Unable to convert string to URL in Swift iOS - ios

Question

In order to make HTTP request call using URLSession,I need to convert string to URL first so I have tried everything but just can’t convert this piece of string to URL(string: ).
This is the string:
“http://api-aws-eu-qa-1.abc-cde.com/v1/car-types/manufacturer?page=0&pageSize=10&wa_key=abc-cde-efg-44ccd99”
I can’t share the exact Url but format is all same.
The actual url with same format works fine in browser but no way in Swift, also that works fine in POSTMAN
I have also tried URLComponents which hepls me create the URL from components to URL but that fails with 400 status code response error.
I really appreciate the help, I am completely bogged down with this isuue and can’t proceed with my assignment.
Update: Tested with fiddler and request was not going through with this URL - "“http://api-aws-eu-qa-1.abc-cde.com%E2%80%8B/v1/car-types/manufacturer?page=0&pageSize=10&wa_key=abc-cde-efg-44ccd99”"
But when removed this %E2%80%8B in fiddler and resend it worked.
Any thoughts ..?

Answer 1

String to URL
let url = URL(string: "the url string goes here")
URL to String
let url = URL(string: "the url string goes here")
let urlString = url.absoluteString
Creating URL from URLComponents
var url: URL? {
var components = URLComponents()
components.scheme = "https"
components.host = "domain goes here" //example: twitter.com
components.path = "/path/goes/here"
components.queryItems = [
URLQueryItem(name: "item1", value: string1),
URLQueryItem(name: "item2", value: string2)
]
return components.url
}

Answer 2

try to add HEADER to you request:
let url = URL(string : urlString)
var request = URLRequest(url : url)
request.setValue("Application/json", forHTTPHeaderField : "Content-Type")

Answer 3

Your URL is:
http://api-aws-eu-qa-1.abc-cde.com%E2%80%8B/v1/car-types/manufacturer?page=0&pageSize=10&wa_key=abc-cde-efg-44ccd99`
The "host" portion is:
api-aws-eu-qa-1.abc-cde.com%E2%80%8B
%E2%80%8B encodes a ZERO WIDTH SPACE. This is a perfectly valid URL:
URL(string: "http://api-aws-eu-qa-1.abc-cde.com%E2%80%8B/v1/car-types/manufacturer?page=0&pageSize=10&wa_key=abc-cde-efg-44ccd99")
=> Optional(http://api-aws-eu-qa-1.abc-cde.com%E2%80%8B/v1/car-types/manufacturer?page=0&pageSize=10&wa_key=abc-cde-efg-44ccd99)
However, there is no such host as api-aws-eu-qa-1.abc-cde.com%E2%80%8B, so you should expect the actual connection to fail.
I expect that whatever is generating your URL strings has a bug.
If you are having trouble creating the URL itself (if URL(string:) return nil, then I expect this is not your actual URL string.
If you construct an URLComponents, the results are correct but may be slightly misleading:
URLComponents(string: "http://api-aws-eu-qa-1.abc-cde.com%E2%80%8B/v1/car-types/manufacturer?page=0&pageSize=10&wa_key=abc-cde-efg-44ccd99")?.host
Optional("api-aws-eu-qa-1.abc-cde.com")
While this looks like "api-aws-eu-qa-1.abc-cde.com", the string actually has a ZERO WIDTH SPACE at the end, which is invisible (but still part of the host field, which will correctly fail if you try to connect to it).