Swift JSON with Alamofire - Unexpectedly found nil while unwrapping an Optional value - ios

Question

I'm trying to parse a JSON in my app and it's not working.
Here is a look at the JSON I'm trying to parse:
Check out the following screenshots. I get the error "Unexpectedly found nil while unwrapping an optional value" on the line
editorialElement.title = nodeElement!.valueForKey("title") as! String
Can anyone help me properly parse this JSON ?
EDIT 1: Here is more code. It shows what class I'm using (i.e. what objects I am creating based on the JSON file). I imagine this is what you meant by where I initialize JSON objects.
Here is my router as well (build using Alamofire). I feel like something might be wrong with it but at the same time, it makes a lot of sense and I don't know what missing:
EDIT 2: Here is the actual code:
func populateEditorials() {
if populatingEditorials {
return
}
populatingEditorials = true
Alamofire.request(GWNetworking.Router.Editorials(self.currentPage)).responseJSON() { response in
if let JSON = response.result.value {
/*
if response.result.error == nil {
*/
/* Creating objects for every single editorial is long running work, so we put that work on a background queue, to keep the app very responsive. */
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_HIGH, 0)) {
/*
// Making an array of all the node IDs from the JSON file
let nodeIDArray : [String]
var nodeCounter : Int = 0 */
for node in JSON as! NSDictionary {
var nodeElement = JSON.valueForKey(String(node))
self.nodeIDArray.addObject(String(node.key))
var editorialElement : EditorialElement = EditorialElement(title: "init", nodeID: 0, timeStamp: 0, imageURL: "init", author: "init", issueNumber: "init", volumeNumber: "init", articleContent: "init")
editorialElement.title = nodeElement!.valueForKey("title") as! String
editorialElement.nodeID = nodeElement!.valueForKey("nid") as! Int
editorialElement.timeStamp = nodeElement!.valueForKey("revision_timestamp") as! Int
editorialElement.imageURL = nodeElement!.valueForKey("image_url") as! String
editorialElement.author = nodeElement!.valueForKey("author") as! String
editorialElement.issueNumber = nodeElement!.valueForKey("issue_int") as! String
editorialElement.volumeNumber = nodeElement!.valueForKey("volume_int") as! String
editorialElement.articleContent = nodeElement!.valueForKey("html_content") as! String
self.editorialObjects.addObject(editorialElement)
/*
nodeIDArray[nodeCounter] = jsonValue{nodeCounter}.string
let editorialInfos : EditorialElement = ((jsonValue as! NSDictionary).valueForKey("\(nodeIDArray[nodeCounter])") as! [NSDictionary]).map { EditorialElement(title: $0["title"] as! String, nodeID: $0["nid"] as! Int, timeStamp: $0["revision_timestamp"] as! Int, imageURL: $0["image_url"] as! String, author: $0["author"], issueNumber: $0["issue_int"] as! Int, volumeNumber: $0["volume_int"] as! Int, articleContent: $0["html_content"] as! String) /* I am going to try to break this line down to simplify it and fix the build errors */
*/
}
print(self.editorialObjects)
}
/* Sorting the elements in order of newest to oldest (as the array index increases) */
self.editorialObjects.sort({ $0.timeStamp > $1.timeStamp })
let lastItem = self.editorialObjects.count
let indexPaths = (lastItem..<self.editorialObjects.count).map { NSIndexPath(forItem: $0, inSection: $0) }
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue()) {
self.editorialsTableView.insertRowsAtIndexPaths(indexPaths, withRowAnimation: UITableViewRowAnimation.Automatic) // Animation implemented for testing, to be removed for version 1.0
}
self.currentPage++
/* } */
}
self.populatingEditorials = false
}
}
Here is the code for my Class and Router:
class EditorialElement: NSObject {
var title: String // title
var nodeID: Int // nid
var timeStamp: Int // revision_timestamp
var imageURL: String? // image_url
var author: String // author
var issueNumber: String // issue_int
var volumeNumber: String // volume_int
var articleContent: String // html_content
/* To get an NSDate objec from Unix timestamp
var date = NSDate(timeIntervalSince1970: timeStamp) */
init(title: String, nodeID: Int, timeStamp: Int, imageURL: String, author: String, issueNumber: String, volumeNumber: String, articleContent: String) {
self.title = title
self.nodeID = nodeID
self.timeStamp = timeStamp
self.imageURL = imageURL
self.author = author
self.issueNumber = issueNumber
self.volumeNumber = volumeNumber
self.articleContent = articleContent
}
override func isEqual(object: AnyObject!) -> Bool {
return (object as! EditorialElement).nodeID == self.nodeID
}
override var hash: Int {
return (self as EditorialElement).nodeID
}
}
enum Router : URLRequestConvertible {
static let baseURLString = MyGlobalVariables.baseURL
case Issue
case Editorials(Int)
case News(Int)
case Random(Int)
case Pictures(Int)
var URLRequest: NSMutableURLRequest {
let path : String
let parameters: [String: AnyObject]
(path) = {
switch self {
case .Issue:
return ("/issue")
case .Editorials (let editorialsSection): /* If section == 0, this will return the first ten editorials. If section == 1, then section * 10 = 10, and we will get the ten editorials after that. */
return ("/list/editorials/\(editorialsSection * 10)")
case .News (let newsSection):
return ("/list/news/\(newsSection * 10)")
case .Random (let randomSection):
return ("/list/random/\(randomSection * 10)")
case .Pictures (let page):
return ("/list/pictures/\(page)")
}
}()
let URL = NSURL(string: Router.baseURLString)
let GoldenWordsURLRequest = NSMutableURLRequest(URL: URL!.URLByAppendingPathComponent(path))
/* let encoding = Alamofire.ParameterEncoding.URL */
return GoldenWordsURLRequest
/* return encoding.encode(URLRequest, parameters: parameters).0 */
}
}
}

Answer 1

That's because you take an optional reference (editorialElement returned from a failable initializer) and call valueForKey("title") on it. It stumbles over the access to "title" because it goes first in you code while the target of the call is nil. I would recommend organizing your code as follows:
if let editorialElement = EditorialElement(title:..., nodeID: and such)
{
... assigning new values to the properties
}
and you will notice that you don't enter the if-let scope. You will avoid the crash and make sure the problem is inside the arguments you initialize the editorialElement with.