Simple http post example in Objective-C?

Question

I have a php webpage that requires a login (userid & password). I have the user enter the information into the app just fine.. but I need an example on how to do a POST

Answer 1

You can do using two options:

Using NSURLConnection:

NSURL* URL = [NSURL URLWithString:@"http://www.example.com/path"];
NSMutableURLRequest* request = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:URL];
request.HTTPMethod = @"POST";
// Form URL-Encoded Body

NSDictionary* bodyParameters = @{
    @"username": @"reallyrambody",
    @"password": @"123456"
};
request.HTTPBody = [NSStringFromQueryParameters(bodyParameters) dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];

// Connection

NSURLConnection* connection = [NSURLConnection connectionWithRequest:request delegate:nil];
[connection start];

/*
 * Utils: Add this section before your class implementation
 */

/**
 This creates a new query parameters string from the given NSDictionary. For
 example, if the input is @{@"day":@"Tuesday", @"month":@"January"}, the output
 string will be @"day=Tuesday&month=January".
 @param queryParameters The input dictionary.
 @return The created parameters string.
*/
static NSString* NSStringFromQueryParameters(NSDictionary* queryParameters)
{
    NSMutableArray* parts = [NSMutableArray array];
    [queryParameters enumerateKeysAndObjectsUsingBlock:^(id key, id value, BOOL *stop) {
        NSString *part = [NSString stringWithFormat: @"%@=%@",
            [key stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding: NSUTF8StringEncoding],
            [value stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding: NSUTF8StringEncoding]
        ];
        [parts addObject:part];
    }];
    return [parts componentsJoinedByString: @"&"];
}

/**
 Creates a new URL by adding the given query parameters.
 @param URL The input URL.
 @param queryParameters The query parameter dictionary to add.
 @return A new NSURL.
*/
static NSURL* NSURLByAppendingQueryParameters(NSURL* URL, NSDictionary* queryParameters)
{
    NSString* URLString = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@?%@",
        [URL absoluteString],
        NSStringFromQueryParameters(queryParameters)
    ];
    return [NSURL URLWithString:URLString];
}

Using NSURLSession

- (void)sendRequest:(id)sender
{
    /* Configure session, choose between:
       * defaultSessionConfiguration
       * ephemeralSessionConfiguration
       * backgroundSessionConfigurationWithIdentifier:
     And set session-wide properties, such as: HTTPAdditionalHeaders,
     HTTPCookieAcceptPolicy, requestCachePolicy or timeoutIntervalForRequest.
     */
    NSURLSessionConfiguration* sessionConfig = [NSURLSessionConfiguration defaultSessionConfiguration];

    /* Create session, and optionally set a NSURLSessionDelegate. */
    NSURLSession* session = [NSURLSession sessionWithConfiguration:sessionConfig delegate:nil delegateQueue:nil];

    /* Create the Request:
       Token Duplicate (POST http://www.example.com/path)
     */

    NSURL* URL = [NSURL URLWithString:@"http://www.example.com/path"];
    NSMutableURLRequest* request = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:URL];
    request.HTTPMethod = @"POST";

    // Form URL-Encoded Body

    NSDictionary* bodyParameters = @{
        @"username": @"reallyram",
        @"password": @"123456"
    };
    request.HTTPBody = [NSStringFromQueryParameters(bodyParameters) dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];

    /* Start a new Task */
    NSURLSessionDataTask* task = [session dataTaskWithRequest:request completionHandler:^(NSData *data, NSURLResponse *response, NSError *error) {
        if (error == nil) {
            // Success
            NSLog(@"URL Session Task Succeeded: HTTP %ld", ((NSHTTPURLResponse*)response).statusCode);
        }
        else {
            // Failure
            NSLog(@"URL Session Task Failed: %@", [error localizedDescription]);
        }
    }];
    [task resume];
}

/*
 * Utils: Add this section before your class implementation
 */

/**
 This creates a new query parameters string from the given NSDictionary. For
 example, if the input is @{@"day":@"Tuesday", @"month":@"January"}, the output
 string will be @"day=Tuesday&month=January".
 @param queryParameters The input dictionary.
 @return The created parameters string.
*/
static NSString* NSStringFromQueryParameters(NSDictionary* queryParameters)
{
    NSMutableArray* parts = [NSMutableArray array];
    [queryParameters enumerateKeysAndObjectsUsingBlock:^(id key, id value, BOOL *stop) {
        NSString *part = [NSString stringWithFormat: @"%@=%@",
            [key stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding: NSUTF8StringEncoding],
            [value stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding: NSUTF8StringEncoding]
        ];
        [parts addObject:part];
    }];
    return [parts componentsJoinedByString: @"&"];
}

/**
 Creates a new URL by adding the given query parameters.
 @param URL The input URL.
 @param queryParameters The query parameter dictionary to add.
 @return A new NSURL.
*/
static NSURL* NSURLByAppendingQueryParameters(NSURL* URL, NSDictionary* queryParameters)
{
    NSString* URLString = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@?%@",
        [URL absoluteString],
        NSStringFromQueryParameters(queryParameters)
    ];
    return [NSURL URLWithString:URLString];
}