content when an error is thrown
                        }
                    }
            }
        }

        .fileImporter(
            isPresented: $imported,
            allowedContentTypes: [.plainText]) { res in
                do {
                    settings.fileURL = try res.get()
                    print("---> fileURL: \(String(describing: settings.fileURL))")
                } catch {
                    print ("error reading: \(error.localizedDescription)")
                }
            }
    }
}