How can I integrate ASP pages and queries into an iOS app? - ios

Question

I have a rather puzzling scenario right now, of figuring out how to integrate several large queries (many different items for each) into an iOS app that communicates with a C#-based REST API. I am trying to pull up several reports in the app, and if I recreate all these queries within the API along with recreating the interface in iOS, it could be quite time-consuming. The page that accesses the reports is a classic ASP page and includes a security header to ensure that the user session has been validated through the login page. Is there a way to set this up as a UIWebView and somehow validate a session upon loading of the UIWebView? Otherwise it will be quite a long, arduous process.
Could a cookie possibly be transferred over after the user has logged in using NSURLRequest to the UIWebView?
Each page has code to check if the session is authenticated
<%
if Session("portallogin") <> "good" then
response.redirect("example.com")
end if
%>
Here is some of the relevant login code that is responsible for initial authentication
'Get the username and password sent as well as user ip
On Error resume next
Session("login") = "bad" 'init to bad
sent_username = Request("username")
sent_password = Request("password")
source = Request.form("source")
remember_me = Request("remember_me")
userip = Request.ServerVariables("REMOTE_ADDR")
sent_username = replace(sent_username,"'","'")
sent_username = protectval(sent_username)
sent_password = protectval(sent_password)
if rs.BOF and rs.EOF then
Session("login") = "bad"
response.cookies("user")("name") = ""
response.Cookies("user")("pword") = ""
else
arr = rs.GetRows()
password = arr(0,0)
memberid = arr(1,0)
expired = arr(2,0)
if sent_password = password then
Session("login") = "good"
if expired = "True" Then
%>
'''''''''''''''''''
if session is good
'''''''''''''''''''
Session("username") = sent_username
Session("maintuser") = sent_username
Session("b2buser") = sent_username
Session("password") = sent_password
Session("memberid") = memberid
Session("customernumber") = customernumber
Session("cno") = cno
Session("login") = "good"
if remember_me = "on" Then
response.cookies("entry")("doorway") = cook(sent_username)
response.Cookies("entry")("michael") = cook(sent_password)
response.Cookies("entry")("remember_me") = cook("CHECKED")
Response.Cookies("entry").Expires = Now() + 365
else
response.cookies("entry")("doorway") = ""
response.Cookies("entry")("michael") = ""
response.Cookies("entry")("remember_me") = ""
Response.Cookies("entry").Expires = Now() + 5
end if

Answer 1

As most of the parameters reference the Request collection you could put the parameters in the querystring and thus make them part of the base url for UIWebView. So your URL request would look like
file.asp?username=xxx&password=yyy&source=zzz&remember_me=on
you would need to change line 7 in your sample file to be
source = Request("source")
but it would still work for existing requests.
The obvious problem with this code is that you have a username and password stored in your app which could be intercepted and abused. So be aware of that. I would not recommend this approach.
A better solution would be to consider rewriting the login function to store a temporary GUID and a timestamp in the database which could then be passed in the request as part of the querystring. Your authentication code could then be modified to check if that GUID is valid and update the timestamp associated with the GUID (or check for the session if they are using the old access method for that page).