Convert a Web service from GET to POST - ios

Question

I have created a web service to make a communication between an iOS application and a Joomla web site, and I used the GET method to communicate between the mobile application and the web service and also between the web service and the controller (PHP file that does the work and return the data) , but I didn't find how to convert the implementation to POST method here is the actual system :
ws.php : it's the web service (simple example )
<?php
$id = $_GET['id'] ; // get the data from the URL
// here i make testes
// then I redirect to the controller of the Joomla component that receive
// the call of the request the URL is actually the attribute "action" of
// an existing HTML Form that implement the login system, I added a
// parameter called web service to help me to modify the controller
// to make the difference between a normal call and a web service call
header("Location: index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=login&ws=1&id=1");
?>
Controller.php : the receiver of the web service call and the web call (from browser)
<?php
// code added by me, in the existent controller of the component
// it was waiting for a form submitting, so I got to convert my data to POST here
if (isset($_GET['ws'])) // it's a web service call
{
$_POST['id'] = $_GET['id'] ;
// do the task ...
if ($correctLogin) // just an example
echo "1"
else
echo '0';
}
?>
I didn't put the real implementation, and it's just a simple example of the system, but it's the same
Call from the mobile
NSURL *url = [[NSURL alloc]initWithString:#"http://localhost/ws.php?id=1"];
NSData *dataUrl= [NSData dataWithContentsOfURL:url];
NSString *str = [[NSString alloc]initWithData:dataUrl
encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
if(![str isEqualToString:#"0"])
NSLog(#"connected");
else
NSLog(#"not connected");
so I don't want to use the GET method, I just want to receive my data from the mobile using POST and also send the data to the controller using POST also, what is the best solution ?

Answer 1

If you want your app to send data using POST method, then I'm this code. I hope it will help.
It takes the data to be sent in dictionary object.
Ecodes the data to be sent as POST
and then returns the response (if you want the results in string format you can use [[NSString alloc] initWithData:dresponse encoding: NSASCIIStringEncoding]; when returning data)
-(NSData*) getData:(NSDictionary *) postDataDic{
NSData *dresponse = [[NSData alloc] init];
NSURL *nurl = [NSURL URLWithString:url];
NSDictionary *postDict = [[NSDictionary alloc] initWithDictionary:postDataDic];
NSData *postData = [self encodeDictionary:postDict];
// Create the request
NSMutableURLRequest *request = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:nurl];
[request setHTTPMethod:#"POST"]; // define the method type
[request setValue:[NSString stringWithFormat:#"%d", postData.length] forHTTPHeaderField:#"Content-Length"];
[request setValue:#"application/x-www-form-urlencoded charset=utf-8" forHTTPHeaderField:#"Content-Type"];
[request setHTTPBody:postData];
// Peform the request
NSURLResponse *response;
NSError *error = nil;
dresponse = [NSURLConnection sendSynchronousRequest:request
returningResponse:&response
error:&error];
return dresponse;
}
This method prepares the Dictionary data for POST
- (NSData*)encodeDictionary:(NSDictionary*)dictionary {
NSMutableArray *parts = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
for (NSString *key in dictionary) {
NSString *encodedValue = [[dictionary objectForKey:key] stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
NSString *encodedKey = [key stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
NSString *part = [NSString stringWithFormat: #"%#=%#", encodedKey, encodedValue];
[parts addObject:part];
}
NSString *encodedDictionary = [parts componentsJoinedByString:#"&"];
return [encodedDictionary dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
}