I have a method that asynchronously downloads images. If the images are related to an array of objects (a common use-case in the app I'm building), I want to cache them. The idea is, I pass in an index number (based on the indexPath.row of the table I'm making by way through), and I stash the image in a static NSMutableArray, keyed on the row of the table I'm dealing with.
Thusly:
#implementation ImageDownloader
...
#synthesize cacheIndex;
static NSMutableArray *imageCache;
-(void)startDownloadWithImageView:(UIImageView *)imageView andImageURL:(NSURL *)url withCacheIndex:(NSInteger)index
{
self.theImageView = imageView;
self.cacheIndex = index;
NSLog(#"Called to download %# for imageview %#", url, self.theImageView);
if ([imageCache objectAtIndex:index]) {
NSLog(#"We have this image cached--using that instead");
self.theImageView.image = [imageCache objectAtIndex:index];
return;
}
self.activeDownload = [NSMutableData data];
NSURLConnection *conn = [[NSURLConnection alloc]
initWithRequest:[NSURLRequest requestWithURL:url] delegate:self];
self.imageConnection = conn;
[conn release];
}
//build up the incoming data in self.activeDownload with calls to didReceiveData...
- (void)connectionDidFinishLoading:(NSURLConnection *)connection
{
NSLog(#"Finished downloading.");
UIImage *image = [[UIImage alloc] initWithData:self.activeDownload];
self.theImageView.image = image;
NSLog(#"Caching %# for %d", self.theImageView.image, self.cacheIndex);
[imageCache insertObject:image atIndex:self.cacheIndex];
NSLog(#"Cache now has %d items", [imageCache count]);
[image release];
}
My index is getting through okay, I can see that by my NSLog output. But even after my insertObject: atIndex: call, [imageCache count] never leaves zero.
This is my first foray into static variables, so I presume I'm doing something wrong.
(The above code is heavily pruned to show only the main thing of what's going on, so bear that in mind as you look at it.)
You seem to never initialize the imageCache and probably got lucky with it having the value 0. The initialization would best be done in the class' initialization, e.g.:
#implementation ImageDownloader
// ...
+(void)initialize {
imageCache = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
}
// ...
Related
I have a wierd problem. The requirement is to download image from a url on swipe and display it in image view .It is working all fine but I am getting memory warnings after 30 images and after few more swipe app crashes.
Implementation is pretty straight forward,but already spent almost 2 days to figure out the issue.
On each swipe i am calling A method :-
-(void)callDownloadImageAPI{
NSAutoreleasePool *pool=[[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
[self loadIndicator:#"Please Wait.!!" :#"Please be patient while we are downloading image for you"];
#try{
DownloadImage *downLoadImge =[[DownloadImage alloc] init];
downLoadImge.delegate=self;
[downLoadImge getImage:[self.allUrlArray objectAtIndex:self.initialImageViewCounter]];
}
#catch (NSException *e) {
NSLog(#"callDownloadImageAPI exception %#",[e description]);
[HUD hide:YES];
}
[pool release];
}
This method download 1 image at a time and send UIImage to its delegate
//Implementation of DownloadImage.h and .m
#protocol DownloadImageDelegate
#required
- (void)messageFormServerWithImage:(UIImage*)imageFromSever;
- (void)gettingImageFailed :(NSString*)errorDesc;
#end
#interface DownloadImage : NSObject
#property(strong) NSURLConnection* connection;
#property(weak) id<DownloadImageDelegate> delegate;
#property(strong) NSMutableData* data;
-(void)getImage:(NSString *)imageUrl;
//DownloadImage.m
-(void)getImage:(NSString *)imageUrl{
#autoreleasepool {
[[NSURLCache sharedURLCache] removeAllCachedResponses];
NSURLRequest *request = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:imageUrl]cachePolicy:NSURLRequestReloadIgnoringCacheData timeoutInterval:60];
self.connection = [[NSURLConnection alloc] initWithRequest:request delegate:self];
}
}
- (void)connectionDidFinishLoading:(NSURLConnection*)theConnection {
#autoreleasepool {
NSLog(#"connectionDidFinishLoading");
self.connection=nil;
if( self.data == nil) {
return;
}
// NSString* jsonStr = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:self.data encoding:NSASCIIStringEncoding];
UIImage *img=[UIImage imageWithData:self.data];
// NSArray *messages_json = [parser objectWithString:jsonStr error:nil];
[self.delegate messageFormServerWithImage:img];
self.data = nil;
img= nil;
}
}
Other delegates of NSUrlConnections are implemented but I am not putting it here .
Once this image is returned i am setting this image to scrollview and displaying it and deleting the previous image from scrollview.
More Info:-
Just to verify i commented out setting image to scrollview and just downloaded images on each swipe but still it crashes around 30 images
Surprisingly I am using same class DownloadImage.h and .m to download image at other places in the same work and it work awesome even with 500images .
I am testing in iPod Touch and I checked the memory utilised remain between 12-14mb(never exceed this)
Please help me out guys,let me know if you need more detail.
Its crashing because all the images are being stored in virtual memory, you need to be caching them and then loading them back into memory when the user actually views them.
Try also setting your image objects to nil after they have been cached or are not needed.
In your class I would also recommend using the didReceiveMemoryWarning method and release some of your images from memory when this is called.
I am trying to create a loose version of LazyTabelImages using storyboard and JSON. in ViewDidLoad on my main TableViewController, I start an NSURLConnection to get the JSON data, but my cells do not load until after the connection is completed. I want the same behavior that LazyTableImages has, where the cells load as blanks, but then have the information filled in (reload the table data). I can duplicate this if I do not use storyboard, as LazyTables does not use storyboard, but that is not an option.
I have looked through LazyTableImages to try to find the solution, but storyboard make a big difference (to me anyway).
Is there a simple way to get the cells to load as blanks? For example, if the device has no internet, I still want my TableView to show up, and I will put a custom message in the cell.
Code:
The part of my viewDidLoad where I initialize the connection....
NSURLRequest *urlrequest = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:serverURL]];
self.dataConnection = [[NSURLConnection alloc] initWithRequest:urlrequest delegate:self];
[UIApplication sharedApplication].networkActivityIndicatorVisible = YES;
connectionDidFinnishLoading...
- (void)connectionDidFinishLoading:(NSURLConnection *)connection
{
//ListData below is an array that my data received (JSON) is loaded into. It is then passed to getTableData.
self.dataConnection = nil;
[UIApplication sharedApplication].networkActivityIndicatorVisible = NO;
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_DEFAULT, 0), ^{
[self performSelectorOnMainThread:#selector(getTableData:) withObject:ListData waitUntilDone:YES];
});
}
getTableData...
-(void)getTableData:(NSData *)jsonData
{
NSError *error = nil;
arrayEntries = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:jsonData options:NSJSONReadingMutableLeaves error:&error];
for (int x = 0; x < arrayEntries.count; x++)
{
NSMutableDictionary *dic = [arrayEntries objectAtIndex:x];
//ARecord is a class just like in LazyTableImages that creates objects to keep the icons/data together. The ARecords are loaded into the TableView
ARecord *arecord = [[ARecord alloc] init];
NSString *title = [dic objectForKey:#"title"];
NSString *subt = [dic objectForKey:#"subtitle"];
NSString *url = [dic objectForKey:#"image_URL"];
arecord.Icon = nil;
arecord.URL = url;
arecord.Name = title;
arecord.title = subt;
//this is where I load an array full of the arecord objects.
[array addObject:arecord];
}
[self.tableView reloadData];
}
I've done something similar. In viewDidLoad: I set the array for table data to a few objects of [NSNull null] for however many blank rows I want to show while the data is downloading. In cellForRowAtIndexPath: I check if [self.arrayOfTableData objectAtIndex:indexPath.row] = [NSNull null]. If so return a "blank" cell, otherwise load the cell with ARRecrod data.
Then when the URL completes, replace the array of NSNulls with array of your ARRecords.
I do this with two objects. First, I have an image fetcher class that downloads data asynchronously and notifies a delegate when it's complete. Then I have an image view class that implements the fetcher's delegate methods. So something like:
#implementation AsyncImageFetcher
-(id)initWithURL:(NSURL *)aURL andDelegate:(id<SomeProtocol>)aDelegate{
//...
NSURLRequest *req = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:aURL];
//Note that NSURLConnection retains its delegate until the connection
//terminates! See comments in MyImageView below.
[NSURLConnection connectionWithRequest:req delegate:self];
//...
}
//Implement standard connection delegates here. The important part is:
-(void)connectionDidFinishLoading:(NSURLConnection *)connection{
// ...
UIImage *anImage = [self decodeDownloadedDataIntoAnImage];
if([[self delegate] respondsToSelector:#selector(imageFetcher:didFetchImage:)]){
[[self delegate] imageFetcher:self didFetchImage:anImage];
}
//...
}
#end
Then I subclass UIImageView or UIView or something (depending on how flexible you need to be) to implement the delegate protocol and fire off the fetcher:
#implementation MyImageView
-(id)initWithURL:(NSURL *)aURL andPlaceHolderImage:(UIImage *)aPlaceHolder{
//...
[self setImage:aPlaceHolder];
//Note we don't assign this to an ivar or retain it or anything.
//That's ok because the NSURLConnection inside the fetcher actually
//retains the fetcher itself. So it will live until the connection
//terminates -- which is exactly what we want. Thus we disable
//CLANG's noisy warnings.
#pragma clang diagnostic push
#pragma clang diagnostic ignored "-Wunused-value"
[[AsyncImageFetcher alloc] initWithURL:aURL andDelegate:self];
#pragma clang diagnostic pop
return self;
}
-(void)imageFetcher:(MCMAsyncImageFetcher *)anImageFetcher didFetchImage:(UIImage *)anImage{
[self setImage:anImage];
}
#end
In your specific case, you'd just set a MyImageView as your cell's imageView in -tableView:cellForRowAtIndexPath:, passing reasonable values for its placeholder and URL, of course.
Since I haven't see your code, I just give my suggestion here:
- (void)viewDidLoad
{
[super viewDidLoad];
dispatch_queue_t queue = dispatch_queue_create(NULL, NULL);
dispatch_async(queue, ^{
//add your connection code here
//parse the json and store the data
//
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
//here to reload your table view again,
//since UI related method should run on main thread.
[YOUR_TABLEVIEW reloadData];
});
});
[YOUR_TABLEVIEW reloadData];
}
Note: Make sure your tableview in storyboard has connected to that in code! Hope it helps!
I need to download an image from the web and display it in an ImageView. Presently I am using SDWebImage (It is an asynchronous image downloader with cache support, with a UIImageView category).
But it crashes when I click the back button and forward button (when I try to go back and forth of the view repeatedly). Anyway this happens very rarely, but I need to get rid of this bug. Is there any other library (that does not use private API's) that I could use in my project?
Yes. You can user other libary. I've already implemented that using AsyncImageView which is inherited from UIImageView. What it does is it stores images in Cache memory fetched from a url and whenever you need to load image from the same URL again it will simply load it from the cache memory saving a lot of time.
Just follow the link for implementing that:
https://github.com/nicklockwood/AsyncImageView#readme
http://www.markj.net/iphone-asynchronous-table-image/
Please have a look at the image showing the technique I've implemented. It lets you do other activity while images are loading.:
NSURLConnection provides asynchronous downloading and is built into iOS.
I think that the bug that you describe may occur because when you "go back" release some objects that can be delegates of connections that are still running. For avoid crashes, you should cancel the connections before release or dealloc any object that could be a delegate of a running connection.
Another alternative for image async download is http://allseeing-i.com/ASIHTTPRequest/ .
I personally use the built in Grand Central Dispatch feature in iOS to download images from the server asynchronously.
Below is a code I used to fetch photos from Flickr in one of my apps.
In your image/photo class, have a function that is something like this:
- (void)processImageDataWithBlock:(void (^)(NSData *imageData))processImage
{
NSString *url = self.imageURL;
dispatch_queue_t callerQueue = dispatch_get_current_queue();
dispatch_queue_t downloadQueue = dispatch_queue_create("Photo Downloader", NULL);
dispatch_async(downloadQueue, ^{
NSData *imageData = *insert code that fetches photo from server*;
dispatch_async(callerQueue, ^{
processImage(imageData);
});
});
dispatch_release(downloadQueue);
}
In your Photo View Controller, you can call this function like this:
- (void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated
{
[spinner startAnimating];
[self.photo processImageDataWithBlock:^(NSData *imageData) {
if (self.view.window) {
UIImage *image = [UIImage imageWithData:imageData];
imageView.image = image;
imageView.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, image.size.width, image.size.height);
scrollView.contentSize = image.size;
[spinner stopAnimating];
}
}];
}
Check out EGOImageLoading by enormego for caching images.
It Works just like UIImageView and lets you download images from HTTP asynchronously and also its easy to integrate
//JImage.h
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
#interface JImage : UIImageView {
NSURLConnection *connection;
NSMutableData* data;
UIActivityIndicatorView *ai;
}
-(void)initWithImageAtURL:(NSURL*)url;
#property (nonatomic, retain) NSURLConnection *connection;
#property (nonatomic, retain) NSMutableData* data;
#property (nonatomic, retain) UIActivityIndicatorView *ai;
#end
//JImage.m
#import "JImage.h"
#implementation JImage
#synthesize ai,connection, data;
-(void)initWithImageAtURL:(NSURL*)url {
[UIApplication sharedApplication].networkActivityIndicatorVisible = YES;
[self setContentMode:UIViewContentModeScaleToFill];
if (!ai){
[self setAi:[[UIActivityIndicatorView alloc] initWithActivityIndicatorStyle:UIActivityIndicatorViewStyleWhiteLarge]];
[ai startAnimating];
[ai setFrame:CGRectMake(27.5, 27.5, 20, 20)];
[ai setColor:[UIColor blackColor]];
[self addSubview:ai];
}
NSURLRequest* request = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:url cachePolicy:NSURLRequestUseProtocolCachePolicy timeoutInterval:60];
connection = [[NSURLConnection alloc] initWithRequest:request delegate:self];
}
- (void)connection:(NSURLConnection *)theConnection didReceiveData:(NSData *)incrementalData {
if (data==nil) data = [[NSMutableData alloc] initWithCapacity:5000];
[data appendData:incrementalData];
NSNumber *resourceLength = [NSNumber numberWithUnsignedInteger:[data length]];
NSLog(#"resourceData length: %d", [resourceLength intValue]);
}
- (void)connection:(NSURLConnection *)connection didFailWithError:(NSError *)error
{
NSLog(#"Connection error...");
[UIApplication sharedApplication].networkActivityIndicatorVisible = NO;
[ai removeFromSuperview];
}
- (void)connectionDidFinishLoading:(NSURLConnection*)theConnection
{
[UIApplication sharedApplication].networkActivityIndicatorVisible = NO;
[self setImage:[UIImage imageWithData: data]];
[ai removeFromSuperview];
}
#end
//Include the definition in your class where you want to use the image
-(UIImageView*)downloadImage:(NSURL*)url:(CGRect)frame {
JImage *photoImage=[[JImage alloc] init];
photoImage.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
[photoImage setFrame:frame];
[photoImage setContentMode:UIViewContentModeScaleToFill];
[photoImage initWithImageAtURL:url];
return photoImage;
}
//How to call the class
UIImageView *imagV=[self downloadImage:url :rect];
//you can call the downloadImage function in looping statement and subview the returned imageview.
//it will help you in lazy loading of images.
//Hope this will help
I know this is a very old thread but recently i had a lot of random crashes with SDWebImage, so i had to implement my own lazy loading and caching mechanism. It works pretty well, i just haven't tested it in heavy load cases. So here is the .h and .m files followed by the way i use it :
// UIImageView+CustomCache.h
#interface UIImageView(CustomCache)
-(void)startAsyncDownload:(UIImage*)placeHolderImage imageUrlString:(NSString*)imageUrlString;
#end
// UIImageView+CustomCache.m
#import "UIImageView+CustomCache.h"
#implementation UIImageView(CustomCache)
-(void)startAsyncDownload:(UIImage*)placeHolderImage imageUrlString:(NSString*)imageUrlString{
self.image = placeHolderImage;
[NSURLConnection sendAsynchronousRequest:[NSURLRequest requestWithURL:
[NSURL URLWithString:imageUrlString]] queue:[NSOperationQueue mainQueue] completionHandler:^(NSURLResponse *response, NSData *data, NSError *connectionHandler){
#autoreleasepool {
if (connectionHandler != nil) {
NSLog(#"error in downloading description %#",connectionHandler.localizedDescription);
} else {
ImagesCacheHandler *ref = [ImagesCacheHandler new];
UIImage *imageFromData = [[UIImage alloc] initWithData:data];
if (imageFromData != NULL && imageFromData != nil && data.length > 0) {
self.image = imageFromData;
//custom store to sqlite
[ref archiveImage:imageUrlString imageData:data moc:[ref fetchContext]];
}
}
}
}];
}
#end
And in my table view i use (i import of course UIImageView+CustomCache.h)
UIImageView *imageViewToLazyLoad = (UIImageView*)[cell viewWithTag:1];
[imageViewToLazyLoad startAsyncDownload:[UIImage imageNamed#"palce_Holder_Image_name"] imageUrlString:imageUrl];
I personally prefer using NSURLConnection sendSynchronousRequest and putting a GCD wrapper around it. Keeps everything neat and tidy.
So I first coded all my methods in a viewcontroller with an NSOperationQueue. After doing some research and a lot of reading I realized i had to subclass my loadImage operation so that I may use isCancelled and cancelAllOperations. So I went ahead and created an nsoperation class and called it from my viewcontroller. ALl the methods are called, even the imageLoaded, but the NSMutableDictionary remains empty. I use the dictionary to populate my tableviewcells using the url as the Key. Also be aware that the operation call in the viewcontroller is within a method which is called by an NSInvocationOperation when the view loads.
#interface loadImages : NSOperation {
NSURL *targetURL;
}
#property(retain) NSURL *targetURL;
- (id)initWithURL:(NSURL*)url;
#end
implementation of nsoperation class which includes some other calls to resize the image
#implementation loadImages
#synthesize targetURL;
- (id)initWithURL:(NSURL*)url
{
if (![super init]) return nil;
[self setTargetURL:url];
return self;
}
- (void)dealloc {
[targetURL release], targetURL = nil;
[super dealloc];
}
- (void)main {
NSLog(#"loadImages.m reached");
StoriesTableViewController *stories = [[StoriesTableViewController alloc] init];
NSMutableDictionary *tempDict = stories.filteredImagesDict;
UIImage *myImage = [[[UIImage alloc] initWithData:[NSData dataWithContentsOfURL:[self targetURL]]]autorelease];
UIImage *scaledImage = [[[UIImage alloc] init] autorelease];
CGRect frame = CGRectMake(100.0f, 100.0f, 180.0f, 180.0f);
UIImageView *myImageFrame = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithFrame:frame];
myImage = [[myImage croppedImage:[myImageFrame bounds]]retain];
scaledImage = [[myImage resizedImage:CGSizeMake(120.0f, 120.0f) interpolationQuality:kCGInterpolationHigh]retain];
[tempDict setValue:scaledImage forKey:[self targetURL]];
[stories performSelectorOnMainThread:#selector(imageLoaded:)
withObject:myImage
waitUntilDone:YES];
NSLog(#"targetURL %#",[self targetURL]);
NSLog(#"tempDict count: %d",tempDict.count);
[stories release];
[myImage release];
[myImageFrame release];
[scaledImage release];
}
creation of nsoperation on viewcontroller
for(int i=0;i<storyQuantity;i++) {
NSString *imageString = [[[storiesArray objectAtIndex:i] objectForKey: #"image"] stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet]]; // must add trimming to remove characters
NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:imageString];
loadImages *imageOperation = [[loadImages alloc] initWithURL:url];
[queue_ addOperation:imageOperation];
[imageOperation release];
}
If this is running without exceptions and the dictionary is still empty, it most likely means that your value is nil.
This is a common problem with code like that where you have the result of one method going into the next. At any point if there is a problem, all the rest of the chain will not work.
To solve, I would start right above where you assigned the image to the dictionary. You can use either a breakpoint, or an NSLog to determine the value of the image at that point. I prefer to use an NSLog, but a break point would let you look at all the values at once. If scaledImage is nil, then check myImage. Keep going back up the chain until you find the point where the value goes from what you would expect, to nil.
where to dealloc/ release my NS-mutable array a1 ??
see this
- (void)viewDidLoad {
[NSThread detachNewThreadSelector:#selector(loadImage) toTarget:self withObject:nil];
}
- (void) loadImage
{
NSLog(#" THREAD METHOD");
NSAutoreleasePool *pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
NSUserDefaults *imgg = [NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults];
myimg= [imgg stringForKey:#"keyToimg"];
NSLog(#"RES image sssssssss is = %#",myimg);
a1 = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
[a1 addObjectsFromArray:[myimg componentsSeparatedByString:#"\n\t"]];
//[a1 removeAllObjects];
////
//[myimg release];
[pool release];
}
and in table cell of secition 3 i am displaying image
switch(indexPath.section)
{
NSString *urlE=[a1 objectAtIndex:1];
NSLog(#"url is %#",urlE);
NSData *backgroundData = [NSData dataWithContentsOfURL:[NSURL URLWithString:urlE]];
image = [UIImage imageWithData:backgroundData];
myImageView= [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:image];
[myImageView setUserInteractionEnabled:YES];
CGRect rect=CGRectMake(20 ,10, 270, 180);
myImageView.frame = rect;
myImageView.tag = i;
[cell.contentView addSubview:myImageView];
}
and based on tap images are changing
pragma mark working image tap
- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView didSelectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
NSLog(#" life count %d",[myimg retainCount]);
NSLog(#" life array count %d",[a1 retainCount]);
//NSLog(#" GITSHffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffC");
NSUInteger sections = [indexPath section];
//NSLog(#"row is %d",sections);
if (sections == 3)
{ //Its either 1 or 0 I don't remember, it's been a while since I did some tableview
if(tap<[a1 count]-1) {
NSLog(#" life array count %d",[a1 retainCount]);
tap++;
NSString *sa=[a1 objectAtIndex:tap];
//////////////////////
image= [[UIImage alloc] initWithData:[NSData dataWithContentsOfURL:[NSURL URLWithString:[NSString stringWithFormat: sa,[a1 objectAtIndex:tap ]]]]];
NSData *imageData = [NSData dataWithData:UIImageJPEGRepresentation(image, 1.0)];
myImageView.image = image;
//[myimg release];
//[a1 release];
}
else {
tap=1;
//[myimg release];
//[a1 release];
}
}
//[a1 release];
}
so where should i release my a1 and myimg
a1 will never be released using this code.
You should put it on a member variable or add autorelease after init.
By the way, your myImageView should be released after you add it to the cell view.
It is possible because of the retain/release logic: when you alloc the myImageView the retain count is +1, once you add it to cell view,it is now +2, you should then release it so that the retain comes back to +1 and then when cell view will be further deallocated, it will decrement the retain count to 0.
The same logic for the variable image in the last function
Regards
Meir assayag
Instead of :
a1 = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
[a1 addObjectsFromArray:[myimg componentsSeparatedByString:#"\n\t"]];
Consider:
a1 = [NSMutableArray arrayWithArray:[myimg componentsSeparatedByString:#"\n\t"]];
That'll initialize your a1 with an autoreleased NSMutableArray object, and then you don't have to worry about manually releasing it.
The thing I don't know is whether your [pool release] will release it, but... I'd really prefer you NOT put that business in a background thread, but rather use asynchronous network methods to get your image data.
By the way, as I was learning iPhone development, I went through three or four levels of "aha moments" about backgrounded networking. One of them had to do with running selectors on background threads. That lasted about a week until I discovered ASIHttpRequest, which is how I do it now. MUCH simpler way to put network interactions in the background without having to mess with threading or any of that nonsense. See http://allseeing-i.com/ASIHTTPRequest/
If you look at my answers, every time HTTP client networking comes up I recommend ASI. I really don't mean to be a shill for it--it's just made my life so much easier I think everyone needs to know about it.