Sending a OpenTokSignal via OpenTok's iOS SDK

Question

I'm trying to send a signal to our OpenTok Signalling Server from my iOS device.

However, the payload, when sent from the browser, is converted to JSON string by OpenTok's SDK. However, when I send a signal back with the payload (in a string format) I convert my NSDictionary (with the following block):

   NSString *jsonString;
NSError *error;
NSData *jsonData = [NSJSONSerialization dataWithJSONObject:dict options:0 error:&error];

if (!jsonData) {
    NSLog(@"error: %@", error.localizedDescription);
    jsonString = @"{}";
} else {
    jsonString = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:jsonData encoding:NSUTF16StringEncoding];
}

return jsonString;

and send this string, which is received on my browser.

[_session signalWithType:VC_WebRTC_Signal_Chat string:jsonString connection:nil error:&error];

However, OpenTok doesn't automatically convert this JSONString back into a JSON object, and the payload returned is returned as a String. Are there NSJSONSerialization options that I should be using to handle this?

Answer 1

The signal interface only takes and spits out strings. You are responsible for performing your own encoding/decoding of higher order data.

In your case, I think you probably want to be using JSONObjectWithData:options:error: to convert the string you receive from the delegate callback session:receivedSignalType:fromConnection:withString: back into a dictionary/array/whatever.

Full disclosure: I work for TokBox.