How do I insert a POST request into a UIWebView

Question

For a GET request I\'ve tried this simple method:

NSString *urlAddress = @"http://example.com/";
NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:urlAddress];
NSURLReq         


        

Answer 1

(edited original answer to include newly tested code)

I just wanted to drop in my version of this request. I have used a dictionary to represent the post parameters.

It's a chunk of code but is simple enough to drop into a view with a webview and use for all URL loading. It will only POST if you send a "postDictionary". Otherwise it will use the url you sent it to just GET things.

- (void) loadWebView:(UIWebView *)theWebView withURLString:(NSString *)urlString andPostDictionaryOrNil:(NSDictionary *)postDictionary {
    NSURL *url                          = [NSURL URLWithString:urlString];
    NSMutableURLRequest *request        = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:url
                                             cachePolicy:NSURLRequestReloadIgnoringCacheData
                                         timeoutInterval:60.0];


    // DATA TO POST
    if(postDictionary) {
        NSString *postString                = [self getFormDataString:postDictionary];
        NSData *postData                    = [postString dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding allowLossyConversion:YES];
        NSString *postLength                = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%d", [postData length]];
        [request setHTTPMethod:@"POST"];
        [request setValue:postLength forHTTPHeaderField:@"Content-Length"];
        [request setValue:@"application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=utf-8" forHTTPHeaderField:@"Content-Type"];
        [request setHTTPBody:postData];
    }

    [theWebView loadRequest:request];
}
- (NSString *)getFormDataString:(NSDictionary*)dictionary {
    if( ! dictionary) {
        return nil;
    }
    NSArray* keys                               = [dictionary allKeys];
    NSMutableString* resultString               = [[NSMutableString alloc] init];
    for (int i = 0; i < [keys count]; i++)  {
        NSString *key                           = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@", [keys objectAtIndex: i]];
        NSString *value                         = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@", [dictionary valueForKey: [keys objectAtIndex: i]]];

        NSString *encodedKey                    = [self escapeString:key];
        NSString *encodedValue                  = [self escapeString:value];

        NSString *kvPair                        = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@=%@", encodedKey, encodedValue];
        if(i > 0) {
            [resultString appendString:@"&"];
        }
        [resultString appendString:kvPair];
    }
    return resultString;
}
- (NSString *)escapeString:(NSString *)string {
    if(string == nil || [string isEqualToString:@""]) {
        return @"";
    }
    NSString *outString     = [NSString stringWithString:string];
    outString                   = [outString stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];

    // BUG IN stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding
    // WE NEED TO DO several OURSELVES
    outString                   = [self replace:outString lookFor:@"&" replaceWith:@"%26"];
    outString                   = [self replace:outString lookFor:@"?" replaceWith:@"%3F"];
    outString                   = [self replace:outString lookFor:@"=" replaceWith:@"%3D"];
    outString                   = [self replace:outString lookFor:@"+" replaceWith:@"%2B"];
    outString                   = [self replace:outString lookFor:@";" replaceWith:@"%3B"];

    return outString;
}
- (NSString *)replace:(NSString *)originalString lookFor:(NSString *)find replaceWith:(NSString *)replaceWith {
    if ( ! originalString || ! find) {
        return originalString;
    }

    if( ! replaceWith) {
        replaceWith                 = @"";
    }

    NSMutableString *mstring        = [NSMutableString stringWithString:originalString];
    NSRange wholeShebang            = NSMakeRange(0, [originalString length]);

    [mstring replaceOccurrencesOfString: find
                             withString: replaceWith
                                options: 0
                                  range: wholeShebang];

    return [NSString stringWithString: mstring];
}