Question

I have a class that updates two .plist files in the app documents directory via an NSURLConnection. The class acts as its own delegate for NSURLConnection. It works properly when I ask for a single file, but fails when I try to update two files. Does it look like I should start a new thread for each of the getNewDatabase messages?

- (void)getAllNewDatabases {
    [self performSelectorOnMainThread:@selector(getNewDatabase:) withObject:@"file1" waitUntilDone:YES];
    [self performSelectorOnMainThread:@selector(getNewDatabase:) withObject:@"file2" waitUntilDone:YES];
}

- (BOOL)getNewDatabase:(NSString *)dbName
{
    NSAutoreleasePool *pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
    NSMutableString *apiString = [[NSMutableString alloc] initWithString:kAPIHost];
    [apiString appendFormat:@"/%@.plist",dbName];
    NSURLRequest *myRequest = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:apiString] cachePolicy:NSURLRequestUseProtocolCachePolicy timeoutInterval:60.0];
    NSURLConnection *myConnection = [[NSURLConnection alloc] initWithRequest:myRequest delegate:self];
    [apiString release];
    if( myConnection )
    {
        //omitted for clarity here
    }
    [pool release];
}
//NSURLConnection delegate methods here ...

Answer 1

I found something interesting with NSURLConnection and NSThread – the thread will only live as long as it takes to perform the method that you call from it.

In the case above the thread will live only as long as getNewDatabase:(NSString *)dbName takes to complete, therefore killing off any of its delegate methods before they actually have time to do anything.

I found this website that gives a better explanation and a solution to the problem

I tweaked it a little bit so I could have a custom time out if it didn’t complete in a given time frame (handy when someone is walking around between access points)

    start = [NSDate dateWithTimeIntervalSinceNow:3];

    while(!isFinished && [[NSRunLoop currentRunLoop] runMode:NSDefaultRunLoopMode 
                                                  beforeDate:[NSDate distantFuture]]){

    if([start compare:[NSDate date]] == NSOrderedAscending){
        isFinished = YES;
    }
}