Easy POST with params and httpheader

gistfile1.m

//inspiration: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5269236/http-post-of-uiimage-and-parameters-to-webserver

@implementation HTTPUtils

+(NSData*)post:(NSString*)_urlAddress
              params: (NSDictionary*) _params
             headers: (NSDictionary*) _headers
              images: (NSDictionary*) _images {

    // create the connection
    NSMutableURLRequest *request = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString: _urlAddress] 
                                                           cachePolicy:NSURLRequestUseProtocolCachePolicy 
                                                       timeoutInterval:60.0];
    // change type to POST (default is GET)
    [request setHTTPMethod:@"POST"];
    
    // just some random text that will never occur in the body
    NSString *stringBoundary = @"0xKhTmLbOuNdArY---This_Is_ThE_BoUnDaRyy---pqo";
    
    // header value
    NSString *headerBoundary = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"multipart/form-data; boundary=%@",
                                stringBoundary];
    // set header
    [request addValue:headerBoundary forHTTPHeaderField:@"Content-Type"];
    
    if(_headers != nil) {
        
        for (NSString* key in _headers) {
            
            [request setValue: [_headers objectForKey:key] forHTTPHeaderField:key];   
        }
    }
    
    //add body
    NSMutableData *postBody = [NSMutableData data];
    
    if(_params != nil) {
        
        for (NSString* key in _params) {
            
            id value = [_params objectForKey:key];

            postBody appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:@"--%@\r\n", stringBoundary] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
            [postBody appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:@"Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"%@\"\r\n\r\n", key] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
            [postBody appendData:[value dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
            [postBody appendData:[@"\r\n" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];

        }
    }

    if(_images != nil) {  

        for (NSString* key in _images) {

            id image = [_images objectForKey:key];
            
            //todo: get filename
            NSString* filename = @"image.jpg";

            //image
            [postBody appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:@"--%@\r\n", stringBoundary] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
            [postBody appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:@"Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"%@\"; filename=\"%@\"\r\n", key, filename] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
            [postBody appendData:[@"Content-Type: image/jpeg\r\n" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
            [postBody appendData:[@"Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary\r\n\r\n" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];

            // get the image data from main bundle directly into NSData object
            NSData *imgData = UIImageJPEGRepresentation(image, 1.0);

            // add it to body
            [postBody appendData:imgData];
            [postBody appendData:[@"\r\n" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
            NSLog(@"message added");
        }
    }
        
    // final boundary
    [postBody appendData:[[NSString stringWithFormat:@"--%@--\r\n", stringBoundary] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
    
    // add body to post
    [request setHTTPBody:postBody];
    
    // pointers to some necessary objects
    NSHTTPURLResponse* response = [[NSHTTPURLResponse alloc] init];
    NSError* error = Nil;

    // synchronous filling of data from HTTP POST response
    NSData *responseData = [NSURLConnection sendSynchronousRequest: request 
                                                 returningResponse: &response 
                                                             error: &error];

    NSLog(@"[HTTPUtils] just sent request to url: '%@' result: '%@' errors: '%@'", _urlAddress, responseData, error);

    if (error) {

        [NSException raise:@"Error" format:@"%@", [error localizedDescription]]; 
    }

    return responseData;
}

+(NSDictionary*)postToJSON:(NSString*)_urlAddress
                    params: (NSDictionary*) _params
                   headers: (NSDictionary*) _headers {

    NSData* responseData = [self post:_urlAddress      
                                params: _params
                              headers: _headers];
    NSError* error = nil;
                                
    id result = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:responseData 
                                                options:kNilOptions error:&error];
                                
    if (error != nil) return nil;
                             
    NSLog(@"done: %@", result);
   
    return result;
}

 //Example:

 NSMutableDictionary* _params = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init];
 [_params setValue:@"value1" forKey:@"param1"];
 [_params setValue:@"value2" forKey:@"param2"];

 NSMutableDictionary* _headers = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init];
 [_params setValue:@"auth_token" forKey:@"token"];

 NSMutableDictionary* _uiimages = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init];
 [_params setValue:_uiimage forKey:@"photo1.jpg"];

NSData* result = [HTTPUtils post:@"http://your.site/and/action/"
                                         params: _params
                                        headers: _headers
                                        images: _uiimages];

//Example using url JSON:

NSMutableDictionary* _params = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init];
[_params setValue:@"value1" forKey:@"param1"];
[_params setValue:@"value2" forKey:@"param2"];

NSMutableDictionary* _headers = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init];
[_params setValue:@"auth_token" forKey:@"token"];

NSMutableDictionary* _uiimages = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init];
[_params setValue:_uiimage forKey:@"photo1.jpg"];

NSDictionary* resultOfJson = [HTTPUtils postToJSON:@"http://your.site/and/action/json/"
params: _params
headers: _headers
images: _uiimages];