Objective C UITextField values blank - ios

Question

I am trying to get the values from a few UITextFields I have added to my storyboard and send them as a JSON string to an API. I can hard code the values for the JSON string and everything works fine. Now I want to retrieve the values from the text fields and insert them in place of the hard coded values. The problem is that when I log the values to the console they are showing up as blank. I am not sure that I have the code correct to get the values from the ViewController to the method that sends the data. I followed several tutorials on how to get the data from the ViewController UITextFields. I connected the text fields to the properties in the ViewController.h file. I am hoping someone can help me figure out what I did wrong, hopefully I provided enough information.
I think the problem may be how I am trying to get the values from these lines of code in the timeMethods.m file:
ViewController *controller = [[ViewController alloc]initWithNibName:#"ViewController" bundle:nil];
NSString *name = controller.name.text;
NSString *type = controller.type.text;
NSString *date = controller.date.text;
ViewController.h
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#interface ViewController : UIViewController
#property (nonatomic, retain) IBOutlet UITextField *name;
#property (nonatomic, retain) IBOutlet UITextField *type;
#property (nonatomic, retain) IBOutlet UITextField *date;
#end
ViewController.m
#import "ViewController.h"
#import "timeMethods.h"
#interface ViewController ()
#end
#implementation ViewController
#synthesize name;
#synthesize type;
#synthesize date;
- (void)viewDidLoad {
[super viewDidLoad];
// Do any additional setup after loading the view, typically from a nib.
}
- (void)didReceiveMemoryWarning {
[super didReceiveMemoryWarning];
// Dispose of any resources that can be recreated.
}
- (IBAction)sendRequest:(id)sender {
[[timeMethods alloc] sendRequest];
}
- (IBAction)getRequest:(id)sender {
[[timeMethods alloc] getRequest];
}
#end
timeMethods.m
#import "timeMethods.h"
#implementation timeMethods
- (void)sendRequest {
ViewController *controller = [[ViewController alloc]initWithNibName:#"ViewController" bundle:nil];
NSString *name = controller.name.text;
NSString *type = controller.type.text;
NSString *date = controller.date.text;
NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:#"http://throttle.com/my-rest-api/api/robots"];
NSMutableURLRequest *request = [[NSMutableURLRequest alloc] initWithURL:url];
NSDictionary *tmp = [[NSDictionary alloc] initWithObjectsAndKeys:
name, #"name",
type, #"type",
date, #"year",
nil];
NSError *error;
NSData *postData = [NSJSONSerialization dataWithJSONObject:tmp options:0 error:&error];
[request setHTTPBody:postData];
[request setHTTPMethod:#"POST"];
[request setValue:#"application/json" forHTTPHeaderField:#"Accept"];
[request setValue:#"application/json" forHTTPHeaderField:#"Content-Type"];
[request setValue:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%lu", (unsigned long)[postData length]] forHTTPHeaderField:#"Content-Length"];
[request setHTTPBody: postData];
NSURLConnection *connection = [NSURLConnection connectionWithRequest:request delegate:self];
NSString *strData = [[NSString alloc]initWithData:postData encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
NSLog(#"%#", strData);
}
- (void)getRequest {
NSString *serverAddress = #"http://throttle.com/my-rest-api/api/robots";
NSMutableURLRequest *request = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:serverAddress]
cachePolicy:NSURLRequestReloadIgnoringLocalAndRemoteCacheData
timeoutInterval:10];
[request setHTTPMethod:#"GET"];
NSError *requestError;
NSURLResponse *urlResponse = nil;
NSData *response1 = [NSURLConnection sendSynchronousRequest:request returningResponse:&urlResponse error:&requestError];
NSString *strData = [[NSString alloc]initWithData:response1 encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
NSLog(#"%#",strData);
}
#end
timeMethods.h
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
#interface timeMethods : NSObject
- (void)sendRequest;
- (void)getRequest;
#end

Answer 1

The trouble is that we've just allocated a brand new VC and asked for its UITextField's values here:
ViewController *controller = [[ViewController alloc]initWithNibName:#"ViewController" bundle:nil];
// controller.name is a brand new text field, created in the previous line
NSString *name = controller.name.text; // guaranteed to be #""
Of course this will be an empty text field. It was created in the previous line. Instead, get those values as params to your request from the view controller the user is using...
- (IBAction)sendRequest:(id)sender {
NSString *name = self.name.text;
NSString *type = self.type.text;
NSString *date = self.date.text;
[[timeMethods alloc] sendRequestWithName:name type:type date:date];
}
Naturally, add those parameters to the sendRequest method and remove the local vars.