Authentication login issue RESTful iOS - ios

Question

Hey Folks i have a problem with authentication for the login credentials of my app. I currently have a rails web service running from my localhost, that features a main login screen for a admin user with password credentials to display functions.
The problem is that i am creating a RESTful iOS application running alongside my rails app, that just takes these JSON requests and bypasses them.
All i want is to create a way for me to enter admin and password without having to use auth_token? it seems to be the only way to do it, to simply authenticate the admin user first in the keychain. Im using the framework AFNetowrking for authentication.SSKeychain a wrapper for accounts, and SVProgressHUD for lightweight huds
.I also have the JSON and XML requests being logged in the i terminal but failing due to not being able to connect to the server with this error
error Domain=NSURLErrorDomain Code=-1004 "Could not connect to the server." UserInfo=0x7556d50 {NSErrorFailingURLStringKey=http://localhost:3000.json/, NSErrorFailingURLKey=http://localhost:3000.json/, NSLocalizedDescription=Could not connect to the server., NSUnderlyingError=0xeb805c0 "Could not connect to the server."}
this is how im storing the credentials for the authClient, all want to do is specify the same info used to log-into the web service client which is.
username:admin and password:taliesin
but unsure how to do this?
these are what i have so for the AuthAPIClient, CredentialsStore and LoginViewController
update if anybody knows a easier way to do this please can you let me know, will be much appreciated.
AuthAPIClient.m
#import "AuthAPIClient.h"
#import "CredentialStore.h"
#define BASE_URL #"http://admin:taliesin#localhost:3000"
#implementation AuthAPIClient
+ (id)sharedClient {
static AuthAPIClient *__instance;
static dispatch_once_t onceToken;
dispatch_once(&onceToken, ^{
NSURL *baseUrl = [NSURL URLWithString:BASE_URL];
__instance = [[AuthAPIClient alloc] initWithBaseURL:baseUrl];
});
return __instance;
}
- (id)initWithBaseURL:(NSURL *)url {
self = [super initWithBaseURL:url];
if (self) {
[self registerHTTPOperationClass:[AFJSONRequestOperation class]];
[self setAuthTokenHeader];
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self
selector:#selector(tokenChanged:)
name:#"token-changed"
object:nil];
}
return self;
}
- (void)setAuthTokenHeader {
CredentialStore *store = [[CredentialStore alloc] init];
NSString *authToken = [store authToken];
[self setDefaultHeader:#"auth_token" value:authToken];
}
- (void)tokenChanged:(NSNotification *)notification {
[self setAuthTokenHeader];
}
#end
CredentialStore.m
#import "CredentialStore.h"
#import "SSKeychain.h"
#define SERVICE_NAME #"http://admin:taliesin#localhost:3000"
#define AUTH_TOKEN_KEY #"auth_token"
#implementation CredentialStore
- (BOOL)connection:(NSURLConnection *)connection canAuthenticateAgainstProtectionSpace:(NSURLProtectionSpace *)protectionSpace {
return YES;
}
- (void)connection:(NSURLConnection *)connection didReceiveAuthenticationChallenge:(NSURLAuthenticationChallenge *)challenge {
NSString *user = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%c%s%#", 'a', "a", #"a"];
NSString *password = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"%c%s%#", 'a', "a", #"a"];
NSURLCredential *credential = [NSURLCredential credentialWithUser:user
password:password
persistence:NSURLCredentialPersistenceForSession];
[[challenge sender] useCredential:credential forAuthenticationChallenge:challenge];
}
- (BOOL)isLoggedIn {
return [self authToken] != nil;
}
- (void)clearSavedCredentials {
[self setAuthToken:nil];
}
- (NSString *)authToken {
return [self secureValueForKey:AUTH_TOKEN_KEY];
}
- (void)setAuthToken:(NSString *)authToken {
[self setSecureValue:authToken forKey:AUTH_TOKEN_KEY];
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] postNotificationName:#"token-changed" object:self];
}
- (void)setSecureValue:(NSString *)value forKey:(NSString *)key {
if (value) {
[SSKeychain setPassword:#"taliesin"
forService:SERVICE_NAME
account:key];
} else {
[SSKeychain deletePasswordForService:SERVICE_NAME account:key];
}
}
- (NSString *)secureValueForKey:(NSString *)key {
return [SSKeychain passwordForService:SERVICE_NAME account:key];
}
#end
LoginViewApi.m
#import "LoginViewController.h"
#import "AuthAPIClient.h"
#import "CredentialStore.h"
#import "SVProgressHUD.h"
#interface UIViewController ()
#property (nonatomic, strong) IBOutlet UITextField *userTextField;
#property (nonatomic, strong) IBOutlet UITextField *passwordTextField;
#property (nonatomic, strong) CredentialStore *credentialStore;
#end
#implementation LoginViewController
+ (void)presentModallyFromViewController:(UIViewController *)viewController {
LoginViewController *loginViewController = [[LoginViewController alloc] init];
UINavigationController *navController = [[UINavigationController alloc]
initWithRootViewController:loginViewController];
[viewController presentViewController:navController
animated:YES
completion:nil];
}
- (void)viewDidLoad {
[super viewDidLoad];
self.credentialStore = [[CredentialStore alloc] init];
self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithBarButtonSystemItem:UIBarButtonSystemItemCancel
target:self
action:#selector(cancel:)];
self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:#"Login"
style:UIBarButtonItemStyleDone
target:self
action:#selector(login:)];
[self.userTextField becomeFirstResponder];
}
- (void)login:(id)sender {
[SVProgressHUD show];
id params = #{
#"admin": self.userTextField.text,
#"taliesin": self.passwordTextField.text
};
[[AuthAPIClient sharedClient] postPath:#"/auth/login.json"
parameters:params
success:^(AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation, id responseObject) {
NSString *authToken = [responseObject objectForKey:#"auth_token"];
[self.credentialStore setAuthToken:authToken];
[SVProgressHUD dismiss];
[self dismissViewControllerAnimated:YES completion:nil];
} failure:^(AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation, NSError *error) {
if (operation.response.statusCode == 500) {
[SVProgressHUD showErrorWithStatus:#"Something went wrong!"];
} else {
NSData *jsonData = [operation.responseString dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
NSDictionary *json = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:jsonData
options:0
error:nil];
NSString *errorMessage = [json objectForKey:#"error"];
[SVProgressHUD showErrorWithStatus:errorMessage];
}
}];
}
- (void)cancel:(id)sender {
[self dismissViewControllerAnimated:YES completion:nil];
}
#end
Any help or for more questions please let me know cheers :)

Answer 1

Endpoint Addressing
I don't know how AFNetworking handles remote addresses but I think you are making a simple mistake when calling localhost from iOS to contact your web-service. The thing is that iOS is an operating system and it has its own localhost. Thus, when you think you are calling a remote web-service you are actually asking iOS to look within itself for this service. Therefore, wether you are running your rails web-service locally or on an actual remote server, find out the IP address for the server where the service is running and use that as an endpoint rather than localhost.
So update everything that points to your service to use an IP. Don't change it for 127.0.0.1, that would have the same effect.
For example:
#define BASE_URL #"http://admin:taliesin#192.168.0.1:3000"
Authentication: iOS
Assuming your web-service supports, that is, you have configured basic http authentication; then authenticating from iOS should not be a huge problem.
If you were to use RESTKit, it would be as simple as:
RKObjectManager *objectManager = [RKObjectManager sharedManager];
objectManager.client.authenticationType = RKRequestAuthenticationTypeHTTPBasic;
objectManager.client.username = username;
objectManager.client.password = password;
I use Apple's KeychainItemWrapper for storing/retrieving credentials on iOS.
//Store Account on Keychain (disk) for persistence.
AppDelegate *appDelegate = (AppDelegate *)[[UIApplication sharedApplication] delegate];
KeychainItemWrapper *accountItem = appDelegate.accountItem;
[accountItem setObject:password forKey:(__bridge id)kSecValueData];
[accountItem setObject:username forKey:(__bridge id)kSecAttrAccount];
username = password = nil; //keep account information only in the keychain.
I don't know if your code is correct but it should not be that complicated to handle basic http auth. Perhaps AFNetworking does not abstracts it as much as RESTKit does? Or perhaps you are not using the right methods from AFNetworking to do basic http auth? Basic auth does not require an access token and thus I suggest you read a little more about basic auth before implementing it.
Authentication: Rails
As for implementing authentication on Rails, it should not be too complicated either. All you need to do is to configure your controller to present an authentication challenge to the incoming request with basic http auth. One way to do this is by using before_filter: authenticate. Here is an example.
I think Railscasts is superb and they happen to have a tutorial on basic http auth and one specifically for rails 3.1. authentication.
Cheers.