Question

I need to work with ASIHTTPRequest in my app but i’m an absolute beginner in everything that concerns http, json, connections to server and stuff like that, so i decided to learn the basics first and i’ve got few really dumb questions for you. I have already googled looking for the answers, but all in vain

1)Does NSURLconnection have something to do with http protocol and http prequests? Is it useful for me to get acquainted with this class since i’m gonna work with http requests?

2)A huge problem of mine is that i do not have a web server yet to test my requests and i’ve been wondering if there is a free web server available for those who just want to upload/download data (images and may be something else) to/from it in order to learn basics of working with servers.

3)As far as i know development of ASIHTTPRequest library has been ceased. Does it mean that this library will become unavailable soon? Should i look for a different library? And btw is there a better one?

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

1.you use NSURLConnection to create a request object from a NSUrl. Here is an example, I used it to load a url to a UIWebView :

//Set the URL to go to for your UIWebView
NSString *urlAddress = @"http://google.com/";
//Create a URL object.
NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:urlAddress];
//URL Requst Object
NSURLRequest *requestObj = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:url];
//load the URL into the web view.
[aWebView loadRequest:requestObj];

You can read more about it here:http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Cocoa/Reference/Foundation/Classes/NSURLConnection_Class/Reference/Reference.html

NOTE : also look at NSMutableURLRequest, which is a subclass of NSURLRequest

2.To test, you can install apache on your computer and access it using http://localhost/.
If you are using windows, download WAMP : http://www.wampserver.com/en/
and if on mac, just search google how to install apache through terminal.

3.I havent used ASIHTTPRequest in a long time but as far as I remember it was a good library . if it is being ceased, then that probably means they wont be publishing anymore updates and/or fix bugs, so yes I think its better to use an active project that is being updated constantly. I also havent found any warning on their site about it, so I doubt they are stopping the project.