iPhone Server Communication

We can communicate in many ways with server. One way is using JSON, this is explained as below:

 

1. Starting Communication

[[[NSURLConnection alloc] initWithRequest:[NSURLRequest requestWithURL:
[NSURL URLWithString:urlStr]] delegate:self startImmediately:YES] autorelease];
//urlStr is NSString ref

2. Start receiving data

- (void)connection:(NSURLConnection *)connection didReceiveResponse:
   (NSURLResponse *)response{
    [receivedData setLength:0];
}
//receivedData is NSMutableData ref

3. Get data in chunks

- (void)connection:(NSURLConnection *)connection didReceiveData:(NSData *)data{
    [receivedData appendData:data];
}

4. After getting complete data

- (void)connectionDidFinishLoading:(NSURLConnection *)connection{
 
    // json data retrival complete    (received data is NSMutableData)
    if(receivedData == nil || [receivedData length] == 0){
  //handle error in getting response, may be no network
        [self showAlertViewWithTitle:@"No network" andMessage:@"Could not open the
   page, because internet connection was not found." andTag:0];
        return;
    }
 
    NSString *responseBody = [[[NSString alloc] initWithData:receivedData
             encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding] autorelease];
    ////NSLog(responseBody);
    NSError *jsonParsingError = [[[NSError alloc] init] autorelease];
    NSDictionary * jsonData = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithJSONData:
          [responseBody dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]
                error:&jsonParsingError];
 
    NSDictionary *serverError = [jsonData objectForKey:@"error"]==[NSNull null]?
 nil:[jsonData objectForKey:@"error"];
 
    if(serverError==nil || [serverError count]==0){
        // no error found else
        NSDictionary *response = [jsonData objectForKey:@"response"]==[NSNull null]?
  nil:[jsonData objectForKey:@"response"];
        NSArray *array = [response objectForKey:@"array"]==[NSNull null]?nil:
  [response objectForKey:@"array"];
// I have left the code incomplete, its just for understanding

5. Check for null values
Never forget to check null values from JSON data as follows:

NSString *dataValue =  [[[array objectAtIndex:i] objectForKey:@"key"]==[NSNull null]?
                         @"0":[[array objectAtIndex:i] objectForKey:@"key"] intValue]; 
 

Please let me know if you require further explanation..