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
• Read the AFNetworking 2.0 Migration Guide for an overview of the architectural changes from 1.0.

Communication

• If you need help, use Stack Overflow. (Tag ‘afnetworking’)
• If you’d like to ask a general question, use Stack Overflow.
• If you found a bug, and can provide steps to reliably reproduce it, open an issue.
• If you have a feature request, open an issue.
• If you want to contribute, submit a pull request.

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

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

Requirements

(OS X projects must support 64-bit with modern Cocoa runtime).

Programming in Swift? Try Alamofire for a more conventional set of APIs.

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 *documentsDirectoryURL = [[NSFileManager defaultManager] URLForDirectory:NSDocumentDirectory inDomain:NSUserDomainMask appropriateForURL:nil create:NO error:nil];
    return [documentsDirectoryURL URLByAppendingPathComponent:[response suggestedFilename]];
} 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 an Upload Task for a Multi-Part Request, with Progress

NSMutableURLRequest *request = [[AFHTTPRequestSerializer serializer] multipartFormRequestWithMethod:@"POST" URLString:@"http://example.com/upload" parameters:nil constructingBodyWithBlock:^(id<AFMultipartFormData> formData) {
        [formData appendPartWithFileURL:[NSURL fileURLWithPath:@"file://path/to/image.jpg"] name:@"file" fileName:@"filename.jpg" mimeType:@"image/jpeg" error:nil];
    } error:nil];

AFURLSessionManager *manager = [[AFURLSessionManager alloc] initWithSessionConfiguration:[NSURLSessionConfiguration defaultSessionConfiguration]];
NSProgress *progress = nil;

NSURLSessionUploadTask *uploadTask = [manager uploadTaskWithStreamedRequest:request progress:&progress completionHandler:^(NSURLResponse *response, id responseObject, NSError *error) {
    if (error) {
        NSLog(@"Error: %@", error);
    } else {
        NSLog(@"%@ %@", 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 error:nil];


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.

• Do not use Reachability to determine if the original request should be sent.
  • You should try to send it.
• You can use Reachability to determine when a request should be automatically retried.
  • Although it may still fail, a Reachability notification that the connectivity is available is a good time to retry something.
• Network reachability is a useful tool for determining why a request might have failed.
  • After a network request has failed, telling the user they’re offline is better than giving them a more technical but accurate error, such as “request timed out.”

See also WWDC 2012 session 706, “Networking Best Practices.”.

Shared Network Reachability

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

[[AFNetworkReachabilityManager sharedManager] startMonitoring];

HTTP Manager Reachability

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;
    }
}];

[manager.reachabilityManager startMonitoring];

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.

Running Tests from the Command Line

Tests can also be run from the command line or within a continuous integration environment. The xcpretty utility needs to be installed before running the tests from the command line:

$ gem install xcpretty

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

Credits

AFNetworking is owned and maintained by the Alamofire Software Foundation.

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.

Security Disclosure

If you believe you have identified a security vulnerability with AFNetworking, you should report it as soon as possible via email to security@alamofire.org. Please do not post it to a public issue tracker.

License

AFNetworking is released under the MIT license. See LICENSE for details.