Using AFNetworking and HTTP Basic Authentication - iphone

Question

The following code successfully connects to my Ruby on Rails API and returns JSON using AFNetworking. What do I need to do to edit this to pass in a username and password so my API can use HTTP Basic Authentication?
I've read their documentation, but I am new to both Objective-C and AFNetworking and it isn't currently making sense.
NSURL *url = [[NSURL alloc] initWithString:#"http://localhost:3000/tasks.json"];
NSURLRequest *request = [[NSURLRequest alloc] initWithURL:url];
AFJSONRequestOperation *operation = [AFJSONRequestOperation
JSONRequestOperationWithRequest:request
success:^(NSURLRequest *request
, NSHTTPURLResponse *response
, id JSON) {
self.tasks = [JSON objectForKey:#"results"];
[self.activityIndicatorView stopAnimating];
[self.tableView setHidden:NO];
[self.tableView reloadData];
NSLog(#"JSON");
} failure:^(NSURLRequest *request
, NSHTTPURLResponse *response
, NSError *error
, id JSON) {
NSLog(#"Request Failed with Error: %#, %#", error, error.userInfo);
}];
[operation start];

Answer 1

Answer updated for AFNetworking 2.x
For AFNetworking 2.x:
In 2.x, they did away with AFHTTPClient, so you'll need to extend AFHTTPRequestOperationManager with your own class. Then, you can call that class from other code. For example, here's a sample class that extends the AFHTTPRequestOperationManager:
SBAPIManager.h:
#import "AFHTTPRequestOperationManager.h"
#interface SBAPIManager : AFHTTPRequestOperationManager
- (void)setUsername:(NSString *)username andPassword:(NSString *)password;
+ (SBAPIManager *)sharedManager;
#end
SBAPIManager.m:
#import "SBAPIManager.h"
#import "AFNetworkActivityIndicatorManager.h"
#implementation SBAPIManager
#pragma mark - Methods
- (void)setUsername:(NSString *)username andPassword:(NSString *)password
{
[self.requestSerializer clearAuthorizationHeader];
[self.requestSerializer setAuthorizationHeaderFieldWithUsername:username password:password];
}
#pragma mark - Initialization
- (id)initWithBaseURL:(NSURL *)url
{
self = [super initWithBaseURL:url];
if(!self)
return nil;
self.requestSerializer = [AFJSONRequestSerializer serializer];
[[AFNetworkActivityIndicatorManager sharedManager] setEnabled:YES];
return self;
}
#pragma mark - Singleton Methods
+ (SBAPIManager *)sharedManager
{
static dispatch_once_t pred;
static SBAPIManager *_sharedManager = nil;
dispatch_once(&pred, ^{ _sharedManager = [[self alloc] initWithBaseURL:[NSURL URLWithString:#"http://localhost:3000"]]; }); // You should probably make this a constant somewhere
return _sharedManager;
}
#end
Then, in your code, you can call it like this:
[[SBAPIManager sharedManager] setUsername:yourUsernameVariableHere andPassword:yourPasswordVariableHere];
[[SBAPIManager sharedManager] GET:#"/tasks.json" parameters:nil success:^(AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation, id responseObject) {
self.tasks = [responseObject objectForKey:#"results"];
[self.activityIndicatorView stopAnimating];
[self.tableView setHidden:NO];
[self.tableView reloadData];
NSLog(#"JSON");
} failure:^(AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation, NSError *error) {
// error stuff here
}];
For AFNetworking 1.x:
The best practice for this in AFNetworking is to extend the AFHTTPClient with your own class. Then, you can call that class from other code. For example, here's a sample class that extends the AFHTTPClient:
SBAPIManager.h:
#import "AFNetworking/AFHTTPClient.h"
#interface SBAPIManager : AFHTTPClient
- (void)setUsername:(NSString *)username andPassword:(NSString *)password;
+ (SBAPIManager *)sharedManager;
#end
SBAPIManager.m:
#import "SBAPIManager.h"
#import "AFJSONRequestOperation.h"
#import "AFNetworkActivityIndicatorManager.h"
#implementation SBAPIManager
#pragma mark - Methods
- (void)setUsername:(NSString *)username andPassword:(NSString *)password
{
[self clearAuthorizationHeader];
[self setAuthorizationHeaderWithUsername:username password:password];
}
#pragma mark - Initialization
- (id)initWithBaseURL:(NSURL *)url
{
self = [super initWithBaseURL:url];
if(!self)
return nil;
[self registerHTTPOperationClass:[AFJSONRequestOperation class]];
[self setDefaultHeader:#"Accept" value:#"application/json"];
[self setParameterEncoding:AFJSONParameterEncoding];
[[AFNetworkActivityIndicatorManager sharedManager] setEnabled:YES];
return self;
}
#pragma mark - Singleton Methods
+ (SBAPIManager *)sharedManager
{
static dispatch_once_t pred;
static SBAPIManager *_sharedManager = nil;
dispatch_once(&pred, ^{ _sharedManager = [[self alloc] initWithBaseURL:[NSURL URLWithString:#"http://localhost:3000"]]; }); // You should probably make this a constant somewhere
return _sharedManager;
}
#end
Then, in your code, you can call it like this:
[[SBAPIManager sharedManager] setUsername:yourUsernameVariableHere andPassword:yourPasswordVariableHere];
[[SBAPIManager sharedManager] getPath:#"/tasks.json" parameters:nil success:^(AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation, id responseObject) {
self.tasks = [responseObject objectForKey:#"results"];
[self.activityIndicatorView stopAnimating];
[self.tableView setHidden:NO];
[self.tableView reloadData];
NSLog(#"JSON");
} failure:^(AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation, NSError *error) {
// error stuff here
}];