How to make an authenticated POST with parameters in body and in URL?

Question

Due to server constraints, I need to make a POST that includes parameters in both the URL and the body. I'm using AFHTTPRequestOperationManager's HTTPRequestOperationWithRequest method to accomplish this, as I can initialize the URL request with the URL params like:

NSMutableURLRequest *request = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:components.URL];

And then I can separately set the body of the POST like:

[request setHTTPBody:[jsonString dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];

The problem arises when I've set the AFHTTPRequestOperationManager's requestSerializer to use an Authorization header token. The request comes back as a 401 unauth. However, if I set the request object's header directly like:

[request setValue:self.accessToken forHTTPHeaderField:@"Authorization"];

The call succeeds. Anyone know of a better way to make an authenticated call that sends parameters simultaneously in the body and the URL of the POST? My implementation seems less than ideal.

Answer 1

Unless you need to support iOS6, I think you should move to using AFHTTPSessionManager instead of AFHTTPRequestOperationManager.

Subclass AFHTTPSessionManager and override:

- (NSURLSessionDataTask *)dataTaskWithRequest:(NSURLRequest *)request
                               uploadProgress:(void (^)(NSProgress * _Nonnull))uploadProgressBlock
                             downloadProgress:(void (^)(NSProgress * _Nonnull))downloadProgressBlock
                            completionHandler:(void (^)(NSURLResponse *response, id responseObject, NSError *error))completionHandler {

    NSMutableURLRequest *modifiedRequest = request.mutableCopy;    
    NSString *token = [Get your access token];

    [modifiedRequest addValue:token forHTTPHeaderField:@"Authorization"];

    // Now set up the data task as normal
    return [super dataTaskWithRequest:modifiedRequest
                       uploadProgress:uploadProgressBlock
                     downloadProgress:downloadProgressBlock
                    completionHandler:completionHandler];
}

It results in the same as your approach (I'm not aware of a better way) - but ensures it happens automatically for all calls.

Initialise your session manager as an instance of your subclass.

Then using AFNetworking's POST method, set up your parameters and go:

NSDictionary *params = @{@"Param1":param1 ? param1 : @"",
                         @"Param2":param2 ? param2 : @""};

[self.sessionManager
 POST:self.serviceEndpointUrl
 parameters:params
 etc..