Can I somehow do a synchronous HTTP request via NS

Question

Can I somehow do a synchronous HTTP request via NSURLSession in Swift?

I can do an asynchronous request via the following code:

if let url = NSURL(string: "https://2ch.hk/b/threads.json") {
            let task = NSURLSession.sharedSession().dataTaskWithURL(url) {
                (data, response, error) in

                var jsonError: NSError?
                let jsonDict = NSJSONSerialization.JSONObjectWithData(data, options: nil, error: &jsonError) as [String: AnyObject]
                if jsonError != nil {
                    return
                }

                // ...
            }
            task.resume()
        }

But what about synchronous request?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

You can use this NSURLSession extension to add a synchronous method:

extension NSURLSession {
    func synchronousDataTaskWithURL(url: NSURL) -> (NSData?, NSURLResponse?, NSError?) {
        var data: NSData?, response: NSURLResponse?, error: NSError?

        let semaphore = dispatch_semaphore_create(0)

        dataTaskWithURL(url) {
            data = $0; response = $1; error = $2
            dispatch_semaphore_signal(semaphore)
        }.resume()

        dispatch_semaphore_wait(semaphore, DISPATCH_TIME_FOREVER)

        return (data, response, error)
    }
}

Update for Swift 3:

extension URLSession {
    func synchronousDataTask(with url: URL) -> (Data?, URLResponse?, Error?) {
        var data: Data?
        var response: URLResponse?
        var error: Error?

        let semaphore = DispatchSemaphore(value: 0)

        let dataTask = self.dataTask(with: url) {
            data = $0
            response = $1
            error = $2

            semaphore.signal()
        }
        dataTask.resume()

        _ = semaphore.wait(timeout: .distantFuture)

        return (data, response, error)
    }
}

Answer 2

Apple thread discussing the same issue.

+ (NSData *)sendSynchronousRequest:(NSURLRequest *)request  
    returningResponse:(__autoreleasing NSURLResponse **)responsePtr  
    error:(__autoreleasing NSError **)errorPtr {  
    dispatch_semaphore_t    sem;  
    __block NSData *        result;  

    result = nil;  

    sem = dispatch_semaphore_create(0);  

    [[[NSURLSession sharedSession] dataTaskWithRequest:request  
        completionHandler:^(NSData *data, NSURLResponse *response, NSError *error) {  
        if (errorPtr != NULL) {  
            *errorPtr = error;  
        }  
        if (responsePtr != NULL) {  
            *responsePtr = response;  
        }  
        if (error == nil) {  
            result = data;  
        }  
        dispatch_semaphore_signal(sem);  
    }] resume];  

    dispatch_semaphore_wait(sem, DISPATCH_TIME_FOREVER);  

   return result;  
}  

Answer by Quinn "The Eskimo!" Apple Developer Relations, Developer Technical Support, Core OS/Hardware

Answer 3

Updated one of the answers to use a URLRequest instead, so we can use PUT etc instead.

extension URLSession {
    func synchronousDataTask(urlrequest: URLRequest) -> (data: Data?, response: URLResponse?, error: Error?) {
        var data: Data?
        var response: URLResponse?
        var error: Error?

        let semaphore = DispatchSemaphore(value: 0)

        let dataTask = self.dataTask(with: urlrequest) {
            data = $0
            response = $1
            error = $2

            semaphore.signal()
        }
        dataTask.resume()

        _ = semaphore.wait(timeout: .distantFuture)

        return (data, response, error)
    }
}

I'm calling like this.

var request = URLRequest(url: url1)
request.httpBody = body
request.httpMethod = "PUT"
let (_, _, error) = URLSession.shared.synchronousDataTask(urlrequest: request)
if let error = error {
    print("Synchronous task ended with error: \(error)")
}
else {
    print("Synchronous task ended without errors.")
}

Answer 4

Be careful with synchronous requests because it can result in bad user experience but I know sometimes its necessary. For synchronous requests use NSURLConnection:

func synchronousRequest() -> NSDictionary {

        //creating the request
        let url: NSURL! = NSURL(string: "exampledomain/...")
        var request = NSMutableURLRequest(URL: url)
        request.HTTPMethod = "GET"
        request.addValue("application/json", forHTTPHeaderField: "Content-Type")


        var error: NSError?

        var response: NSURLResponse?

        let urlData = NSURLConnection.sendSynchronousRequest(request, returningResponse: &response, error: &error)

        error = nil
        let resultDictionary: NSDictionary = NSJSONSerialization.JSONObjectWithData(urlData!, options: NSJSONReadingOptions.MutableContainers, error: &error) as! NSDictionary

        return resultDictionary
    }