Authentication with NSURLConnection sendAsynchronousRequest with completion handler

Question

Generally I like to just \"fire and forget\" with NSURL\'s sendAsynchronousRequest class method using the completion handler block but it seems that might not be an option w

Answer 1

I think the completionHandler method is for basic requests. Maybe you could consider using AFNetworking as I use this with block methods and authentication.

EDIT.... Have you tried adding the authentication header to the NSURLRequest? Create an NSMutableURLRequest:

NSMutableURLRequest *urlRequest = [[NSMutableURLRequest alloc] initWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:@"http://www.example.com/"]];

And add the authentication header like this:

NSString *basicAuthCredentials = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@:%@", userName, password];
NSString *authValue = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"Basic %@", AFBase64EncodedStringFromString(basicAuthCredentials)];
[urlRequest setValue:authValue forHTTPHeaderField:@"Authorization"];

The AFBase64EncodedStringFromString function is this:

static NSString * AFBase64EncodedStringFromString(NSString *string) {
    NSData *data = [NSData dataWithBytes:[string UTF8String] length:[string lengthOfBytesUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
    NSUInteger length = [data length];
    NSMutableData *mutableData = [NSMutableData dataWithLength:((length + 2) / 3) * 4];

    uint8_t *input = (uint8_t *)[data bytes];
    uint8_t *output = (uint8_t *)[mutableData mutableBytes];

    for (NSUInteger i = 0; i < length; i += 3) {
        NSUInteger value = 0;
        for (NSUInteger j = i; j < (i + 3); j++) {
            value <<= 8;
            if (j < length) {
                value |= (0xFF & input[j]);
            }
        }

        static uint8_t const kAFBase64EncodingTable[] = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/";

        NSUInteger idx = (i / 3) * 4;
        output[idx + 0] = kAFBase64EncodingTable[(value >> 18) & 0x3F];
        output[idx + 1] = kAFBase64EncodingTable[(value >> 12) & 0x3F];
        output[idx + 2] = (i + 1) < length ? kAFBase64EncodingTable[(value >> 6)  & 0x3F] : '=';
        output[idx + 3] = (i + 2) < length ? kAFBase64EncodingTable[(value >> 0)  & 0x3F] : '=';
    }

    return [[NSString alloc] initWithData:mutableData encoding:NSASCIIStringEncoding];
}

Then call the function you called before, but using your new NSURLRequest:

[NSURLConnection sendAsynchronousRequest:urlRequest
  queue:[NSOperationQueue mainQueue]
  completionHandler:^(NSURLResponse *response, NSData *data, NSError *error) {

}];

Answer 2

NSURLConnection is deprecated in iOS 9, try this code which is from LazyTableImages example from here [https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/samplecode/LazyTableImages/Introduction/Intro.html][1]

    @property (nonatomic, strong) NSURLSessionDataTask *sessionTask;



    //somwere in your code

NSMutableURLRequest *request = [[NSMutableURLRequest alloc]
                                    initWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:self.postLink] ];

    [request setCachePolicy:NSURLRequestReloadIgnoringLocalCacheData];
    [request setHTTPShouldHandleCookies:NO];
    [request setTimeoutInterval:60];
    [request setHTTPMethod:@"POST"];
    [request addValue:[[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] objectForKey:@"token"]
   forHTTPHeaderField:@"ACCESSTOKEN"];


    self.sessionTask = [[NSURLSession sharedSession] dataTaskWithRequest:request
                                                           completionHandler:^(NSData *data, NSURLResponse *response, NSError *error) {
    //do completion staff here
    }];

Answer 3

Even though the issue is solved a while now, I want to add a solution that doesn`t require 3rd party libraries:

//HTTP Authentication
NSString *authStr = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@:%@", @"Username", @"Password"]];
NSData *authData = [authStr dataUsingEncoding:NSASCIIStringEncoding];
NSString *authValue = [authData base64Encoding];

//Set up Request:
NSMutableURLRequest *request = [[NSMutableURLRequest alloc]init];
[request setURL:[NSURL URLWithString:url]];
//...
// Pack in the user credentials
[request setValue:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"Basic %@",authValue] forHTTPHeaderField:@"Authorization"];

// Send the asynchronous request as usual
[NSURLConnection sendAsynchronousRequest:request queue:[NSOperationQueue mainQueue] completionHandler:^(NSURLResponse *responseCode, NSData *responseData, NSError *error) {

    // Do stuff..

}