Question

I am currently trying to get a small soap client to work, which includes to send a certificate file within the xml of the request.

I have no trouble getting the file into an NSData object – but then I have to convert it to some Base64 String. Environment is Mac OSX, Xcode 4.3.

I have found a lot of older posting dealing with that – but the best I found was some code that made use of OpenSSL libs and where containing loads of deprecated methods.

So, my question is as follows:
Is there a better way than to use the OpenSSL libs?
If yes, do you perchance have some URL or more recent code scraps?

If no, I guess there is some project out there which deals with Base64 that can be recommended. After all Base64 is not that uncommon.

Thanks for your help!

Answer 1

Here is a base64 encoding done with CommonCrypto:

it is very easy code, it would not be difficult to put it in a category

if you add this to your project you need also to add the Security.framework

#include <CoreFoundation/CoreFoundation.h>
#include <Security/Security.h>

static NSData *base64helper(NSData *input, SecTransformRef transform)
{
    NSData *output = nil;

    if (!transform)
        return nil;

    if (SecTransformSetAttribute(transform, kSecTransformInputAttributeName, input, NULL))
        output = (NSData *)SecTransformExecute(transform, NULL);

    CFRelease(transform);

    return [output autorelease];
}

NSString *base64enc(NSData *input)
{
    SecTransformRef transform = SecEncodeTransformCreate(kSecBase64Encoding, NULL);

    return [[[NSString alloc] initWithData:base64helper(input, transform) encoding:NSASCIIStringEncoding] autorelease];
}

NSData *base64dec(NSString *input)
{
    SecTransformRef transform = SecDecodeTransformCreate(kSecBase64Encoding, NULL);

    return base64helper([input dataUsingEncoding:NSASCIIStringEncoding], transform);
}