Show Facebook Events in Swift 3 - ios

Question

How can I store Facebook events in an array using Swift 3? I have the following code which I pretty much copied from The Swift Guy but it doesn't work for this code. The following is in my viewDidLoad() function:
let url = URL(string: "https://www.facebook.com/events/upcoming")
let task = URLSession.shared.dataTask(with: url!) { (data, response, error) in
if error != nil {
print("ERROR")
} else {
if let content = data {
do {
let myJson = try JSONSerialization.jsonObject(with: content, options: JSONSerialization.ReadingOptions.mutableContainers) as AnyObject
print(myJson)
} catch {
print("error")
}
}
}
}
task.resume()
How can I get the information from the Facebook Events page? I should mention that I'm good at coding, but I'm a beginner when it comes to Swift so some explanation as to what each line does would be very helpful. Thanks!

Answer 1

The URL you're requesting returns an HTML page that you're trying to parse as if it was a JSON resource. You'll have to use the Facebook Graph API and/or the Facebook Swift SDK to get the information as JSON.
Try reading the Facebook developer documentation for more information:
https://developers.facebook.com/docs/swift
https://developers.facebook.com/docs/graph-api
Also, Swift Error objects contain information that can help you understand what went wrong. You can print them to the console. Try this:
if error != nil {
print(error)
} else {
// ...
The catch statement also sets its own error variable inside its block, so you can use:
} catch {
print(error)
}
Make sure you understand the steps involved in creating a Facebook app: registering the app with Facebook, downloading the SDK, adding the SDK to your project, configuring the SDK for your app, logging in to Facebook in your app and then calling the Facebook Graph API to get the information. These steps are all described in the Facebook documentation mentioned above. I'd start with the iOS SDK (Objective-C) instructions to setup your project and then change your app delegate and view controller to the following:
AppDelegate.swift:
import UIKit
import FacebookCore
#UIApplicationMain
class AppDelegate: UIResponder, UIApplicationDelegate {
var window: UIWindow?
func application(_ application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplicationLaunchOptionsKey : Any]? = nil) -> Bool {
SDKApplicationDelegate.shared.application(application, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions: launchOptions)
return true
}
func application(_ app: UIApplication, open url: URL, options: [UIApplicationOpenURLOptionsKey : Any] = [:]) -> Bool {
return SDKApplicationDelegate.shared.application(app, open: url, options: options)
}
}
ViewController.swift:
import UIKit
import FacebookCore
import FacebookLogin
class ViewController: UIViewController, LoginButtonDelegate {
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
if let _ = AccessToken.current {
loadEvents()
}
let loginButton = LoginButton(readPermissions: [ .publicProfile, .userEvents ])
loginButton.center = view.center
loginButton.delegate = self
view.addSubview(loginButton)
}
func loginButtonDidCompleteLogin(_ loginButton: LoginButton, result: LoginResult) {
if let _ = AccessToken.current {
loadEvents()
}
}
func loginButtonDidLogOut(_ loginButton: LoginButton) {
// Logout handling code here
}
func loadEvents() {
let connection = GraphRequestConnection()
connection.add(GraphRequest(graphPath: "/me/events")) { httpResponse, result in
switch result {
case .success(let response):
print("Graph Request Succeeded: \(response)")
case .failed(let error):
print("Graph Request Failed: \(error)")
}
}
connection.start()
}
}
The response object will contain the Facebook Events information, already parsed.