Trailing Closures on generics? - swift

Question

Hi I am trying to understand the following code from Alamofire. How can you initialise a struct with "{}" I know that you can call a closure with Trailing Closures. I know I am totally missing something, but what?
extension Request {
public func responseObject<T: ResponseObjectSerializable>(completionHandler: Response<T, NSError> -> Void) -> Self {
let responseSerializer = ResponseSerializer<T, NSError> { // What is this?
request, response, data, error in
guard error == nil else { return .Failure(error!) }
let JSONResponseSerializer = Request.JSONResponseSerializer(options: .AllowFragments)
let result = JSONResponseSerializer.serializeResponse(request, response, data, error)
switch result {
case .Success(let value):
if let
response = response,
responseObject = T(response: response, representation: value)
{
return .Success(responseObject)
} else {
let failureReason = "JSON could not be serialized into response object: \(value)"
let error = Error.errorWithCode(.JSONSerializationFailed, failureReason: failureReason)
return .Failure(error)
}
case .Failure(let error):
return .Failure(error)
}
}
return response(responseSerializer: responseSerializer, completionHandler: completionHandler)
}
}
The struct ResponseSerializer from Alamofire
public struct ResponseSerializer<Value, Error: ErrorType>: ResponseSerializerType {
/// The type of serialized object to be created by this `ResponseSerializer`.
public typealias SerializedObject = Value
/// The type of error to be created by this `ResponseSerializer` if serialization fails.
public typealias ErrorObject = Error
/**
A closure used by response handlers that takes a request, response, data and error and returns a result.
*/
public var serializeResponse: (NSURLRequest?, NSHTTPURLResponse?, NSData?, NSError?) -> Result<Value, Error>
/**
Initializes the `ResponseSerializer` instance with the given serialize response closure.
- parameter serializeResponse: The closure used to serialize the response.
- returns: The new generic response serializer instance.
*/
public init(serializeResponse: (NSURLRequest?, NSHTTPURLResponse?, NSData?, NSError?) -> Result<Value, Error>) {
self.serializeResponse = serializeResponse
}
}

Answer 1

Your question can be greatly pared down (and should have been). Here is the relevant declaration of ResponseSerializer:
public struct ResponseSerializer<Value, Error: ErrorType>: ResponseSerializerType {
public init(serializeResponse: (NSURLRequest?, NSHTTPURLResponse?, NSData?, NSError?) -> Result<Value, Error>) {
self.serializeResponse = serializeResponse
}
}
So this initializer, init(serializeResponse:), takes one parameter — a function taking four parameters and returning one parameter (of the specified types).
Thus, we can initialize like this:
func f (request:NSURLRequest?, response:NSHTTPURLResponse?, data:NSData?, error:NSError?) -> Result<Value, Error>) {
guard error == nil else { return .Failure(error!)
}
let responseSerializer = ResponseSerializer<T, NSError>(serializeResponse:f)
However, this can be condensed. We don't really need the function f for anything else, so we can supply it as an anonymous function; it doesn't need a name or a full declaration. Moreover, there is a "shortcut" rule for anonymous functions, that if an anonymous function is the last parameter to a function, it can be provided literally after the function's closing parentheses, with the parameter name omitted. And if the function takes no other parameters, its parentheses can be omitted altogether.
Well, this init is exactly such a function — it takes a function as its last (and only) parameter — so that is exactly what the code in question does:
let responseSerializer = ResponseSerializer<T, NSError> {
request, response, data, error in
guard error == nil else { return .Failure(error!)
}

Answer 2

If I read it all correctly the code above has a pattern similar to this:
// just a something
struct Blah {
var stuffs : (message:String) -> Void
init(closure:(message:String) -> Void) {
self.stuffs = closure
}
}
// an extension because the code above is also in an extension, but not needed at all
extension Blah {
// a function with a closure that also returns an instance of Self
func spawnChild(closure:(message:String) -> Void) -> Blah {
return Blah(closure: closure) // closure is passed to spawn
}
}
Tests :
let alpha = Blah { (message) -> Void in
print("alpha",message)
}
let beta = alpha.spawnChild { (message) -> Void in
print("beta", message)
}
alpha.stuffs(message: "parrent") // alpha parent
beta.stuffs(message: "spawn") // beta spawn
Remember that the trailing closure is just syntactic sugar for an input parameter that is a closure. So anything that takes input parameters can have a trailing closure.