Option to send POST requests as application/x-www-form-urlencoded

[pszalko]

Currently NXOAuth2Connection always sends POST requests as multipart/form-data.

We had use case where OAuth2 server didn't accept multipart/form-data but required Content-Type set to application/x-www-form-urlencoded.

In current OAuth2Client implementation there is no easy way to change how POST requests are send to server.

It would be very helpful to allow developers to change Content-Type of POST requests to application/x-www-form-urlencoded.

[kneeraj1762]

I have similar requirement how did you do it?

[pszalko]

I have changed NXOAuth2Connection.m file, here is my applyParameters:onRequest: method:

- (void)applyParameters:(NSDictionary *)parameters onRequest:(NSMutableURLRequest *)aRequest;
{
    if (!parameters) return;

    NSString *httpMethod = [aRequest HTTPMethod];
    if ([httpMethod caseInsensitiveCompare:@"POST"] != NSOrderedSame
        && [httpMethod caseInsensitiveCompare:@"PUT"] != NSOrderedSame) {
        aRequest.URL = [aRequest.URL nxoauth2_URLByAddingParameters:parameters];
    } else {

        // original code: HTTP multipart/form-data
//        NSInputStream *postBodyStream = [[NXOAuth2PostBodyStream alloc] initWithParameters:parameters];        
//        NSString *contentType = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"multipart/form-data; boundary=%@", [(NXOAuth2PostBodyStream *)postBodyStream boundary]];
//        NSString *contentLength = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%lld", [(NXOAuth2PostBodyStream *)postBodyStream length]];
//        [aRequest setValue:contentType forHTTPHeaderField:@"Content-Type"];
//        [aRequest setValue:contentLength forHTTPHeaderField:@"Content-Length"];
//        
//        [aRequest setHTTPBodyStream:postBodyStream];

        // fix for oAuth Token request: Changed HTTP Content-Type to application/x-www-form-urlencoded
        // by (Przemek Szalko <przemek@mobtitude.com>)
        NSData *httpBody = [[parameters urlEncode] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];

        NSString *contentType = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"application/x-www-form-urlencoded"];
        NSString *contentLength = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%d", [httpBody length]];
        [aRequest setValue:contentType forHTTPHeaderField:@"Content-Type"];
        [aRequest setValue:contentLength forHTTPHeaderField:@"Content-Length"];
        [aRequest setHTTPBody:httpBody];
    }
}

It uses my custom NSDictionary category which encodes all entries from dictionary to HTTP Body string: [parameters urlEncode].

You need to encode all types of possible values in dictionary, for NSString the implementation is as follow:

// Encode a string to embed in an URL.
- (NSString*)urlEncode
{
   return (NSString *)CFBridgingRelease(CFURLCreateStringByAddingPercentEscapes(NULL,
                                                                                (CFStringRef) self,
                                                                                NULL,
                                                                                (CFStringRef) @"!*'();:@&=+$,/?%# ",
                                                                                kCFStringEncodingUTF8));
}

For NSArray and embedded NSDictionary I just iterate recursively through each item in dictionary or array and use the above code to escape NSStrings.

Implementation of urlEncode in NSDictionary:

- (NSString*)urlEncode
{
   return [[self encodeHttpBodyParamsWithParentKey:nil] componentsJoinedByString:@"&"];
}

- (NSArray*)encodeHttpBodyParamsWithParentKey:(NSString*)parentKey
{
   NSMutableArray *encodedParams = [NSMutableArray arrayWithCapacity:[self count]];

   for(NSString *dictKey in [self allKeys]) {

      id value = [self objectForKey:dictKey];
      NSString *key = dictKey;
      NSString *encodedValue;

      if([parentKey length] > 0) {
         key = [parentKey stringByAppendingFormat:@"[%@]", key];
      }

      // NSDictionary
      if([value isKindOfClass:[NSDictionary class]]) {
         NSArray *temp = [(NSDictionary*)value encodeHttpBodyParamsWithParentKey:dictKey];
         [encodedParams addObjectsFromArray:temp];

      // NSArray
      } else if([value isKindOfClass:[NSArray class]]) {
         NSArray *arrayValue = (NSArray*)value;
         NSArray *temp = [arrayValue encodeHttpBodyParamsWithKey:key];
         [encodedParams addObjectsFromArray:temp];

      // NSSet
      } else if([value isKindOfClass:[NSSet class]]) {
         NSArray *temp = [[value allObjects] encodeHttpBodyParamsWithKey:key];
         [encodedParams addObjectsFromArray:temp];

      // NSNull
      } else if([value isKindOfClass:[NSNull class]]) {
         [encodedParams addObject:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@=NULL", key]];

      // NSString & Others
      } else {
         encodedValue = [[value description] urlEncode];
         [encodedParams addObject:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@=%@", key, encodedValue]];
      }

   }

   return encodedParams;
}

Implementations of method urlEncode in NSArray and NSSet are almost identical.

[akitchen]

Seems like this is supported now. can this issue be closed?

[toto]

You are right :-)