AFNetworking is a delightful networking library for iOS and Mac OS X. It's built on top of the Foundation URL Loading System, extending the powerful high-level networking abstractions built into Cocoa. It has a modular architecture with well-designed, feature-rich APIs that are a joy to use.

Perhaps the most important feature of all, however, is the amazing community of developers who use and contribute to AFNetworking every day. AFNetworking powers some of the most popular and critically-acclaimed apps on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Choose AFNetworking for your next project, or migrate over your existing projects—you'll be happy you did!

How To Get Started

Download AFNetworking and try out the included Mac and iPhone example apps
Read the "Getting Started" guide, FAQ, or other articles on the Wiki
Check out the documentation for a comprehensive look at all of the APIs available in AFNetworking
Questions? Stack Overflow is the best place to find answers

Installation with CocoaPods

CocoaPods is a dependency manager for Objective-C, which automates and simplifies the process of using 3rd-party libraries like AFNetworking in your projects. See the "Getting Started" guide for more information.

Podfile

platform :ios, '7.0'
pod "AFNetworking", "~> 2.0"

2.0

AFNetworking 2.0 is a major update to the framework. Building on 2 years of development, this new version introduces powerful new features, while providing an easy upgrade path for existing users.

Read the AFNetworking 2.0 Migration Guide for an overview of the architectural and API changes.

What's New

Refactored Architecture
Support for NSURLSession
Serialization Modules
Expanded UIKit Extensions
Real-time functionality with Rocket

Requirements

AFNetworking 2.0 and higher requires Xcode 5, targeting either iOS 6.0 and above, or Mac OS 10.8 Mountain Lion (64-bit with modern Cocoa runtime) and above.

For compatibility with iOS 5 or Mac OS X 10.7, use the latest 1.x release.

For compatibility with iOS 4.3 or Mac OS X 10.6, use the latest 0.10.x release.

Architecture

NSURLConnection

AFURLConnectionOperation
AFHTTPRequestOperation
AFHTTPRequestOperationManager

NSURLSession (iOS 7 / Mac OS X 10.9)

AFURLSessionManager
AFHTTPSessionManager

Serialization

<AFURLRequestSerialization>
- AFHTTPRequestSerializer
- AFJSONRequestSerializer
- AFPropertyListRequestSerializer
<AFURLResponseSerialization>
- AFHTTPResponseSerializer
- AFJSONResponseSerializer
- AFXMLParserResponseSerializer
- AFXMLDocumentResponseSerializer (Mac OS X)
- AFPropertyListResponseSerializer
- AFImageResponseSerializer
- AFCompoundResponseSerializer

Additional Functionality

AFSecurityPolicy
AFNetworkReachabilityManager

Usage

HTTP Request Operation Manager

AFHTTPRequestOperationManager encapsulates the common patterns of communicating with a web application over HTTP, including request creation, response serialization, network reachability monitoring, and security, as well as request operation management.

`GET` Request

AFHTTPRequestOperationManager *manager = [AFHTTPRequestOperationManager manager];
[manager GET:@"http://example.com/resources.json" parameters:nil success:^(AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation, id responseObject) {
    NSLog(@"JSON: %@", responseObject);
} failure:^(AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation, NSError *error) {
    NSLog(@"Error: %@", error);
}];

`POST` URL-Form-Encoded Request

AFHTTPRequestOperationManager *manager = [AFHTTPRequestOperationManager manager];
NSDictionary *parameters = @{@"foo": @"bar"};
[manager POST:@"http://example.com/resources.json" parameters:parameters success:^(AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation, id responseObject) {
    NSLog(@"JSON: %@", responseObject);
} failure:^(AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation, NSError *error) {
    NSLog(@"Error: %@", error);
}];

`POST` Multi-Part Request

AFHTTPRequestOperationManager *manager = [AFHTTPRequestOperationManager manager];
NSDictionary *parameters = @{@"foo": @"bar"};
NSURL *filePath = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:@"file://path/to/image.png"];
[manager POST:@"http://example.com/resources.json" parameters:parameters constructingBodyWithBlock:^(id<AFMultipartFormData> formData) {
    [formData appendPartWithFileURL:filePath name:@"image" error:nil];
} success:^(AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation, id responseObject) {
    NSLog(@"Success: %@", responseObject);
} failure:^(AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation, NSError *error) {
    NSLog(@"Error: %@", error);
}];

AFURLSessionManager

AFURLSessionManager creates and manages an NSURLSession object based on a specified NSURLSessionConfiguration object, which conforms to <NSURLSessionTaskDelegate>, <NSURLSessionDataDelegate>, <NSURLSessionDownloadDelegate>, and <NSURLSessionDelegate>.

Creating a Download Task

NSURLSessionConfiguration *configuration = [NSURLSessionConfiguration defaultSessionConfiguration];
AFURLSessionManager *manager = [[AFURLSessionManager alloc] initWithSessionConfiguration:configuration];

NSURL *URL = [NSURL URLWithString:@"http://example.com/download.zip"];
NSURLRequest *request = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:URL];

NSURLSessionDownloadTask *downloadTask = [manager downloadTaskWithRequest:request progress:nil destination:^NSURL *(NSURL *targetPath, NSURLResponse *response) {
    NSURL *documentsDirectoryPath = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:[NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES) firstObject]];
    return [documentsDirectoryPath URLByAppendingPathComponent:[targetPath lastPathComponent]];
} completionHandler:^(NSURLResponse *response, NSURL *filePath, NSError *error) {
    NSLog(@"File downloaded to: %@", filePath);
}];
[downloadTask resume];

Creating an Upload Task

NSURLSessionConfiguration *configuration = [NSURLSessionConfiguration defaultSessionConfiguration];
AFURLSessionManager *manager = [[AFURLSessionManager alloc] initWithSessionConfiguration:configuration];

NSURL *URL = [NSURL URLWithString:@"http://example.com/upload"];
NSURLRequest *request = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:URL];

NSURL *filePath = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:@"file://path/to/image.png"];
NSURLSessionUploadTask *uploadTask = [manager uploadTaskWithRequest:request fromFile:filePath progress:nil completionHandler:^(NSURLResponse *response, id responseObject, NSError *error) {
    if (error) {
        NSLog(@"Error: %@", error);
    } else {
        NSLog(@"Success: %@ %@", response, responseObject);
    }
}];
[uploadTask resume];

Creating a Data Task

NSURLSessionConfiguration *configuration = [NSURLSessionConfiguration defaultSessionConfiguration];
AFURLSessionManager *manager = [[AFURLSessionManager alloc] initWithSessionConfiguration:configuration];

NSURL *URL = [NSURL URLWithString:@"http://example.com/upload"];
NSURLRequest *request = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:URL];

NSURLSessionDataTask *dataTask = [manager dataTaskWithRequest:request completionHandler:^(NSURLResponse *response, id responseObject, NSError *error) {
    if (error) {
        NSLog(@"Error: %@", error);
    } else {
        NSLog(@"%@ %@", response, responseObject);
    }
}];
[dataTask resume];

Request Serialization

Request serializers create requests from URL strings, encoding parameters as either a query string or HTTP body.

NSString *URLString = @"http://example.com";
NSDictionary *parameters = @{@"foo": @"bar", @"baz": @[@1, @2, @3]};

Query String Parameter Encoding

[[AFHTTPRequestSerializer serializer] requestWithMethod:@"GET" URLString:URLString parameters:parameters];

GET http://example.com?foo=bar&baz[]=1&baz[]=2&baz[]=3

URL Form Parameter Encoding

[[AFHTTPRequestSerializer serializer] requestWithMethod:@"POST" URLString:URLString parameters:parameters];

POST http://example.com/
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded

foo=bar&baz[]=1&baz[]=2&baz[]=3

JSON Parameter Encoding

[[AFJSONRequestSerializer serializer] requestWithMethod:@"POST" URLString:URLString parameters:parameters];

POST http://example.com/
Content-Type: application/json

{"foo": "bar", "baz": [1,2,3]}

Network Reachability Manager

AFNetworkReachabilityManager monitors the reachability of domains, and addresses for both WWAN and WiFi network interfaces.

Shared Network Reachability

[[AFNetworkReachabilityManager sharedManager] setReachabilityStatusChangeBlock:^(AFNetworkReachabilityStatus status) {
    NSLog(@"Reachability: %@", AFStringFromNetworkReachabilityStatus(status));
}];

HTTP Manager with Base URL

When a baseURL is provided, network reachability is scoped to the host of that base URL.

NSURL *baseURL = [NSURL URLWithString:@"http://example.com/"];
AFHTTPRequestOperationManager *manager = [[AFHTTPRequestOperationManager alloc] initWithBaseURL:baseURL];

NSOperationQueue *operationQueue = manager.operationQueue;
[manager.reachabilityManager setReachabilityStatusChangeBlock:^(AFNetworkReachabilityStatus status) {
    switch (status) {
        case AFNetworkReachabilityStatusReachableViaWWAN:
        case AFNetworkReachabilityStatusReachableViaWiFi:
            [operationQueue setSuspended:NO];
            break;
        case AFNetworkReachabilityStatusNotReachable:
        default:
            [operationQueue setSuspended:YES];
            break;
    }
}];

Security Policy

AFSecurityPolicy evaluates server trust against pinned X.509 certificates and public keys over secure connections.

Adding pinned SSL certificates to your app helps prevent man-in-the-middle attacks and other vulnerabilities. Applications dealing with sensitive customer data or financial information are strongly encouraged to route all communication over an HTTPS connection with SSL pinning configured and enabled.

Allowing Invalid SSL Certificates

AFHTTPRequestOperationManager *manager = [AFHTTPRequestOperationManager manager];
manager.securityPolicy.allowInvalidCertificates = YES; // not recommended for production

AFHTTPRequestOperation

AFHTTPRequestOperation is a subclass of AFURLConnectionOperation for requests using the HTTP or HTTPS protocols. It encapsulates the concept of acceptable status codes and content types, which determine the success or failure of a request.

Although AFHTTPRequestOperationManager is usually the best way to go about making requests, AFHTTPRequestOperation can be used by itself.

`GET` with `AFHTTPRequestOperation`

NSURL *URL = [NSURL URLWithString:@"http://example.com/resources/123.json"];
NSURLRequest *request = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:URL];
AFHTTPRequestOperation *op = [[AFHTTPRequestOperation alloc] initWithRequest:request];
op.responseSerializer = [AFJSONResponseSerializer serializer];
[op setCompletionBlockWithSuccess:^(AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation, id responseObject) {
    NSLog(@"JSON: %@", responseObject);
} failure:^(AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation, NSError *error) {
    NSLog(@"Error: %@", error);
}];
[[NSOperationQueue mainQueue] addOperation:op];

Batch of Operations

NSMutableArray *mutableOperations = [NSMutableArray array];
for (NSURL *fileURL in filesToUpload) {
    NSURLRequest *request = [[AFHTTPRequestSerializer serializer] multipartFormRequestWithMethod:@"POST" URLString:@"http://example.com/upload" parameters:nil constructingBodyWithBlock:^(id<AFMultipartFormData> formData) {
        [formData appendPartWithFileURL:fileURL name:@"images[]" error:nil];
    }];

    AFHTTPRequestOperation *operation = [[AFHTTPRequestOperation alloc] initWithRequest:request];

    [mutableOperations addObject:operation];
}

NSArray *operations = [AFURLConnectionOperation batchOfRequestOperations:@[...] progressBlock:^(NSUInteger numberOfFinishedOperations, NSUInteger totalNumberOfOperations) {
    NSLog(@"%lu of %lu complete", numberOfFinishedOperations, totalNumberOfOperations);
} completionBlock:^(NSArray *operations) {
    NSLog(@"All operations in batch complete");
}];
[[NSOperationQueue mainQueue] addOperations:operations waitUntilFinished:NO];

Unit Tests

AFNetworking includes a suite of unit tests within the Tests subdirectory. In order to run the unit tests, you must install the testing dependencies via CocoaPods:

$ cd Tests
$ pod install

Once testing dependencies are installed, you can execute the test suite via the 'iOS Tests' and 'OS X Tests' schemes within Xcode.

Using xctool

Tests can also be run from the command line or within a continuous integration environment with xctool, which can be installed with Homebrew:

$ brew update
$ brew install xctool --HEAD

Once xctool is installed, you can execute the suite via rake test.

Credits

AFNetworking was originally created by Scott Raymond and Mattt Thompson in the development of Gowalla for iPhone.

AFNetworking's logo was designed by Alan Defibaugh.

And most of all, thanks to AFNetworking's growing list of contributors.

Contact

Follow AFNetworking on Twitter (@AFNetworking)

Maintainers

Mattt Thompson (@mattt)

One More Thing...

AFNetworking: the Definitive Guide written by Mattt Thompson and published by O'Reilly, will be available late 2013 / early 2014. Sign up here to be notified about updates.

License

AFNetworking is available under the MIT license. See the LICENSE file for more info.

Files

README.md

Latest commit

History