Passing headers to URL with Swift URLSession - swift

Question

I don't feel like sharing the actual link as it may have some private information so don't be surprised if it doesn't work.
I have a link that looks like this: www.somelink.com/stuff/searchmembers?member=John
And some headers that I need to pass, like Login: Admin, Password: Admin
When I use this site everything seems to be working just fine, I put the link, make it GET and put headers in key:value format and as a result I get the list of all members, but how can I do the same with URLSession? Here's what I currently have and I don't get anything at all. What am I doing wrong there?
func getAllMembers(urlString: String) {
guard let url = URL(string: urlString) else { return }
var request = URLRequest(url: url)
request.httpMethod = "GET"
request.setValue("Admin", forHTTPHeaderField: "Login")
request.setValue("Admin", forHTTPHeaderField: "Password")
request.httpBody = "member=John".data(using: .utf8)!
URLSession.shared.dataTask(with: request) { (data, response, error) in
print(response)
print(data)
}.resume()
}

Answer 1

Here is What You're Doing Wrong:
Your member=John is actually a URL query parameter. In general, URL requests have query parameters as a part of the URL string itself and not the httpbody.
Quick and Dirty Solution:
You should be good to go if you remove
request.httpBody = "member=John".data(using: .utf8)!
and instead pass the whole "www.somelink.com/stuff/searchmembers?member=John" into your getAllMembers(urlString:) function.
A Better Solution:
Let's say John's username is j o h n. Your function wouldn't make it past that first guard because spaces aren't valid URL string characters.
I like to use URLComponents because it saves me the trouble of having to handle spaces and such.
Here's how I'd write your function:
func getJohnMember(urlString: String) {
//URLComponents to the rescue!
var urlBuilder = URLComponents(string: urlString)
urlBuilder?.queryItems = [
URLQueryItem(name: "member", value: "j o h n")
]
guard let url = urlBuilder?.url else { return }
var request = URLRequest(url: url)
request.httpMethod = "GET"
request.setValue("Admin", forHTTPHeaderField: "Login")
request.setValue("Admin", forHTTPHeaderField: "Password")
URLSession.shared.dataTask(with: request) { (data, response, error) in
print(response)
print(String(data: data, encoding: .utf8)) //Try this too!
}.resume()
}
Just to be clear, I would pass just "www.somelink.com/stuff/searchmembers" into the first parameter.
Now if I were to print(url) after the guard let, I'd get
www.somelink.com/stuff/searchmembers?member=j%20o%20h%20n
Much easier this way, no?

Answer 2

That member=John is a URL-query parameter, not part of the request body. So you need to add it to the URL itself.
func getAllMembers(urlString: String) {
guard let url = URL(string: "\(urlString)?member=John") else { return }
var request = URLRequest(url: url)
request.httpMethod = "GET"
request.setValue("Admin", forHTTPHeaderField: "Login")
request.setValue("Admin", forHTTPHeaderField: "Password")
URLSession.shared.dataTask(with: request) { (data, response, error) in
print(response)
print(data)
}.resume()
}