Question

I am trying to download an HTML file from the internet and store it in my app for later (offline) viewing. I use the following method to download the file but my NSLogs report that no data has been downloaded. Whats the problem here? (assume an active internet connection, assume a pre-defined path to local documents directory)

urlAddress = @"http://subdomain.somesite.com/profile.html";


            // Create and escape the URL for the fetch
            NSString *URLString = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@%@", @"ttp://subdomain.somesite.com/profile.html"];
            NSURL *URL = [NSURL URLWithString:
                          [URLString stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding:
                           NSASCIIStringEncoding]];

            // Do the fetch - blocks!
            NSData *theData = [NSData dataWithContentsOfURL:URL];
            if(theData == nil) {

                NSLog(@"NO DATA DOWNLOADED");
            }

            // Do the write
            NSString *filePath = [[self documentsDirectory] stringByAppendingPathComponent:@"Profile/profile.html"];
            [theData writeToFile:filePath atomically:YES];

            NSLog(@"WRITING profile.html to path %@!", filePath);

Answer 1

Because you shouldn’t do the stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding: stuff, which turn the URL into an invalid one http%3a%2f%2f….

Directly use

NSData *theData = [NSData dataWithContentsOfURL:
    [NSURL URLWithString:@"http://subdomain.somesite.com/profile.html"]];