How to make sure, that my custom URL protocol is used?

Question

According to the documentation of NSURLSessionConfiguration::protocolClasses, there is no guaranty, that my custom url protocol will be used. How can I ensure, that it is used whenever I set it to protocolClasses property?

Prior to handling a request, an NSURLSession object searches the default protocols first and then checks your custom protocols until it finds one capable of handling the specified request. It uses the protocol whose canInitWithRequest: class method returns YES, indicating that the class is capable of handling the specified request.

I can't set an array with single URL protocol, because it has logic for canInitWithRequest: method and might not handle all request.

NSArray *currentProtocolClasses = sessionConfiguration.protocolClasses ?: @[];
NSMutableArray *protocolClasses = [NSMutableArray arrayWithArray:currentProtocolClasses];
[protocolClasses insertObject:[CustomURLProtocol class] atIndex:0];
sessionConfiguration.protocolClasses = protocolClasses;

Answer 1

If the docs say that, it's a bug. Please file one. The logic is actually much simpler than what is described there. Basically what the OS does is this:

NSURLProtocol *protocol = nil;
for (Class protocolClass in sessionConfiguration.protocolClasses) {
    if ([protocolClass canInitWithRequest:request]) {
         protocol = [[protocolClass alloc] init];
    }
}
if (!protocol) {
    fail
}

So as long as your protocols are listed first, they'll get priority. (For NSURLConnection, that bit of the doc was also wrong; your registered protocols are always asked first, before any of the built-in protocols.)

If you don't need to handle standard protocols, it is sufficient for you to do this:

sessionConfiguration.protocolClasses = @[[CustomURLProtocol class]];

You cannot force a URL protocol to be used. The protocol will be used if and only if its canInitWithRequest: class method returns YES for the request. If you want to make a different protocol handle a request (e.g. if you want to define a custom URL scheme that really uses a normal https request), then you would typically do so by writing a protocol that rewrites the URL and reissues the request in a new session that does not have your protocol handler class installed.

Alternatively, you can reissue the request in a session that does have your handler installed so long as you modify the request in some way so your protocol handler knows to return NO from its canInitWithRequest: method when it sees the request a second time. (Otherwise, you'll get infinite recursion.)