POST Request gives timeout when testing on iPhone device - ios

Question

I'm working on a school project, which is developing a Web application with an API and an iPhone app with swift. I developed the website in Laravel with Homestead/Vagrant.
But when it comes to the iPhone app, i'm facing with a problem:
When a user presses the login button the app sends a http POST request to the API and the API checks if the users exists in the db, if so then it will return a token, after which the user will be redirected to the dashboard. This works fine on the xcode simulator.
My code of the request part looks like this:
var loginUrl = "http://10.1.1.33/api/login" + "?email=" + self.email + "&password=" + self.password
let request = NSMutableURLRequest(URL: NSURL(string: loginUrl)!)
let session = NSURLSession.sharedSession()
request.HTTPMethod = "POST"
let task = session.dataTaskWithRequest(request, completionHandler: {
data, response, error -> Void in
guard error == nil else {
print("First Error!!! \(error)")
self.errorLabel.text = "Request timed Out"
self.enableLoginBtn(true, buttonText: "Login")
return
}
do {
let data: AnyObject? = try NSJSONSerialization.JSONObjectWithData(data!, options: [])
// Okay, the `json` is here, let's get the value for 'success' out of it
let json = JSON(data!)
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), {
if json["token"] != nil {
print("Login successvol!)")
if self.saveSession(json["token"].string!) {
self.enableLoginBtn(true, buttonText: "Login")
self.goToDashboard()
}else {
print("Saving token went wrong")
}
}else {
self.showError("Gebruikersnaam of wachtwoord is onjuist")
self.enableLoginBtn(true, buttonText: "Login")
}
})
}catch let parseError{
print(parseError)
let jsonStr = NSString(data: data!, encoding: NSUTF8StringEncoding)
print("Error could not parse JSON: \(jsonStr)")
self.enableLoginBtn(true, buttonText: "Login")
}
})
task.resume()
But when i try to test the exact same thing on my iPhone 5s (I have a developer license) it's failing every single time. The error i'm getting is:
Error Domain=NSURLErrorDomain Code=-1001 "The request timed out." UserInfo=0x1742e1e80 {NSUnderlyingError=0x170259230 "The operation
couldn’t be completed. (kCFErrorDomainCFNetwork error -1001.)",
NSErrorFailingURLStringKey=http://10.1.1.33/api/login?email=jejz#kdk.nl&password=sndxbdj,
NSErrorFailingURLKey=http://10.1.1.33/api/login?email=jejz#kdk.nl&password=sndxbdj,
NSLocalizedDescription=The request timed out.}
The last couple days i searched the whole internet for a solution, but i couldn't find any solution.
I'd be really grateful if someone can help me out with this.
Thanks in advance.
Best regards
EDITED ---------------------
Screenshot of the error

Answer 1

I think you might be confused about POST and GET requests.
POST parameters are sent in the Request body, while in the GET request the parameters are sent in the URL.
GET Method parameters example:
/test/demo_form.asp?name1=value1&name2=value2
POST Method parameters example:
POST /test/demo_form.asp HTTP/1.1
Host: w3schools.com
name1=value1&name2=value2
So what you are trying to do, is send the parameters in the URL with the POST request, which is why it doesn't work!
You need to put the parameters in the Request body!
What you need to do is:
1. Change the request URL
var loginUrl = "http://10.1.1.33/api/login"
2. Add the parameters in the Request body
let postString = "email=" + self.email + "&password=" + self.password
request.HTTPBody = postString.dataUsingEncoding(NSUTF8StringEncoding);

Answer 2

If you are using iOS 9, this is due to the new Transport security setting that is enabled by default. It blocks all outgoing non https requests. There is a way to turn it off for all requests, so any http request will load. There is also a way to control each url or url wildcard that can load on http.
If you are using http for your login, I suggest you change your server to support SSL and TLS 2.0 (pretty much the standard on most hosts with https) rather than turning it off to load http. Usernames and passwords shouldnt go over http.
If however you need to turn it off for furthering the development until you get a certificate setup, here is how to do it.
Add this to your info.plist file (open it in source code mode, control click on the file and select)
<key>NSAppTransportSecurity</key>
<dict>
<key>NSAllowsArbitraryLoads</key>
<true/>
</dict>
If you want to control specific urls, you can use <key>NSExceptionDomains</key>