How do I make an HTTP request in Swift?

Question

I read The Programming Language Swift by Apple in iBooks, but cannot figure out how to make an HTTP request (something like cURL) in Swift. Do I need to import Obj-C classes

Answer 1

Details

• Xcode 9.2, Swift 4
• Xcode 10.2.1 (10E1001), Swift 5

Info.plist

NSAppTransportSecurity

Add to the info plist:

<key>NSAppTransportSecurity</key>
<dict>
    <key>NSAllowsArbitraryLoads</key>
    <true/>
</dict>

---

Alamofire Sample

Alamofire

import Alamofire

class AlamofireDataManager {
    fileprivate let queue: DispatchQueue
    init(queue: DispatchQueue) { self.queue = queue }

    private func createError(message: String, code: Int) -> Error {
        return NSError(domain: "dataManager", code: code, userInfo: ["message": message ])
    }

    private func make(session: URLSession = URLSession.shared, request: URLRequest, closure: ((Result<[String: Any]>) -> Void)?) {
        Alamofire.request(request).responseJSON { response in
            let complete: (Result<[String: Any]>) ->() = { result in DispatchQueue.main.async { closure?(result) } }
            switch response.result {
                case .success(let value): complete(.success(value as! [String: Any]))
                case .failure(let error): complete(.failure(error))
            }
        }
    }

    func searchRequest(term: String, closure: ((Result<[String: Any]>) -> Void)?) {
        guard let url = URL(string: "https://itunes.apple.com/search?term=\(term.replacingOccurrences(of: " ", with: "+"))") else { return }
        let request = URLRequest(url: url)
        make(request: request) { response in closure?(response) }
    }
}

Usage of Alamofire sample

private lazy var alamofireDataManager = AlamofireDataManager(queue: DispatchQueue(label: "DataManager.queue", qos: .utility))
//.........

alamofireDataManager.searchRequest(term: "jack johnson") { result in
      print(result.value ?? "no data")
      print(result.error ?? "no error")
}

---

URLSession Sample

import Foundation

class DataManager {

    fileprivate let queue: DispatchQueue
        init(queue: DispatchQueue) { self.queue = queue }

    private func createError(message: String, code: Int) -> Error {
        return NSError(domain: "dataManager", code: code, userInfo: ["message": message ])
    }

    private func make(session: URLSession = URLSession.shared, request: URLRequest, closure: ((_ json: [String: Any]?, _ error: Error?)->Void)?) {
        let task = session.dataTask(with: request) { [weak self] data, response, error in
            self?.queue.async {
                let complete: (_ json: [String: Any]?, _ error: Error?) ->() = { json, error in DispatchQueue.main.async { closure?(json, error) } }

                guard let self = self, error == nil else { complete(nil, error); return }
                guard let data = data else { complete(nil, self.createError(message: "No data", code: 999)); return }

                do {
                    if let json = try JSONSerialization.jsonObject(with: data, options: .mutableContainers) as? [String: Any] {
                        complete(json, nil)
                    }
                } catch let error { complete(nil, error); return }
            }
        }

        task.resume()
    }

    func searchRequest(term: String, closure: ((_ json: [String: Any]?, _ error: Error?)->Void)?) {
        let url = URL(string: "https://itunes.apple.com/search?term=\(term.replacingOccurrences(of: " ", with: "+"))")
        let request = URLRequest(url: url!)
        make(request: request) { json, error in closure?(json, error) }
    }
}

Usage of URLSession sample

private lazy var dataManager = DataManager(queue: DispatchQueue(label: "DataManager.queue", qos: .utility))
// .......
dataManager.searchRequest(term: "jack johnson") { json, error  in
      print(error ?? "nil")
      print(json ?? "nil")
      print("Update views")
}

Results

Answer 2

In Swift 4.1 and Xcode 9.4.1.

JSON POST approach example. To check internet connection add Reachability.h & .m files from https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/samplecode/Reachability/Introduction/Intro.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/DTS40007324-Intro-DontLinkElementID_2

func yourFunctionName {
    //Check internet connection
    let networkReachability = Reachability.forInternetConnection()
    let networkStatus:Int = (networkReachability?.currentReachabilityStatus())!.rawValue
    print(networkStatus)
    if networkStatus == NotReachable.rawValue {
        let msg = SharedClass.sharedInstance.noNetMsg//Message
        //Call alert from shared class
        SharedClass.sharedInstance.alert(view: self, title: "", message: msg)
    } else {
        //Call spinner from shared class
        SharedClass.sharedInstance.activityIndicator(view: self.view)//Play spinner

        let parameters = "Your parameters here"
        var request = URLRequest(url: URL(string: url)!)

        request.setValue("application/x-www-form-urlencoded", forHTTPHeaderField: "Content-Type")
        request.httpMethod = "POST"

        print("URL : \(request)")

        request.httpBody = parameters.data(using: .utf8)

        let task = URLSession.shared.dataTask(with: request) { data, response, error in guard let data = data, error == nil else { // check for fundamental networking error
            //Stop spinner
            SharedClass.sharedInstance.stopActivityIndicator() //Stop spinner
            //Print error in alert
            SharedClass.sharedInstance.alert(view: self, title: "", message: "\(String(describing: error!.localizedDescription))")
            return
            }

            SharedClass.sharedInstance.stopActivityIndicator() //Stop spinner

            if let httpStatus = response as? HTTPURLResponse, httpStatus.statusCode != 200 { // check for http errors
                print("statusCode should be 200, but is \(httpStatus.statusCode)")
                print("response = \(String(describing: response))")
            }

            do {
                let response = try JSONSerialization.jsonObject(with: data, options: []) as? [String: AnyObject]
                print(response!)
                //Your code here                    
            } catch let error as NSError {
                print(error)
            }
        }

        task.resume()

    }

}

If you have interest to use this function in SharedClass

//My shared class
import UIKit
class SharedClass: NSObject {

static let sharedInstance = SharedClass()

func postRequestFunction(apiName: String , parameters: String, onCompletion: @escaping (_ success: Bool, _ error: Error?, _ result: [String: Any]?)->()) {

    var URL =  "your URL here/index.php/***?"

    URL = URL.replacingOccurrences(of: "***", with: apiName)

    var request = URLRequest(url: URL(string: URL)!)
    request.setValue("application/x-www-form-urlencoded", forHTTPHeaderField: "Content-Type")
    request.httpMethod = "POST"
    print("shared URL : \(request)")
    request.httpBody = parameters.data(using: .utf8)

    var returnRes:[String:Any] = [:]
    let task = URLSession.shared.dataTask(with: request) { data, response, error in

        if let error = error {
            onCompletion(false, error, nil)
        } else {
            guard let data = data else {
                onCompletion(false, error, nil)
                return
            }

            if let httpStatus = response as? HTTPURLResponse, httpStatus.statusCode == 200 {
                do {
                   returnRes = try JSONSerialization.jsonObject(with: data, options: []) as! [String : Any]
                    onCompletion(true, nil, returnRes)

                } catch let error as NSError {
                   onCompletion(false, error, nil)
                }
            } else {
                onCompletion(false, error, nil)
            }
        }
    }
    task.resume()
}


private override init() {

}

And finally call this function like this....

SharedClass.sharedInstance.postRequestFunction(apiName: "Your API name", parameters: parameters) { (success, error, result) in
    print(result!)
    if success {
        //Your code here
    } else {
        print(error?.localizedDescription ?? "")
    }
}

Answer 3

Another option is the Alamofire lib that offers Chainable Request / Response methods.

https://github.com/Alamofire/Alamofire

Making a Request

import Alamofire

Alamofire.request(.GET, "http://httpbin.org/get")

Response Handling

Alamofire.request(.GET, "http://httpbin.org/get", parameters: ["foo": "bar"])
         .response { request, response, data, error in
              print(request)
              print(response)
              print(error)
          }

Answer 4

Here's a very simple Swift 4 example in a playground:

import UIKit
// run asynchronously in a playground
import PlaygroundSupport
PlaygroundPage.current.needsIndefiniteExecution = true

// create a url
let url = URL(string: "http://www.stackoverflow.com")

// create a data task
let task = URLSession.shared.dataTask(with: url!) { (data, response, error) in
    if error != nil {
        print("there's a problem")
    }
    print(String(data: data!, encoding: String.Encoding.utf8) ?? "")
}

//running the task w/ resume
task.resume()

Answer 5

KISS answer:

URLSession.shared.dataTask(with: URL(string: "https://google.com")!) {(data, response, error) in
    print(String(data: data!, encoding: .utf8))
}.resume()

Answer 6

You can use URL, URLRequest and URLSession or NSURLConnection as you'd normally do in Objective-C. Note that for iOS 7.0 and later, URLSession is preferred.

Using URLSession

Initialize a URL object and a URLSessionDataTask from URLSession. Then run the task with resume().

let url = URL(string: "http://www.stackoverflow.com")!

let task = URLSession.shared.dataTask(with: url) {(data, response, error) in
    guard let data = data else { return }
    print(String(data: data, encoding: .utf8)!)
}

task.resume()

Using NSURLConnection

First, initialize a URL and a URLRequest:

let url = URL(string: "http://www.stackoverflow.com")!
var request = URLRequest(url: url)
request.httpMethod = "POST" 

Then, you can load the request asynchronously with:

NSURLConnection.sendAsynchronousRequest(request, queue: OperationQueue.main) {(response, data, error) in
    guard let data = data else { return }
    print(String(data: data, encoding: .utf8)!)
}

Or you can initialize an NSURLConnection:

let connection = NSURLConnection(request: request, delegate:nil, startImmediately: true)

Just make sure to set your delegate to something other than nil and use the delegate methods to work with the response and data received.

For more detail, check the documentation for the NSURLConnectionDataDelegate protocol

Testing on an Xcode playground

If you want to try this code on a Xcode playground, add import PlaygroundSupport to your playground, as well as the following call:

PlaygroundPage.current.needsIndefiniteExecution = true

This will allow you to use asynchronous code in playgrounds.