How to make an HTTP request + basic auth in Swift

Question

I have a RESTFull service with basic authentication and I want to invoke it from iOS+swift. How and where I must provide Credential for this request?

My code (sorry, I just start learn iOS/obj-c/swift):

class APIProxy: NSObject {
    var data: NSMutableData = NSMutableData()
    
    func connectToWebApi() {
        var urlPath = "http://xx.xx.xx.xx/BP3_0_32/ru/hs/testservis/somemethod"
        NSLog("connection string \(urlPath)")
        var url: NSURL = NSURL(string: urlPath)
        var request = NSMutableURLRequest(URL: url)
        let username = "hs"
        let password = "1"
        let loginString = NSString(format: "%@:%@", username, password)
        let loginData: NSData = loginString.dataUsingEncoding(NSUTF8StringEncoding)
        let base64LoginString = loginData.base64EncodedStringWithOptions(NSDataBase64EncodingOptions.fromMask(0))
        request.setValue(base64LoginString, forHTTPHeaderField: "Authorization")
        
        var connection: NSURLConnection = NSURLConnection(request: request, delegate: self)
        
        connection.start()
    }
    
    
    //NSURLConnection delegate method
    func connection(connection: NSURLConnection!, didFailWithError error: NSError!) {
        println("Failed with error:\(error.localizedDescription)")
    }
    
    //NSURLConnection delegate method
    func connection(didReceiveResponse: NSURLConnection!, didReceiveResponse response: NSURLResponse!) {
        //New request so we need to clear the data object
        self.data = NSMutableData()
    }
    
    //NSURLConnection delegate method
    func connection(connection: NSURLConnection!, didReceiveData data: NSData!) {
        //Append incoming data
        self.data.appendData(data)
    }
    
    //NSURLConnection delegate method
    func connectionDidFinishLoading(connection: NSURLConnection!) {
        NSLog("connectionDidFinishLoading");
    }
    
}

Answer 1

You provide credentials in a URLRequest instance, like this in Swift 3:

let username = "user"
let password = "pass"
let loginString = String(format: "%@:%@", username, password)
let loginData = loginString.data(using: String.Encoding.utf8)!
let base64LoginString = loginData.base64EncodedString()

// create the request
let url = URL(string: "http://www.example.com/")!
var request = URLRequest(url: url)
request.httpMethod = "POST"
request.setValue("Basic \(base64LoginString)", forHTTPHeaderField: "Authorization")

// fire off the request
// make sure your class conforms to NSURLConnectionDelegate
let urlConnection = NSURLConnection(request: request, delegate: self)

Or in an NSMutableURLRequest in Swift 2:

// set up the base64-encoded credentials
let username = "user"
let password = "pass"
let loginString = NSString(format: "%@:%@", username, password)
let loginData: NSData = loginString.dataUsingEncoding(NSUTF8StringEncoding)!
let base64LoginString = loginData.base64EncodedStringWithOptions([])

// create the request
let url = NSURL(string: "http://www.example.com/")
let request = NSMutableURLRequest(URL: url)
request.HTTPMethod = "POST"
request.setValue("Basic \(base64LoginString)", forHTTPHeaderField: "Authorization")

// fire off the request
// make sure your class conforms to NSURLConnectionDelegate
let urlConnection = NSURLConnection(request: request, delegate: self)

Answer 2

//create authentication base 64 encoding string

    let PasswordString = "\(txtUserName.text):\(txtPassword.text)"
    let PasswordData = PasswordString.dataUsingEncoding(NSUTF8StringEncoding)
    let base64EncodedCredential = PasswordData!.base64EncodedStringWithOptions(NSDataBase64EncodingOptions.Encoding64CharacterLineLength)
    //let base64EncodedCredential = PasswordData!.base64EncodedStringWithOptions(nil)

//create authentication url

    let urlPath: String = "http://...../auth"
    var url: NSURL = NSURL(string: urlPath)

//create and initialize basic authentication request

    var request: NSMutableURLRequest = NSMutableURLRequest(URL: url)
    request.setValue("Basic \(base64EncodedCredential)", forHTTPHeaderField: "Authorization")
    request.HTTPMethod = "GET"

//You can use one of below methods

//1 URL request with NSURLConnectionDataDelegate

    let queue:NSOperationQueue = NSOperationQueue()
    let urlConnection = NSURLConnection(request: request, delegate: self)
    urlConnection.start()

//2 URL Request with AsynchronousRequest

    NSURLConnection.sendAsynchronousRequest(request, queue: NSOperationQueue.mainQueue()) {(response, data, error) in
        println(NSString(data: data, encoding: NSUTF8StringEncoding))
    }

//2 URL Request with AsynchronousRequest with json output

    NSURLConnection.sendAsynchronousRequest(request, queue: NSOperationQueue.mainQueue(), completionHandler:{ (response: NSURLResponse!, data: NSData!, error: NSError!) -> Void in
        var err: NSError
        var jsonResult: NSDictionary = NSJSONSerialization.JSONObjectWithData(data, options: NSJSONReadingOptions.MutableContainers, error: nil) as NSDictionary
        println("\(jsonResult)")
    })

//3 URL Request with SynchronousRequest

    var response: AutoreleasingUnsafePointer<NSURLResponse?>=nil
    var dataVal: NSData =  NSURLConnection.sendSynchronousRequest(request, returningResponse: response, error:nil)
    var err: NSError
    var jsonResult: NSDictionary = NSJSONSerialization.JSONObjectWithData(dataVal, options: NSJSONReadingOptions.MutableContainers, error: nil) as NSDictionary
    println("\(jsonResult)")

//4 URL Request with NSURLSession

    let config = NSURLSessionConfiguration.defaultSessionConfiguration()
    let authString = "Basic \(base64EncodedCredential)"
    config.HTTPAdditionalHeaders = ["Authorization" : authString]
    let session = NSURLSession(configuration: config)

    session.dataTaskWithURL(url) {
        (let data, let response, let error) in
        if let httpResponse = response as? NSHTTPURLResponse {
            let dataString = NSString(data: data, encoding: NSUTF8StringEncoding)
            println(dataString)
        }
    }.resume()

// you may be get fatal error if you changed the request.HTTPMethod = "POST" when server request GET request

Answer 3

swift 4:

let username = "username"
let password = "password"
let loginString = "\(username):\(password)"

guard let loginData = loginString.data(using: String.Encoding.utf8) else {
    return
}
let base64LoginString = loginData.base64EncodedString()

request.httpMethod = "GET"
request.setValue("Basic \(base64LoginString)", forHTTPHeaderField: "Authorization")

Answer 4

In Swift 2:

extension NSMutableURLRequest {
    func setAuthorizationHeader(username username: String, password: String) -> Bool {
        guard let data = "\(username):\(password)".dataUsingEncoding(NSUTF8StringEncoding) else { return false }

        let base64 = data.base64EncodedStringWithOptions([])
        setValue("Basic \(base64)", forHTTPHeaderField: "Authorization")
        return true
    }
}

Answer 5

go plain for SWIFT 3 and APACHE simple Auth:

func urlSession(_ session: URLSession, task: URLSessionTask,
                didReceive challenge: URLAuthenticationChallenge,
                completionHandler: @escaping (URLSession.AuthChallengeDisposition, URLCredential?) -> Void) {

    let credential = URLCredential(user: "test",
                                   password: "test",
                                   persistence: .none)

    completionHandler(.useCredential, credential)


}

Answer 6

I had a similar problem trying to POST to MailGun for some automated emails I was implementing in an app.

I was able to get this working properly with a large HTTP response. I put the full path into Keys.plist so that I can upload my code to github and broke out some of the arguments into variables so I can have them programmatically set later down the road.

// Email the FBO with desired information
// Parse our Keys.plist so we can use our path
var keys: NSDictionary?

if let path = NSBundle.mainBundle().pathForResource("Keys", ofType: "plist") {
    keys = NSDictionary(contentsOfFile: path)
}

if let dict = keys {
    // variablize our https path with API key, recipient and message text
    let mailgunAPIPath = dict["mailgunAPIPath"] as? String
    let emailRecipient = "[email protected]"
    let emailMessage = "Testing%20email%20sender%20variables"

    // Create a session and fill it with our request
    let session = NSURLSession.sharedSession()
    let request = NSMutableURLRequest(URL: NSURL(string: mailgunAPIPath! + "from=FBOGo%20Reservation%20%3Cscheduler@<my domain>.com%3E&to=reservations@<my domain>.com&to=\(emailRecipient)&subject=A%20New%20Reservation%21&text=\(emailMessage)")!)

    // POST and report back with any errors and response codes
    request.HTTPMethod = "POST"
    let task = session.dataTaskWithRequest(request, completionHandler: {(data, response, error) in
        if let error = error {
            print(error)
        }

        if let response = response {
            print("url = \(response.URL!)")
            print("response = \(response)")
            let httpResponse = response as! NSHTTPURLResponse
            print("response code = \(httpResponse.statusCode)")
        }
    })
    task.resume()
}

The Mailgun Path is in Keys.plist as a string called mailgunAPIPath with the value:

https://API:key-<my key>@api.mailgun.net/v3/<my domain>.com/messages?

Hope this helps offers a solution to someone trying to avoid using 3rd party code for their POST requests!

Answer 7

my solution works as follows:

import UIKit


class LoginViewController: UIViewController, NSURLConnectionDataDelegate {

  @IBOutlet var usernameTextField: UITextField
  @IBOutlet var passwordTextField: UITextField

  @IBAction func login(sender: AnyObject) {
    var url = NSURL(string: "YOUR_URL")
    var request = NSURLRequest(URL: url)
    var connection = NSURLConnection(request: request, delegate: self, startImmediately: true)

  }

  func connection(connection:NSURLConnection!, willSendRequestForAuthenticationChallenge challenge:NSURLAuthenticationChallenge!) {

    if challenge.previousFailureCount > 1 {

    } else {
        let creds = NSURLCredential(user: usernameTextField.text, password: passwordTextField.text, persistence: NSURLCredentialPersistence.None)
        challenge.sender.useCredential(creds, forAuthenticationChallenge: challenge)

    }

}

  func connection(connection:NSURLConnection!, didReceiveResponse response: NSURLResponse) {
    let status = (response as NSHTTPURLResponse).statusCode
    println("status code is \(status)")
    // 200? Yeah authentication was successful
  }


  override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()

  }

  override func didReceiveMemoryWarning() {
    super.didReceiveMemoryWarning()

  }  
}

You can use this class as the implementation of a ViewController. Connect your fields to the IBOutlet annotated vars and your Button to the IBAction annotated function.

Explanation: In function login you create your request with NSURL, NSURLRequest and NSURLConnection. Essential here is the delegate which references to this class (self). For receiving the delegates calls you need to

• Add the protocol NSURLConnectionDataDelegate to the class
• Implement the protocols' function "connection:willSendRequestForAuthenticationChallenge" This is used for adding the credentials to the request
• Implement the protocols' function "connection:didReceiveResponse" This will check the http response status code

Answer 8

I am calling the json on login button click

@IBAction func loginClicked(sender : AnyObject){

var request = NSMutableURLRequest(URL: NSURL(string: kLoginURL)) // Here, kLogin contains the Login API.


var session = NSURLSession.sharedSession()

request.HTTPMethod = "POST"

var err: NSError?
request.HTTPBody = NSJSONSerialization.dataWithJSONObject(self.criteriaDic(), options: nil, error: &err) // This Line fills the web service with required parameters.
request.addValue("application/json", forHTTPHeaderField: "Content-Type")
request.addValue("application/json", forHTTPHeaderField: "Accept")

var task = session.dataTaskWithRequest(request, completionHandler: {data, response, error -> Void in
 //   println("Response: \(response)")
var strData = NSString(data: data, encoding: NSUTF8StringEncoding)
println("Body: \(strData)")       
var err1: NSError?
var json2 = NSJSONSerialization.JSONObjectWithData(strData.dataUsingEncoding(NSUTF8StringEncoding), options: .MutableLeaves, error:&err1 ) as NSDictionary

println("json2 :\(json2)")

if(err) {
    println(err!.localizedDescription)
}
else {
    var success = json2["success"] as? Int
    println("Succes: \(success)")
}
})

task.resume()

}

Here, I have made a seperate dictionary for the parameters.

var params = ["format":"json", "MobileType":"IOS","MIN":"f8d16d98ad12acdbbe1de647414495ec","UserName":emailTxtField.text,"PWD":passwordTxtField.text,"SigninVia":"SH"]as NSDictionary
     return params
}