obj-c AFNetworking 2.0 POST request does not work

Question

Hi want to send some data (strings and a file) to a server, by using AFNetworking 2.0. Somehow the data for the POST request (for a forumlar) ist not correct, it looks like that the encoding/serialization on the request is missing. As the server can't work with the uploaded data from me.

How do I set the encoding/serialization to the request?

I assume the URL Form Parameter Encoding, has to be set. The docs states

[[AFHTTPRequestSerializer serializer] requestWithMethod:@"POST" URLString:URLString parameters:parameters];

I tried to do that, but I cannot figure out how to do it right. With the following Xcode throughs a warning:

manager.requestSerializer = [[AFHTTPRequestSerializer serializer] requestWithMethod:@"POST" URLString:URLString parameters:parameters]; 

/.../CameraViewController.m:105:31: Incompatible pointer types assigning to 'AFHTTPRequestSerializer *' from 'NSMutableURLRequest *'

Below my sourcecode:

CameraViewController.h

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@interface CameraViewController : UIViewController <UIImagePickerControllerDelegate, UINavigationControllerDelegate>
@property (weak, nonatomic) IBOutlet UIImageView *imageView;

@end

CameraViewControllerView.m

#import "CameraViewController.h"
#import "AFHTTPRequestOperationManager.h"

@interface CameraViewController ()    
@property (nonatomic) int photoIsTaken;    
@end

@implementation CameraViewController

// removed unecessary code for this question

- (void)upload {
    NSLog(@"%s: uploader ", __FUNCTION__);
    AFHTTPRequestOperationManager *manager = [AFHTTPRequestOperationManager manager];

    NSDictionary *parameters = @{@"latitude": @"8.444444",
                                 @"longitude": @"50.44444",
                                 @"location": @"New York",
                                 @"type": @"2",
                                 @"claim": @"NYC",
                                 @"flag": @"0",
                                 @"file": UIImageJPEGRepresentation(self.imageView.image,0.2)};

NSString *URLString = @"http://192.168.1.157/tapp/laravel/public/foobar/upload";

manager.requestSerializer = [[AFHTTPRequestSerializer serializer] requestWithMethod:@"POST" URLString:URLString parameters:parameters];

[manager POST:URLString parameters:parameters success:^(AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation, id responseObject) {
    NSLog(@"JSON: %@", responseObject);
} failure:^(AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation, NSError *error) {
    NSLog(@"Error: %@, %@", error, operation.responseString);
}];

    [self dismissViewControllerAnimated:NO completion:nil];
}

@end

Answer 1

Finally it works. Was a hassle but now I am really happy... During my testing I had some problems with 'request body stream exhausted' within Wifi, what was strange.

Below the code that did the trick for me.

- (void)upload {

    // !!! only JPG, PNG not covered! Have to cover PNG as well
    NSString *fileName = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%ld%c%c.jpg", (long)[[NSDate date] timeIntervalSince1970], arc4random_uniform(26) + 'a', arc4random_uniform(26) + 'a'];
    // NSLog(@"FileName == %@", fileName);

    AFHTTPRequestOperationManager *manager = [AFHTTPRequestOperationManager manager];

    NSDictionary *parameters = @{@"lat": @"8.444444",
                                 @"lng": @"50.44444",
                                 @"location": @"New York",
                                 @"type": @"2",
                                 @"claim": @"NYC",
                                 @"flag": @"0"};
     // BASIC AUTH (if you need):
    manager.securityPolicy.allowInvalidCertificates = YES;
    manager.requestSerializer = [AFHTTPRequestSerializer serializer];
    [manager.requestSerializer setAuthorizationHeaderFieldWithUsername:@"foo" password:@"bar"];
    // BASIC AUTH END

    NSString *URLString = @"http://192.168.1.157/tapp/laravel/public/foobar/upload";

    /// !!! only jpg, have to cover png as well
    NSData *imageData = UIImageJPEGRepresentation(self.imageView.image, 0.5); // image size ca. 50 KB
    [manager POST:URLString parameters:parameters constructingBodyWithBlock:^(id<AFMultipartFormData> formData) {
        [formData appendPartWithFileData:imageData name:@"file" fileName:fileName mimeType:@"image/jpeg"];
    } success:^(AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation, id responseObject) {
        NSLog(@"Success %@", responseObject);
    } failure:^(AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation, NSError *error) {
        NSLog(@"Failure %@, %@", error, operation.responseString);
    }];

    [self dismissViewControllerAnimated:NO completion:nil];
}

Answer 2

Thanks @NobleK , a category may be the best way to fix this issue. Here is a sample code:

@interface AFURLConnectionOperation (AuthenticationChallengeUploadFix)
@end

@implementation AFURLConnectionOperation (AuthenticationChallengeUploadFix)

- (NSInputStream *)connection:(NSURLConnection __unused *)connection needNewBodyStream:(NSURLRequest *)request {
    if ([request.HTTPBodyStream conformsToProtocol:@protocol(NSCopying)]) {
        return [request.HTTPBodyStream copy];
    }
    return nil;
}

@end

Answer 3

I have been looking for good answer for this one hell of a problem more than 10 hours and finally get hold of something what would work! according to Apple Doc

NSURLErrorRequestBodyStreamExhausted (-1021) Returned when a body stream is needed but the client does not provide one. This impacts clients on iOS that send a POST request using a body stream but do not implement the NSURLConnection delegate method connection:needNewBodyStream.

so what I had to do is subclass AFHTTPRequestOperation and implement all the delegate methods for NSURLConnection //.h

    @interface CGHTTPRequestOperation : AFHTTPRequestOperation

    @end

//.m

    @implementation CGHTTPRequestOperation

    #pragma mark NSURLConnection delegate methods

    - (NSInputStream *)connection:(NSURLConnection __unused *)connection needNewBodyStream:(NSURLRequest *)request {

        if ([request.HTTPBodyStream conformsToProtocol:@protocol(NSCopying)]) {

            return [request.HTTPBodyStream copy];

        }

        return nil;

    }

    - (void)connection:(NSURLConnection *)connection didReceiveResponse:(NSURLResponse *)response {
        [super connection:connection didReceiveResponse:response];
    }

    - (void)connection:(NSURLConnection *)connection didReceiveData:(NSData *)data {
        [super connection:connection didReceiveData:data];
    }

    - (void)connection:(NSURLConnection *)connection didSendBodyData:(NSInteger)bytesWritten totalBytesWritten:(NSInteger)totalBytesWritten totalBytesExpectedToWrite:(NSInteger)totalBytesExpectedToWrite {
        [super connection:connection didSendBodyData:bytesWritten totalBytesWritten:totalBytesWritten totalBytesExpectedToWrite:totalBytesExpectedToWrite];
    }

    - (NSCachedURLResponse *)connection:(NSURLConnection *)connection willCacheResponse:(NSCachedURLResponse *)cachedResponse{
        return [super connection:connection willCacheResponse:cachedResponse];
    }

    - (void)connectionDidFinishLoading:(NSURLConnection *)connection{
        [super connectionDidFinishLoading:connection];
    }

    - (void) connection:(NSURLConnection *)connection didFailWithError:(NSError *)error {
        [super connection:connection didFailWithError:error];
    }

    - (BOOL)connectionShouldUseCredentialStorage:(NSURLConnection *)connection {
        return YES;
    }
    - (void)connection:(NSURLConnection *)connection willSendRequestForAuthenticationChallenge:(NSURLAuthenticationChallenge *)challenge {
        [super connection:connection willSendRequestForAuthenticationChallenge:challenge];
    }

    @end

If you wonder how to use this extended classes in regards to upload the multi-part image data here is the example //.h

    typedef enum {

        CGFileUploadStatusError = 0,
        CGFileUploadStatusSuccess = 1,

    } CGFileUploadStatus;

    typedef void(^CGNetworkingFileUploadCBlock) (CGFileUploadStatus status,NSString *responseString);

//.m

    + (void) uploadImageAtPath:(NSString *) imagePath cBlock:(CGNetworkingFileUploadCBlock) cBlock {

        AFHTTPRequestSerializer *r = [AFHTTPRequestSerializer serializer];

        NSDictionary *param = @{@"param1":@"",@"param2":@""};
        NSData *d = [NSData dataWithContentsOfFile:imagePath];

        __block NSString *paramNameForImage = [imagePath pathComponents].lastObject;

        NSError *error = nil;
        NSMutableURLRequest *urlRequest = [r multipartFormRequestWithMethod:@"POST" URLString:@"http://url_to_up_load_image" parameters:param constructingBodyWithBlock:^(id<AFMultipartFormData> formData) {

                [formData appendPartWithFileData:d name:@"FileUploadControl" fileName:paramNameForImage mimeType:@"image/jpeg"];

            } error:&error];

            if (error) {

                NSLog(@"Some error:%@",error);

            }



        CGHTTPRequestOperation *requestOperation = [[CGHTTPRequestOperation alloc] initWithRequest:urlRequest];


        //[requestOperation setCredential:nil]; //set cred here
        //[requestOperation setSecurityPolicy:nil]; //set security policy here if you are using one

        [requestOperation setResponseSerializer:[AFHTTPResponseSerializer serializer]];

        [requestOperation setCompletionBlockWithSuccess:^(AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation, id responseObject) {

            NSLog(@"Success: %@ ***** %@", operation.responseString, operation.response.allHeaderFields);
            cBlock(CGFileUploadStatusSuccess,operation.responseString);

        } failure:^(AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation, NSError *error) {

            NSLog(@"Error: %@ ***** %@", operation, error);
            cBlock(CGFileUploadStatusError,operation.responseString);

        }];


        [requestOperation setUploadProgressBlock:^(NSUInteger bytesWritten, long long totalBytesWritten, long long totalBytesExpectedToWrite) {


        }];


        [requestOperation start];
        [requestOperation waitUntilFinished];

    }

Hope this helps those who is suffering this problem :)