Partially downloading data in Swift - swift

I'm trying to develop a download accelerator in Swift. It should get the file's size and divide it to n parts. Then it should download them at once by running multiple threads, and then merge the parts.
I read C# - Creating a Download Accelerator, unfortunately it doesn't help me.
I can do the multiple thread part easily by
DispatchQueue.main.async {
// The new thread
}
but the other part is harder. I usually download a file like this:
try Data(contentsOf: URL(string: assetsUrl!)!)
or I can do the thing that is explained in this answer
class Downloader {
class func load(url: URL, to localUrl: URL, completion: #escaping () -> ()) {
let sessionConfig = URLSessionConfiguration.default
let session = URLSession(configuration: sessionConfig)
let request = try! URLRequest(url: url, method: .get)
let task = session.downloadTask(with: request) { (tempLocalUrl, response, error) in
if let tempLocalUrl = tempLocalUrl, error == nil {
// Success
if let statusCode = (response as? HTTPURLResponse)?.statusCode {
print("Success: \(statusCode)")
}
do {
try FileManager.default.copyItem(at: tempLocalUrl, to: localUrl)
completion()
} catch (let writeError) {
print("error writing file \(localUrl) : \(writeError)")
}
} else {
print("Failure: %#", error?.localizedDescription);
}
}
task.resume()
}
}
But this is not C - it's very simplistic and doesn't accept many arguments. How can I make it get "first 200_000 bytes" from the server?

First of all, the server needs to implement HTTP range requests. If it doesn't, and you don't control the server, then you will not be able to do this.
If the server supports HTTP range requests, then you need to specify the range with request headers, as explained here: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Range_requests
The essentials are that you first send a HEAD request to figure out whether the server supports HTTP range requests. This is determined by whether the response includes the Accept-Ranges header, with a non-zero value.
If the server supports HTTP range requests, then you can make a request for the resource, with the Range header set for example to a value of bytes=0-1023 (depends which format the Accept-Ranges header specified, in this case bytes)

Related

URLSession.shared.dataTask Code Block Not Running

I'm trying to make a fairly simple API call in Swift but, for some reason, my dataTask code is not running. I've made sure that the .resume() is there. This code has worked in the past but, something has changed recently and I don't know what it is. The only thing I can think of is the url. I've changed the ingredients but, when putting the url into a browser, it returns JSON data normally. When running this function, I get two "Outside URLSession.shared.dataTask....." messages in a row with nothing in between, indicating that the URLSession block of code isn't running. I'm a little new to APIs so, any help would be greatly appreciated. Please let me know if there's any more information I can provide. Also, I'm on an older MacBook and am using Swift5 if that makes a difference. Thanks!
let url: URL! = URL(string: "https://api.spoonacular.com/recipes/findByIngredients?ingredients=" + ingredientString + "&apiKey=aaabbbccc111222333")
print("URL: " + url.absoluteString)
let request = URLRequest(url: url)
// Make the API call
print("Outide URLSession.shared.dataTask.....")
let session = URLSession.shared.dataTask(with: request) { data, response, error in
print("Inside URLSession.shared.dataTask.....")
DispatchQueue.main.async {
print("Inside DispatchQueue.main.async....")
if data == nil {
print("No data recieved.")
}
print("data != nil.... Moving on to JSONDecoder....")
self.model = try! JSONDecoder().decode([RecipeSearchElement].self, from: data!)
}
}
session.resume()
print("Outside URLSession.shared.dataTask.....")
Unrelated to your immediate question at hand (which I answered elsewhere), I would advise a few changes to the routine:
One should not build a URL through string interpolation. Use URLComponents. If, for example, the query parameter included a space or other character not permitted in a URL, URLComponents will percent-encode it for you. If do not percent-encode it properly, the building of the URL will fail.
I would avoid try!, which will crash the app if the server response was not what you expected. One should use try within a do-catch block, so it handles errors gracefully and will tell you what is wrong if it failed.
I would recommend renaming the URLSessionDataTask to be task, or something like that, to avoid conflating “sessions” with the “tasks” running on that session.
I would not advise updating the model from the background queue of the URLSession. Fetch and parse the response in the background queue and update the model on the main queue.
Thus:
var components = URLComponents(string: "https://api.spoonacular.com/recipes/findByIngredients")
components?.queryItems = [
URLQueryItem(name: "ingredients", value: ingredientString),
URLQueryItem(name: "apiKey", value: "aaabbbccc111222333")
]
guard let url = components?.url else {
print("Unable to build URL")
return
}
// Make the API call
let task = URLSession.shared.dataTask(with: url) { data, _, error in
DispatchQueue.main.async {
guard error == nil, let data = data else {
print("No data received:", error ?? URLError(.badServerResponse))
return
}
do {
let model = try JSONDecoder().decode([RecipeSearchElement].self, from: data)
DispatchQueue.main.async {
self.model = model
}
} catch let parseError {
print("Parsing error:", parseError, String(describing: String(data: data, encoding: .utf8)))
}
}
}
task.resume()
In a more advanced observation, I would never have a network call update the model directly. I would leave that to the caller. For example, you could use a completion handler pattern:
#discardableResult
func fetchIngredients(
_ ingredientString: String,
completion: #escaping (Result<[RecipeSearchElement], Error>) -> Void
) -> URLSessionTask? {
var components = URLComponents(string: "https://api.spoonacular.com/recipes/findByIngredients")
components?.queryItems = [
URLQueryItem(name: "ingredients", value: ingredientString),
URLQueryItem(name: "apiKey", value: "aaabbbccc111222333")
]
guard let url = components?.url else {
completion(.failure(URLError(.badURL)))
return nil
}
// Make the API call
let task = URLSession.shared.dataTask(with: url) { data, _, error in
print("Inside URLSession.shared.dataTask.....")
DispatchQueue.main.async {
guard error == nil, let data = data else {
DispatchQueue.main.async {
completion(.failure(error ?? URLError(.badServerResponse)))
}
return
}
do {
let model = try JSONDecoder().decode([RecipeSearchElement].self, from: data)
DispatchQueue.main.async {
completion(.success(model))
}
} catch let parseError {
DispatchQueue.main.async {
completion(.failure(parseError))
}
}
}
}
task.resume()
return task
}
And then the caller could do:
fetchIngredients(ingredientString) { [weak self] result in
switch result {
case .failure(let error): print(error)
case .success(let elements): self?.model = elements
}
}
This has two benefits:
The caller now knows when the model is updated, so you can update your UI at the appropriate point in time (if you want).
It maintains a better separation of responsibilities, architecturally avoiding the tight coupling of the network layer with that of the view or view model (or presenter or controller) layers.
Note, I am also returning the URLSessionTask object in case the caller would like to cancel it at a later time, but I made it an #discardableResult so that you do not have to worry about that if you are not tackling cancelation at this point.
If you (a) are reaching the “outside” message, but not seeing the “inside” message; and (b) are absolutely positive that you are reaching the resume statement, it is one of a few possibilities:
The app may be terminating before the asynchronous request has time to finish. This can happen, for example, if this is a command-line app and you are allowing the app to quit before the asynchronous request has a chance to finish. If you want a command-line app to wait for a network request to finish, you might run a RunLoop that does not exit until the network request is done.
It can also happen if you use a playground and neglect to set needsIndefiniteExecution:
import PlaygroundSupport
PlaygroundPage.current.needsIndefiniteExecution = true
For the sake of completeness, there are a few other, less common, possibilities:
You have some other network request whose completion handler is blocked/deadlocked, thereby preventing anything else from running on the URLSession dedicated, serial, queue.
You have thread explosion somewhere else in your code, exhausting the limited pool of worker threads, preventing other tasks/operations from being able to get an available worker thread.

Alamofire Bad Network Connection | Swift

I would like to implement a way to check if the network is weak or disconnected during network calls I perform using Alamofire 4.9 - the following is what I am currently attempting to do, but I have noticed that if the network it off it never jumps to this line:
URLError.Code.notConnectedToInternet
why does this occur, is there a better way of attempting this?
//Fetch new data
guard let url = URL(string: "test.com")
else { return }
var request = URLRequest(url: url)
request.httpMethod = "POST"
request.httpBody = "value1=test1&value2=test2".data(using: .utf8)
URLSession.shared.dataTask(with: request) { [self] data, _, error in
guard let data = data else { return }
do {
let decoder = JSONDecoder()
let res = try decoder.decode([Structure].self, from: data)
}
}
catch {
if let err = error as? URLError, err.code == URLError.Code.notConnectedToInternet {
// No internet
} else {
print(error)
}
}
}.resume()
There are a variety of errors that can be produced by poor or entirely broken connectivity. .notConnectedToInternet is simply one of them. There is no single, exhaustive list provided by Apple of which errors may be returned when there are connectivity issues, so you'll want to experiment and see what you can produce. Additionally, there are a variety of errors which you can probably throw into a "network connectivity" bucket, such as .dnsLookupFailed or .cannotConnectToHost. Ultimately it may not be worth it to differentiate different types of URLErrors.
By the way, you should use Alamofire 5 if you can, as Alamofire 4 is no longer supported.

Swift program never enters CompletionHandler for a dataTask

I am in the process of implementing a REST API with Swift. Of course, part of this API is using HTTP requests to retrieve and send data.
Full disclosure, I am inexperienced with Swift and am using this as a learning project to get my feet wet, so to speak. But it's turned into much more of a difficult project than I anticipated.
In implementing the first get method, I have (finally) gotten rid of all the compilation errors. However, when I call the function which utilizes the URLRequest, URLSession, dataTask, etc, it is never entered.
Upon debugging the program, I can watch the program execution reach the CompletionHandler, and skip over it right to "task.resume()."
A similar construction works in a Swift Playground, but does not work in the actual project proper.
So far I have tried a few things, namely making the function access a class instance variable, in hopes that that would force it to execute. But it does not.
I think the issue may be dealing with synchronicity, and perhaps I need to use a Semaphore, but I want to make sure I'm not missing anything obvious first.
import Foundation
/**
A class to wrap all GET and POST requests, to avoid the necessity of repeatedly writing request code in each API method.
*/
class BasicRequest {
private var url: URL
private var header: [String: String]
private var responseType: String
private var jsonResponse: Any?
init(url: URL, header: [String: String], responseType: String) {
self.url = url
self.header = header
self.responseType = responseType
} //END INIT
public func requestJSON() -> Any {
// Create the URLRequest object, and fill the header with the header fields as provided.
var urlRequest = URLRequest(url: self.url)
for (value, key) in self.header {
urlRequest.addValue(value, forHTTPHeaderField: key)
}
let task = URLSession.shared.dataTask(with: urlRequest) { (data, response, error) in
print("Entered the completion handler")
if error != nil {
return
}
guard let httpResponse = response as? HTTPURLResponse, 200 == httpResponse.statusCode else {
print("HTTP Request unsuccessful")
return
}
guard let mime = response?.mimeType, mime == "application/json" else {
print("Not a JSON response")
return
}
do {
let json = try JSONSerialization.jsonObject(with: data!, options: [])
print(json)
self.jsonResponse = json
} catch {
print("Could not transform to JSON")
return
}
}
task.resume()
return "Function has returned"
} //END REQUESTJSON
}
The expected result would be returning a JSON object, however that does not seem to be the case.
With respect to error messages, I get none. The only log I get in the debugger is the boilerplate "process exited with code 0."
To be truthful, I'm at a loss with what is causing this not to work.
It appears you're writing this in a command-line app. In that case the program is terminating before the URLRequest completes.
I think the issue may be dealing with synchronicity, and perhaps I need to use a Semaphore, but I want to make sure I'm not missing anything obvious first.
Exactly.
The typical tool in Swift is DispatchGroup, which is just a higher-level kind of semaphore. Call dispatchGroup.enter() before starting the request, and all dispatchGroup.leave() at the end of the completion handler. In your calling code, include dispatchGroup.wait() to wait for it. (If that's not clear, I can add code for it, but there are also a lot of SO answers you can find that will demonstrate it.)

How to handle 500 http errors

I am trying to access the custom server response body for 500 errors in class HTTPURLResponse (URLResponse) using URLSession.shared.dataTask function. I can only have access to statusCode and allHeaderFields but it doesn't seem to help.
The equivalent in java for ex. is HttpURLConnection.getErrorStream(), but I cannot find something similar in pure swift (I would like to solve this without using 3rd party libs).
How can I get the text response for the 500 error?
let task = session.dataTask(with: urlRequest) { data, response, error in
if let data = data, let response = response as? HTTPURLResponse {
switch response.statusCode {
case 500...599:
let yourErrorResponseString = String(data: data, encoding: .utf8)
default:
break
}
}
}
There is no way you can get the response data out of HTTPURLResponse. It only contains header information.
If you want to retrieve the response data, you need to use something like dataTask(with:completionHandler:) to send your request. That function passes (Data?, URLResponse?, Error?) to your completion handler. The data parameter of the completion handler is the data returned by the server.
For example:
import Foundation
let url = URL(string: "http://httpstat.us/500")!
let task = URLSession.shared.dataTask(with: url) { (data, response, error) in
guard let data = data, let response = response as? HTTPURLResponse else {
return
}
switch response.statusCode {
case 500...599:
print(String(data: data, encoding: .utf8) ?? "No UTF-8 response data")
default:
print("not a 500")
}
}
task.resume()
Edit: Removed force unwrap according to #Rob‘s suggestion
There is no way to get more details about a 500 error from the client side.
500 is "Internal Server Error" and it's intentionally vague and unhelpful since disclosing information about the cause of the error would assist hackers in compromising the site.
However you can get a great deal of information about the error from the server log and the log for whatever was processing your code on the server side (php, etc.).
If you have access to the server logs and don't see enough information, you can increase the level of logging for the server and application.

Get top of remote file in Swift

There is a line in multiple files via the Internet. I want to avoid download the entire file. Each file may be long or short. The required line is usually about line 15 - always different, but always within the first 500 bytes.
Is there a way I can get just the top part of a remote file?
I can then use a regex pattern to find the required line.
Although I know how to download a file in a temp. location and copy it to a proper location, I think that process is too much and wasteful.
This is an example:
class func load(url: URL, to localUrl: URL, completion: #escaping () -> ()) {
let sessionConfig = URLSessionConfiguration.default
let session = URLSession(configuration: sessionConfig)
let request = try! URLRequest(url: url, method: .get)
let task = session.downloadTask(with: request) { (tempLocalUrl, response, error) in
if let tempLocalUrl = tempLocalUrl, error == nil {
// Success
if let statusCode = (response as? HTTPURLResponse)?.statusCode {
print("Success: \(statusCode)")
}
do {
try FileManager.default.copyItem(at: tempLocalUrl, to: localUrl)
completion()
} catch (let writeError) {
print("error writing file \(localUrl) : \(writeError)")
}
} else {
print("Failure: %#", error?.localizedDescription);
}
}
task.resume()
}
PS. It would also be helpful if you could include a method to find a line beginning with, say "abc=xyz", where I want "xyz".
To only download partial content, you need a server that supports sending ranges. To test this, make a HEAD request and check if the server responds with an Accept-Range: bytes header. If so, you can request partial content by adding a header like Range: bytes=0-499 to your GET requests to only receive the initial 500 bytes.