iPhone:Http POST request - iphone

Question

I need to send some details to a server from my iphone app.I have details as separate arrays of ID,name,quantity and strings with name,address,phone & email.I need to change the NSmutable array data into this JSON format
[
{"id":"139","name":"Samosa","quantity":"332","spice":"hot"},
{"id":"149","name":"rice","quantity":"4","spice":"mild"},
.....
]
My one doubt is [request setHTTPMethod:#"POST"];
Is the above line is enough to set the POST request.
How could I add the above details into the POST request?

Answer 1

Use a JSON serializer. You could use SBJSON. With SBJSON, the code will be like this:
SBJsonWriter *jsonWriter = [[[SBJsonWriter alloc] init] autorelease];
NSString *jsonParams = [jsonWriter stringWithObject:<your-NSArray>];
For adding this jsonParams to POST:
NSString *postData = [jsonParams stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
NSMutableURLRequest *urlRequest = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:postURL];
[urlRequest setHTTPMethod:#"POST"];
[urlRequest setHTTPBody:[postData dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];

Answer 2

Not enough. You need also (minimum):
NSString *your_request_string = #"the thing in JSON format";
NSData *your_data = [your_request_string dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
[request setHTTPBody:your_data];

Answer 3

Use setHTTPBody: to add post data to your HTTP request object.
Use NSJSONSerialization to serialize your array.
NSMutableArray *array = getSomeArray();
NSError *err;
NSData *json;
json = [NSJSONSerialization dataWithJSONObject:array options:0 error:&err];
if (err) {
// handle error
}
NSURL *url = getSomeURL();
NSMutableURLRequest *req;
req = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:url];
[req setHTTPMethod:#"POST"];
[req setHTTPBody:json];
// send your request