Perform some task while NSURLConnection loading data objective-c - ios

Question

I am a beginer in iOS programming. I have some problem with NSURLConnection: I have installed SWRevealViewController https://github.com/John-Lluch/SWRevealViewController and when my app is loading Data from server, I can't use interaction with screen. I can't open my SWR-menu while Data is loading.
Here is my SWR in viewDidLoad:
SWRevealViewController *revealViewController = self.revealViewController;
if ( revealViewController ) {
[self.openMenyItmet setTarget: self.revealViewController];
[self.openMenyItmet setAction: #selector( revealToggle: )];
[self.view addGestureRecognizer:self.revealViewController.panGestureRecognizer];
}
After that, I called Get method in viewDidLoad:
[self GetQUIZ];
Method detail:
- (void)GetQUIZ {
NSMutableURLRequest *request = [[NSMutableURLRequest alloc] init];
NSString *url = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"http://stringlearning.com/api/v1/user-quiz?token=%#",[[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] stringForKey:#"token"]];
[request setURL:[NSURL URLWithString: url]];
[request setHTTPMethod:#"GET"];
[request setValue:#"application/x-www-form-urlencoded" forHTTPHeaderField:#"Content-Type"];
[request setValue:[UIDevice currentDevice].name forHTTPHeaderField:#"device"];
NSURLConnection *conn = [[NSURLConnection alloc] initWithRequest:request delegate:self];
NSLog(#"Left menu, User details: %#", [[NSString alloc] initWithData:[request HTTPBody] encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]);
NSLog(#"%#", [request allHTTPHeaderFields]);
if(conn) {
NSLog(#"Connection Successful");
} else
NSLog(#"Connection could not be made");
And then I use data in connectionDidFinishLoading:
- (void)connectionDidFinishLoading:(NSURLConnection *)connection {
NSError *deserr = nil;
NSDictionary *responseDict = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:responseData options: 0 error: &deserr];
I read that i should use async methods, but I never use it before. Would you write some detail solution ?
Maybe, does have different path?
I would be very grateful for the help!

Answer 1

I'd suggest starting with NSURLSession, which is a modern API that will accomplish the same thing, asynchronously.
To use NSURLSession, you need a few piece of the puzzle:
A web address to reach, and optionally any payload or custom headers.
An instance of NSURL: where you're downloading from and an NSURLRequest to wrap it in.
An NSURLSessionConfiguration, which handles things like caching, credentials and timeouts.
The session itself.
You need an NSURLSessionTask instance. This is the closest object to your NSURLConnection. It has callbacks via delegate or a completion block, if you just need to know when it finishes.
Here's how this would look in code:
// 1. The web address & headers
NSString *webAddress = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"http://stringlearning.com/api/v1/user-quiz?token=%#",[[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] stringForKey:#"token"]];
NSDictionary <NSString *, NSString *> *headers = #{
#"device" : [UIDevice currentDevice].name,
#"Content-Type" : #"application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
};
// 2. An NSURL wrapped in an NSURLRequest
NSURL* url = [NSURL URLWithString:webAddress];
NSURLRequest *request = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:url];
// 3. An NSURLSession Configuration
NSURLSessionConfiguration *sessionConfiguration = [NSURLSessionConfiguration defaultSessionConfiguration];
[sessionConfiguration setHTTPAdditionalHeaders:headers];
// 4. The URLSession itself.
NSURLSession *urlSession = [NSURLSession sessionWithConfiguration:sessionConfiguration];
// 5. A session task: NSURLSessionDataTask or NSURLSessionDownloadTask
NSURLSessionDataTask *dataTask = [urlSession dataTaskWithRequest:request completionHandler:^(NSData * _Nullable data, NSURLResponse * _Nullable response, NSError * _Nullable error) {
}];
// 5b. Set the delegate if you did not use the completion handler initializer
// urlSession.delegate = self;
// 6. Finally, call resume on your task.
[dataTask resume];
This will run asynchronously, allowing your UI to remain responsive as your app loads data.

Answer 2

When you send a request on the main thread, like you are doing now, your UI, which is always performed on the main thread, is blocked, waiting for the request to finish and process. So you should perform all your network on a background thread, asynchronously. I would recommend first to check the networking library AFNetworking , it could simplify most of your networking problems.

Answer 3

Welcome to SO. You should know that NSURLConnection was deprecated in iOS 9. You should be using NSURLSession instead. The approach is very similar. You can take the NSURLRequest you've created and pass it to the sharedSession object, which is set up for async requests. The simplest way to deal with it is to use the call dataTaskWithRequest:completionHandler:, which takes a completion block. In your completion block you provide code that handles both success and failure.