Objective-C: Best way to access REST API on your iphone

Question

been wrestling with this for some time. I am trying to access a REST api on my iphone and came across the ASIHTTP framework that would assist me. So i did something like

//call sites, so we can confirm username and password and site/sites NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString: urlbase]; ASIHTTPRequest *request = [[[ASIHTTPRequest alloc] initWithURL:url] autorelease]; [request setUsername:@"doronkatz%40xx.com" ]; [request setPassword:@"xxx"]; 

Where urlbase is a url to a REST site.

Now, a developer has told me there might be an issue or bug with this framework, and its not passing headers correctly. Is there another way of testing or accessing with authentication a network REST location?

Answer 1

I would recommend checking out RestKit: http://restkit.org/ It provides an excellent API for accessing RESTful web services and representing the remote resources as local objects, including persisting them to Core Data. HTTP authentication is supported out of the box.

Answer 2

I'm new to iOS development and I've been battling with some of the big frameworks listed on this page for the past month or so. It has been a nightmare. I'd honestly recommend you just stick to the basics and do it yourself using AFNetworking or Apple's own NSURLConnection.

One of the libraries listed is no longer maintained. Another underwent huge code-breaking API changes recently and now half of the tutorials describing its use no longer work. Others are massively bloated.

It's easier than you'd think. Some resources that helped me:

• http://blog.strikeiron.com/bid/63338/Integrate-a-REST-API-into-an-iPhone-App-in-less-than-15-minutes
• http://www.slideshare.net/gillygize/connecting-to-a-rest-api-in-ios

The examples on the AFNetworking homepage alone may get you 80% of the way there.

UPDATE: The Mantle Framework (open sourced by Github Inc.) is well-designed and easy to use. It handles object mapping: converting a JSON NSDictionary to your own custom Objective-C model classes. It handles default cases sensibly and it's pretty easy to roll your own value transformers, e.g. from string to NSURL or string to your custom enum.