Sending a UIImage and text to server - ios

Question

I have a simple question- I'm currently writing a specific part in my app related to sending data to server.
I tried to send text, succeeded. Sent image, succeeded.
What I'm trying to do now is to send them both within one POST request.
I figured out that I need to use something that is called multipart/form-data and boundaries, but I haven't found anymore info about it.
So how can I send both text and image in one, simple POST request? And how can I check for errors during upload, afterwards etc.?
Thanks!
Reference code I've written but sending 0 bytes of info:
NSData *imageData = UIImageJPEGRepresentation(sendImage, 1.0);
// setting up the request object now
NSMutableURLRequest *request = [[NSMutableURLRequest alloc] init];
[request setURL:[NSURL URLWithString:#"http://posttestserver.com/post.php?dir=something"]];
[request setHTTPMethod:#"POST"];
NSString *boundary = #"---------------------------54737809831466490885746641449";
NSString *contentType = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"multipart/form-data; boundary=%#",boundary];
[request addValue:contentType forHTTPHeaderField: #"Content-Type"];
NSMutableData *body = [NSMutableData data];
[body appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"rn--%#rn",boundary] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[#"Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"userfile\"; filename=\"reportingImage.jpg\"rn" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[#"Content-Type: application/octet-streamrnrn" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[NSData dataWithData:imageData]];
[body appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"rn--%#--rn",boundary] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[#"Content-Type: text/xml" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[[[alertView textFieldAtIndex:0] text] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
// setting the body of the post to the reqeust
[request setHTTPBody:body];
// now lets make the connection to the web
NSData *returnData = [NSURLConnection sendSynchronousRequest:request returningResponse:nil error:nil];
NSString *returnString = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:returnData encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
NSLog(returnString);

Answer 1

This is a working snippet that sends text and image, optionally a few texts with a few params per each
//After dismissing the alert, we get its text (user location and notes) and the picture he took
NSMutableData *body = [NSMutableData data];
NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:#"http://posttestserver.com/post.php?dir=Doda"]; //Test server, you can access it online to see the upload
NSMutableURLRequest *req = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:url];
[req setHTTPMethod:#"POST"];
NSString *boundary = #"---------------------------14737809831466499882746641449"; //I have no idea what this is, but without it the code won't work
NSString *contentType = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"multipart/form-data; boundary=%#", boundary];
[req setValue:contentType forHTTPHeaderField: #"Content-Type"];
//Attaching image
[body appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"--%#\r\n", boundary] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[#"Content-Disposition: attachment; name=\"imageOfReport\"; filename=\"imageOfReport.jpg\"\r\n" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[#"Content-Type: application/octet-stream\r\n\r\n" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[NSData dataWithData:UIImageJPEGRepresentation(sendImage, 1.0)]]; //Crucial, getting a JPEG version of the image and sending it
[body appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"\r\n"] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"--%#\r\n", boundary] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"report_description\"\r\n\r\n"] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[[[alertView textFieldAtIndex:0] text] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]]; //Crucial, taking the text from the Alert and sending it
[body appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"\r\n"] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[req setHTTPBody:body];
//Below are few lines which can add other parameters and text
/* [body appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"--%#\r\n", boundary] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"spid\"\r\n\r\n"] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[body appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:#"\r\n"] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
[req setHTTPBody:body];*/
NSURLConnection *sendingTheData2 = [[NSURLConnection alloc] initWithRequest:req delegate:self startImmediately:YES]; //Sent! ;)

Answer 2

You probably want to use a network library like AFNetworking, and save yourself some time :)