iOS: How do I handle the following parameter request?

Question

I was wondering on how do I handle the following parameter PUT request? How do I store the parameter (assuming using NSDictionary) so I can send it to the server running php. Any tips or suggestions is appreciated.

curl -X PUT -d {"questions":[{"type":"control_head" }]}

p.s. the above is what the API document given me. {"questions":[{"type":"control_head" }]} is the parameter I need to use just in case you didn't get that that.

Answer 1

If doing it yourself, you'd instantiate a NSMutableURLRequest object, modify it as suggested by your curl (e.g. PUT request, JSON body, etc.), and then initiate the request via NSURLConnection or NSURLSession.

That yields something like:

NSMutableURLRequest *request = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:url];
request.HTTPMethod = @"PUT";
[request setValue:@"application/json" forHTTPHeaderField:@"Content-Type"];
NSDictionary *parameters = @{@"questions":@[@{@"type": @"control_head"}]};
NSError *error;
request.HTTPBody = [NSJSONSerialization dataWithJSONObject:parameters options:0 error:&error];
[NSURLConnection sendAsynchronousRequest:request queue:[NSOperationQueue mainQueue] completionHandler:^(NSURLResponse *response, NSData *data, NSError *connectionError) {
    if (!data) {
        NSLog(@"sendAsynchronousRequest error: %@", connectionError);
        return;
    }

    // parse the response here; given that the request was JSON, I assume the response is, too:

    NSError *parseError;
    id responseObject = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:data options:0 error:&parseError];
    if (!responseObject) {
        NSLog(@"parsing response failed: %@", parseError);
        NSLog(@"body of response was: %@", [[NSString alloc] initWithData:data encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]);
        return;
    }

    // now you can look at `responseObject`
}];

---

You can simplify this further by using a library like AFNetworking:

AFHTTPRequestOperationManager *manager = [AFHTTPRequestOperationManager manager];
manager.requestSerializer = [AFJSONRequestSerializer serializer];
NSDictionary *parameters = @{@"questions":@[@{@"type": @"control_head"}]};
[manager PUT:urlString parameters:parameters success:^(AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation, id responseObject) {
    NSLog(@"JSON: %@", responseObject);
} failure:^(AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation, NSError *error) {
    NSLog(@"Error: %@", error);
}];

(I haven't checked the syntax of the AFNetworking request, but it's something along those lines.)