Send POST request using NSURLSession

Question

I'm trying to perform a POST request to a remote REST API using NSURLSession. The idea is to make a request with two parameters: deviceId and textContent.

The problem is that those parameters are not recognized by the server. The server part works correctly because I've sent a POST using POSTMAN for Google Chrome and it worked perfectly.

This is the code I'm using right now:

NSString *deviceID = [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] objectForKey:@"deviceID"];
NSString *textContent = @"New note";
NSString *noteDataString = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"deviceId=%@&textContent=%@", deviceID, textContent];

NSURLSessionConfiguration *sessionConfiguration = [NSURLSessionConfiguration defaultSessionConfiguration];
NSURLSession *session = [NSURLSession sessionWithConfiguration:sessionConfiguration];
NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:@"http://url_to_manage_post_requests"];
NSMutableURLRequest *request = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:url];
request.HTTPBody = [noteDataString dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
request.HTTPMethod = @"POST";
NSURLSessionDataTask *postDataTask = [session dataTaskWithRequest:request completionHandler:^(NSData *data, NSURLResponse *response, NSError *error) {
    // The server answers with an error because it doesn't receive the params
}];
[postDataTask resume];

I've tried the same procedure with a NSURLSessionUploadTask:

// ...
NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:@"http://url_to_manage_post_requests"];
NSMutableURLRequest *request = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:url];
request.HTTPMethod = @"POST";
NSURLSessionUploadTask *uploadTask = [session uploadTaskWithRequest:request fromData:[noteDataString dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding] completionHandler:^(NSData *data, NSURLResponse *response, NSError *error) {
    // The server answers with an error because it doesn't receive the params
}];
[uploadTask resume];

Any ideas?

Answer 1

You could try using a NSDictionary for the params. The following will send the parameters correctly to a JSON server.

NSError *error;

NSURLSessionConfiguration *configuration = [NSURLSessionConfiguration defaultSessionConfiguration];
NSURLSession *session = [NSURLSession sessionWithConfiguration:configuration delegate:self delegateQueue:nil];
NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:@"[JSON SERVER"];
NSMutableURLRequest *request = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:url
                                                       cachePolicy:NSURLRequestUseProtocolCachePolicy
                                                   timeoutInterval:60.0];

[request addValue:@"application/json" forHTTPHeaderField:@"Content-Type"];
[request addValue:@"application/json" forHTTPHeaderField:@"Accept"];

[request setHTTPMethod:@"POST"];
NSDictionary *mapData = [[NSDictionary alloc] initWithObjectsAndKeys: @"TEST IOS", @"name",
                     @"IOS TYPE", @"typemap",
                     nil];
NSData *postData = [NSJSONSerialization dataWithJSONObject:mapData options:0 error:&error];
[request setHTTPBody:postData];


NSURLSessionDataTask *postDataTask = [session dataTaskWithRequest:request completionHandler:^(NSData *data, NSURLResponse *response, NSError *error) {
    
}];

[postDataTask resume];

(I'm trying to sort a CSRF authenticity issue with the above - but it does send the params in the NSDictionary).