URL for GET request - ios

Question

To get the JSON I was using this answer SBJsonWriter Nested NSDictionary
Now I have a sting {"key1":"bla1","key2":{"a":"a1","b":"b1","c":"c1","d":"d1"},"key3":"bla3"} that I've called theString
and I need to add it to a url http://mysyte.net:8888/JSON?
and to receive something like this http://lcwebtest.sytes.net:8888/JSON?{"key1":"bla1","key2":{"a":"a1","b":"b1","c":"c1","d":"d1"},"key3":"bla3"}
Here is what I do:
NSString *urlString = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"http://mysyte.net:8888/JSON?%#",theString];
NSLog gives http://mysyte.net:8888/JSON?{"key2":{"d":"d1","b":"b1","c":"c1","a":"a1"},"key1":"bla1","key3":"bla3"}
Then I make a url from it by
NSURL *url1 = [NSURL URLWithString:urlString];
BUT NSLog(#"%#",url1); gives me {null}
I assume NSURL does not want to read the "{" or "}" and thinks that the url was malformed.
How can I receive the url to make a GET request?

Answer 1

I assume NSURL does not want to read the "{" or "}" and thinks that the url was malformed.
That's right, you're not allowed to put some special characters in a URL. You want to escape the JSON string like this:
CFStringRef escaped = CFURLCreateStringByAddingPercentEscapes(
NULL,
(CFStringRef)theString, // (__bridge CFStringRef)theString if you use ARC
CFSTR(""),
CFSTR("?&=%,:+-"),
kCFStringEncodingUTF8
);
NSString *urlString = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"http://mysyte.net:8888/JSON?%#", (NSString *)escaped];
CFRelease(escaped);