How to connect (GET request) ios app to django rest framework - ios

Question

I came to the last stage of development of my app and here is the bit that I've never done before.
My friend has developed and API for my app to send and receive data, using django rest framework.
I need to authenticate my app to connect to it, send some data and receive data.
What I have found so far is:
NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:#"http://localhost:8080/my/path/to/api/login/"];
NSMutableURLRequest *request = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:url];
NSString *authStr = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%#:%#", #"myUsername", #"myPassword"];
NSData *authData = [authStr dataUsingEncoding:NSASCIIStringEncoding];
NSString *authValue = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"Basic %#", authData];
[request setValue:authValue forHTTPHeaderField:#"Authorization"];
[request setHTTPMethod:#"GET"];
[request setValue:#"application/json" forHTTPHeaderField:#"Accept"];
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------//
//EDIT: Added this based on answer form #Quver.
NSURLResponse *response1;
NSError *responseError;
NSData *result = [NSURLConnection sendSynchronousRequest:request returningResponse:&response1 error:&responseError];
if (result.length > 0 && responseError == nil)
{
NSDictionary *greeting = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:result
options:0
error:NULL];
NSLog(#"Got response form server: %#", greeting);
}
This equals output like:
<0a0a3c68 746d6c3e 0a0a2020 20203c68 6561643e 0a202020 20202020 200a2020 20202020 20200a20 20202020 + ~50 lines of similar stuff. Hope this helps.
//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------//
I guess this is the way to create request. What should I do next? And how do I know that I have connected?
Then, if I have connected, how do I get data form there? (I have a url that gives me json as output - this is what I want to get). Assume the url to be http://localhost:8080/url/that/gives/json/.
Thank you for any help. Hope this is enough information for the question. I will add anything else required.

Answer 1

NSURLResponse *response;
NSError *responseError;
NSData *result = [NSURLConnection sendSynchronousRequest:request returningResponse:&response error:&responseError];
Add this to get response. You already prepared request, now it's time to send it with NSURLConnection. I you sync request insted of async, becouse of using GCD for whole metod request + sqlite update.

Answer 2

After a few days of searching I have found a way.
First, we need a token for authentication. I am generating it through terminal for now:
curl -X POST -d "grant_type=password&username=<your username>&password=<your password>" http://<client secret>:<client id>#url/to/token/page
Then, in your view controller where you want to connect:
//always put </> at the end of link
NSURL *aUrl = [NSURL URLWithString: #"http://where/you/trying/to/conect"];
NSMutableURLRequest *request = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:aUrl
cachePolicy:NSURLRequestUseProtocolCachePolicy
timeoutInterval:30.0];
[request addValue:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"<type> <your token>"] forHTTPHeaderField:#"Authorization"];
[request setHTTPMethod:#"GET"];
NSError *error = nil;
self.response = [NSURLConnection sendSynchronousRequest:request returningResponse:nil error: &error];
This will return any json that the page supposed to return. This might not be the most secure way, but this is exactly what I need for now. I will look at more secure solutions like OAuth 2, later.
Hope this helps to someone.