Question

Here is my code:

//login method
- (int) authenticateClient {
NSString *loginWeb = [NSString stringWithFormat:(@"http://192.168.118.1/login.php?uname=%@&pass=%@&submit=Log%%20In"), user, pass];
NSURL *login = [NSURL URLWithString:loginWeb];
NSData *loginData = [NSData dataWithContentsOfURL: login];
NSString *result = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:loginData encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
NSMutableURLRequest *loginRequest = [[NSMutableURLRequest alloc] init];
[loginRequest setURL:login];
[loginRequest setTimeoutInterval:1];

NSURLConnection *connection = [[NSURLConnection alloc] initWithRequest:loginRequest delegate:self startImmediately:YES];
[connection start];
   return [result integerValue];
}

My question is, when simulating having no network connection, my app freezes up and doesn’t load or time out in the specified interval (1 second just to see if it works).

I read something about start immediately forces in to run on the current threat causing everything else to “pause” until the action is complete.

I have two questions:

1.) What is a better method to have the URL basically run in the background instead of pausing everything?

2.) How can I get a timeout method that actually works?

Much appreciation! Thanks!

Answer 1

Well, one second as timeout is really low. If you want to simulate different network conditions, you can use something like this. You don’t need to this dance:

NSData *loginData = [NSData dataWithContentsOfURL: login];
NSString *result = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:loginData encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];

You don’t need this as well, since the connection has started already:

[connection start];

Also from the documentation:

NSURLConnection’s delegate methods—defined by the
NSURLConnectionDelegate Protocol protocol—allow an object to receive
informational callbacks about the asynchronous load of a URL request.
Other delegate methods provide facilities that allow the delegate to
customize the process of performing an asynchronous URL load. These
delegate methods are called on the thread that started the
asynchronous load operation for the associated NSURLConnection object.

So for your questions:

• Implement the NSURLConnection’s delegate
• Check this & this.