Question

Here is ALL my code for this specific view controller. As the title of this question states, I am seeing my UITableView loaded with the same 9 values over and over again. If I place a breakpoint in connectionDidFinishLoading and wait one second I only see the data rendered to the table view once. I have tried all sorts of things to solve this; help is very much appreciated.

@implementation MasterViewController

@synthesize response;

NSMutableData* receivedData;
NSString* hostName;
NSInteger portNumber = 9999;
NSMutableDictionary* dictionary;
NSInteger maxRetryCount = 5;
int count = 0;

-(void)connection:(NSURLConnection *)connection didReceiveResponse:(NSURLResponse *)response {    
[receivedData setLength:0];
}

- (void)connection:(NSURLConnection *)connection didReceiveData:(NSData *)data {
NSLog(@"Succeeded! Received %d bytes of data",[data length]);
[receivedData appendData:data];
}

- (void)connection:(NSURLConnection *)connection didFailWithError:(NSError *)error { 
NSLog(@"Connection failed! Error - %@ %@",[error localizedDescription],[[error userInfo] objectForKey:NSURLErrorFailingURLStringErrorKey]);
receivedData = nil;
}

-(void) connectionDidFinishLoading:(NSURLConnection *)connection {

NSError *error = nil;
id result = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:receivedData options:kNilOptions error:&error];

if ([result isKindOfClass:[NSArray class]]) {

    for (NSArray *item in result) {
        NSArray *category = [item valueForKey:@"CategoryName"];
        [dataArray addObject:category];
    }
}
else {
    NSDictionary *jsonDictionary = (NSDictionary *)result;

    for(NSDictionary *item in jsonDictionary)
        NSLog(@"Item: %@", item);
}

connection = nil;
[self.tableView reloadData];

NSLog(@"Finished");
}

-(BOOL)connection:(NSURLConnection *)connection canAuthenticateAgainstProtectionSpace:(NSURLProtectionSpace *)protectionSpace
{
    return YES;
}

- (void)didReceiveMemoryWarning{
[super didReceiveMemoryWarning];
}

- (BOOL)connectionShouldUseCredentialStorage:(NSURLConnection *)connection
{
    return YES;
}

- (void)connection:(NSURLConnection *)connection willSendRequestForAuthenticationChallenge:(NSURLAuthenticationChallenge *)challenge {

    NSString* username = @"test";
    NSString* password = @"testPwd";
    NSLog(@"Attempting connection with username: %@", username);
    NSMutableString *loginString = (NSMutableString*)[@"" stringByAppendingFormat:@"%@:%@", username, password];
    NSString *authHeader = [@"Basic " stringByAppendingFormat:@"%@", loginString];
    NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"http://%@:%i%@", hostName, portNumber, @"/api/categories"]];
    NSLog(@"URL: %@", url);

    NSMutableURLRequest *request = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL: url
                                                       cachePolicy:       NSURLRequestReloadIgnoringLocalCacheData  
                                                   timeoutInterval: 1.0]; 
    [request addValue:authHeader forHTTPHeaderField:@"Authorization"];
    [NSURLConnection connectionWithRequest:request delegate:self];

    if ([challenge previousFailureCount] <= maxRetryCount) {
    NSURLCredential *credential = [NSURLCredential credentialWithUser:username password:password persistence:NSURLCredentialPersistenceForSession];
    [[challenge sender] useCredential:credential forAuthenticationChallenge:challenge]; 

    } else {
    [[challenge sender] cancelAuthenticationChallenge:challenge];
    NSLog(@"Failure count %d",[challenge previousFailureCount]);
    }
    }

- (void)awakeFromNib
{
    [super awakeFromNib];
}

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
[super viewDidLoad];
self.navigationItem.leftBarButtonItem = self.editButtonItem;

UIBarButtonItem *addButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithBarButtonSystemItem:UIBarButtonSystemItemAdd target:self action:@selector(addNewItem)];
self.navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = addButton;

self.tableView.delegate = self;
self.tableView.dataSource = self;
}

- (void)addNewItem
{
UIAlertView * alert = [[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:@"Product" 
                                                 message:@"Enter the new product name" 
                                                delegate:self 
                                       cancelButtonTitle:@"Cancel" 
                                       otherButtonTitles:@"OK", nil];
alert.alertViewStyle = UIAlertViewStylePlainTextInput;

[alert show];
}

- (void)viewDidUnload
{
[super viewDidUnload];
// Release any retained subviews of the main view.
}

- (BOOL)shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)interfaceOrientation
{
return YES;
}

- (void)insertNewObject:(id)sender
{
if (!_objects) {
    _objects = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
}
[_objects insertObject:[NSDate date] atIndex:0];
NSIndexPath *indexPath = [NSIndexPath indexPathForRow:0 inSection:0];
[self.tableView insertRowsAtIndexPaths:[NSArray arrayWithObject:indexPath] withRowAnimation:UITableViewRowAnimationAutomatic];
}

- (NSInteger)numberOfSectionsInTableView:(UITableView *)tableView
{
return 1;
}

- (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section
{
return [dataArray count];;
}

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:@"Cell"];
cell.textLabel.text = [dataArray objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];
return cell;
}

- (BOOL)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView canEditRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
return YES;
}

- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView commitEditingStyle:(UITableViewCellEditingStyle)editingStyle forRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
if (editingStyle == UITableViewCellEditingStyleDelete) 
{
    [dataArray removeObjectAtIndex:indexPath.row];
    [tableView deleteRowsAtIndexPaths:[NSArray arrayWithObject:indexPath] withRowAnimation:UITableViewRowAnimationFade];
} 
else if (editingStyle == UITableViewCellEditingStyleInsert) 
{

}
}

- (void)prepareForSegue:(UIStoryboardSegue *)segue sender:(id)sender
{
if ([[segue identifier] isEqualToString:@"showDetail"]) {
    NSIndexPath *indexPath = [self.tableView indexPathForSelectedRow];
    NSString *object = [dataArray objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];
    [[segue destinationViewController] setDetailItem:object];
}
}

- (void)alertView:(UIAlertView *)alertView didDismissWithButtonIndex:(NSInteger)buttonIndex
{
UITextField *textField = [alertView textFieldAtIndex:0];

[dataArray addObject:textField.text];
[self.tableView reloadData];

NSLog(@"Plain text input: %@",textField.text);
NSLog(@"Alert View dismissed with button at index %d",buttonIndex);
}

- (void)viewWillAppear:(BOOL)animated {
self.title = @"Categories";

receivedData = [[NSMutableData alloc] init];

hostName = [[NSString alloc] initWithString:@"12.234.56.123"];

NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"http://%@:%i%@", hostName, portNumber, @"/api/categories"]];
NSMutableURLRequest *request = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL: url cachePolicy: NSURLRequestUseProtocolCachePolicy timeoutInterval: 1.0]; 

NSURLConnection *connection = [NSURLConnection connectionWithRequest:request delegate:self];

if (connection) {

} else {

}

dataArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
}

@end

Answer 1

willSendRequestForAuthenticaiton is a delegate method. Yet inside your delegate method, you are generating a brand new URL request, which in turn gets handled by the willSendRequest delegate, which generates another request, etc, which continually populates your dataArray with data.

Get rid of the url request inside the delegate method and it should fix things for you.