iOS should model objects be able to access network with NSURLSession - ios

Question

I am in the middle of an app re-design and am refactoring and extending my model.
One aspect of my apps model is that the app retrieves data from a web service and populates the model.
My question is: Should my model objects have the capability to implement NSURLSession or should I rely on the VC to provide the connection?
I'm asking from a best practices standpoint. What's the best way to think about this? Should the model be totally on its own or should it have network access?
One consideration is that these model objects are essentially useless without data from the network, meaning data from the Internet is a fundamental aspect of their existence.

Answer 1

If we take SOLID — especially the S for Single Responsible Principle — in account, it becomes obvious, that neither the VC nor the model should do the networking:
a VC's single responsible would be to handle views
the model's purpose would be to hold data
networking should be done by a third class, a networking controller.
This three points will fulfill SOLID, but how do you get data from the network into model objects show on a view?
Well, this depends on your overall architectural design on the app, but a common approach would be to use callback — either a delegate protocol or a block — with your network controller.
You create a network controller in the app delegate and pass it from view controller to view controller via properties to any place in the app were newly fetched data is needed. I wouldn't use a singleton here, as that violates O, I & D of SOLID.
Add a class method to your model +(NSArray *)modelObjectsFromDictionaries:(NSArray *) or similar.
In the view controller you can now do
-(void)viewDidLoad
{
[super viewDidLoad];
__weak typeof(self) weakSelf = self;
[self.networkController fetchModels:^(NSArray *modelDictionaries, NSError *error){
typeof(weakSelf) self = weakSelf;
if(self) {
if(!error){
[self.dataSource addOrUpdateData:[Model modelObjectsFromDictionaries:modelDictionaries]];
} else {
// error handling
}
}
}];
}
This is just a starting point. For more complicated APIs it might be useful to use an api controller that itself uses the networking controller and maybe a persistence controller.
Although instead of a Model class method you might want to use some sort of mapping and abstract factory pattern… But all this things would require more information about your app and are out of the scope for this question.
Update:
I created a sample project to demonstrate this.
It is slightly different than what I say above:
As it uses a table view, I am using a data source class to populate it. Instead of the view controller the data source will tell the network controller to fetch new data.
I am using OFAPopulator for this, a library written by me to populate table views and collection views in a SOLID-conform fashion, or to «Keep view controllers clean and MVC smart».
#import "AppDelegate.h"
#import "VSNetworkController.h"
#implementation AppDelegate
- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions
{
[self.window.rootViewController setValue:[[VSNetworkController alloc] initWithBaseURL:[NSURL URLWithString:#"http://api.goeuro.com/api/v2/"]]
forKey:#"networkController"];
return YES;
}
#end
// VSNetworkController.h
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
#interface VSNetworkController : NSObject
-(instancetype)initWithBaseURL:(NSURL *) baseURL;
-(void)suggestionsForString:(NSString *)suggestionString
responseHandler:(void(^)(id responseObj, NSError *error))responseHandler;
#end
// VSNetworkController.m
#import "VSNetworkController.h"
#interface VSNetworkController ()
#property (nonatomic, strong) NSURL *baseURL;
#end
#implementation VSNetworkController
-(instancetype)initWithBaseURL:(NSURL *)baseURL
{
self = [super init];
if (self) {
_baseURL = baseURL;
}
return self;
}
-(void)suggestionsForString:(NSString *)suggestionString
responseHandler:(void(^)(id responseObj, NSError *error))responseHandler
{
NSURL *url = [self.baseURL URLByAppendingPathComponent:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"position/suggest/en/%#", suggestionString]];
NSURLRequest *request = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:url];
[NSURLConnection sendAsynchronousRequest:request
queue:[NSOperationQueue mainQueue]
completionHandler:^(NSURLResponse *response,
NSData *data,
NSError *connectionError) {
responseHandler([NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:data options:0 error:nil], connectionError);
}];
}
#end
// VSLocationSuggestion.h
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
#import CoreLocation;
#interface VSLocationSuggestion : NSObject
#property (nonatomic, copy, readonly) NSString *name;
#property (nonatomic, copy, readonly) NSString *country;
#property (nonatomic, strong, readonly) CLLocation *position;
+(NSArray *)suggestionsFromDictionaries:(NSArray *)dictionaries;
#end
// VSLocationSuggestion.m
#import "VSLocationSuggestion.h"
#interface VSLocationSuggestion ()
#property (nonatomic, copy) NSString *name;
#property (nonatomic, copy) NSString *country;
#property (nonatomic, strong) CLLocation *position;
#end
#implementation VSLocationSuggestion
+(NSArray *)suggestionsFromDictionaries:(NSArray *)dictionaries
{
NSMutableArray *array = [#[] mutableCopy];
[dictionaries enumerateObjectsUsingBlock:^(NSDictionary *suggestionDict, NSUInteger idx, BOOL *stop) {
[array addObject:[[self alloc] initWithDictionary:suggestionDict]];
}];
return [array copy];
}
-(instancetype)initWithDictionary:(NSDictionary *)dict
{
self = [super init];
if (self) {
_name = dict[#"name"];
_country = dict[#"country"];
CLLocationDegrees latitude = [dict[#"geo_position"][#"latitude"] doubleValue];
CLLocationDegrees longitude =[dict[#"geo_position"][#"longitude"] doubleValue];
_position = [[CLLocation alloc] initWithLatitude:latitude longitude:longitude];
}
return self;
}
#end
// VSSuggestionDataSource.h
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
#import <OFADataProvider.h>
#class VSNetworkController;
#interface VSSuggestionDataSource : NSObject <OFADataProvider>
-(instancetype)initWithNetworkController:(VSNetworkController *)networkController;
-(void)setNewSuggestions:(NSArray *)suggetsions;
-(void)enteredStringForSuggestions:(NSString *)suggestionString;
#end
// VSSuggestionDataSource.m
#import "VSSuggestionDataSource.h"
#import "VSNetworkController.h"
#import "VSLocationSuggestion.h"
#interface VSSuggestionDataSource ()
#property (nonatomic, copy) void (^available)(void);
#property (nonatomic, strong) VSNetworkController *networkController;
#end
#implementation VSSuggestionDataSource
#synthesize sectionObjects;
-(instancetype)initWithNetworkController:(VSNetworkController *)networkController
{
self = [super init];
if (self) {
_networkController = networkController;
}
return self;
}
-(void)dataAvailable:(void (^)(void))available
{
_available = available;
}
-(void)setNewSuggestions:(NSArray *)suggetsions
{
self.sectionObjects = suggetsions;
self.available();
}
-(void)enteredStringForSuggestions:(NSString *)s
{
__weak typeof(self) weakSelf = self;
[self.networkController suggestionsForString:s responseHandler:^(NSArray *responseObj, NSError *error) {
typeof(weakSelf) self = weakSelf;
if (self) {
if (!error && responseObj) {
NSArray *suggestion = [VSLocationSuggestion suggestionsFromDictionaries:responseObj];
[self setNewSuggestions:suggestion];
}
}
}];
}
#end
// ViewController.h
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#class VSNetworkController;
#interface ViewController : UIViewController
#property (nonatomic, strong) VSNetworkController *networkController;
#end
// ViewController.m
#import "ViewController.h"
#import "VSLocationSuggestion.h"
#import <OFAViewPopulator.h>
#import <OFASectionPopulator.h>
#import "VSSuggestionDataSource.h"
#interface ViewController ()
#property (weak, nonatomic) IBOutlet UITableView *tableView;
#property (strong, nonatomic) OFAViewPopulator *viewPopultor;
#property (strong, nonatomic) VSSuggestionDataSource *dataSource;
- (IBAction)textChanged:(UITextField *)sender;
#end
#implementation ViewController
- (void)viewDidLoad {
[super viewDidLoad];
self.dataSource = [[VSSuggestionDataSource alloc] initWithNetworkController:self.networkController];
OFASectionPopulator *sectionPopulator = [[OFASectionPopulator alloc] initWithParentView:self.tableView
dataProvider:self.dataSource
cellIdentifier:^NSString *(id obj, NSIndexPath *indexPath) {
return #"Cell";
} cellConfigurator:^(VSLocationSuggestion *obj, UITableViewCell *cell, NSIndexPath *indexPath) {
cell.textLabel.text = obj.name;
}];
sectionPopulator.objectOnCellSelected = ^(VSLocationSuggestion *suggestion, UIView *cell, NSIndexPath *indexPath ){
NSString * string =[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#, %# (%f %f)", suggestion.name, suggestion.country, suggestion.position.coordinate.latitude, suggestion.position.coordinate.longitude];
UIAlertController *avc = [UIAlertController alertControllerWithTitle:#"Selected" message:string preferredStyle:UIAlertControllerStyleAlert];
UIAlertAction *cancelAction = [UIAlertAction
actionWithTitle:NSLocalizedString(#"Cancel", #"Cancel action")
style:UIAlertActionStyleCancel
handler:^(UIAlertAction *action)
{
;
}];
[avc addAction:cancelAction];
[self presentViewController:avc animated:YES completion:NULL];
};
self.viewPopultor = [[OFAViewPopulator alloc] initWithSectionPopulators:#[sectionPopulator]];
}
- (IBAction)textChanged:(UITextField *)sender
{
NSString *s = sender.text;
if ([s length]) {
[self.dataSource enteredStringForSuggestions:s];
}
}
#end;
I made this code available on github: https://github.com/vikingosegundo/LocationSugesstion