Introduction

Bundles are a fundamental technology in macOS and iOS that are used to encapsulate code and resources. Bundles simplify the developer experience by providing known locations for needed resources while alleviating the need to create compound binary files. Instead, bundles use directories and files to provide a more natural type of organization—one that can also be modified easily both during development and after deployment.

To support bundles, both Cocoa and Core Foundation provide programming interfaces for accessing the contents of bundles. Because bundles use an organized structure, it is important that all developers understand the fundamental organizing principles of bundles. This document provides you with the foundation for understanding how bundles work and for how you use them during development to access your resource files.

Organization of This Document

This document contains the following chapters:

See Also

Although the information in this document applies to all types of bundles, if you are working with more specialized types of bundles (such as frameworks and plug-ins), you should also consult the following documents: