Network Router and Request in Swift 3 using Alamofire and SwiftyJSON

Alamofire and SwiftyJSON are the ultimate framework of choice when it comes to Native Swift application development. But there is one small issue we need to manually bridge this two framework manually to get the final output. Hence here is the ultimate guide for how to make Network Request in Swift using Alamofire and get the response as SwiftyJSON using a Router Path.

1. URL Request

We have to first create - enum of a URLRequestConvertible

	enum ActivitieRouter: URLRequestConvertible {
	case activitiesIndex // Activities Index
	case createActivities(param: Parameters) // Create Activities
	case updateActivity(activityID: Int, param: Parameters) // Update Activity
	case destoryActivity(activityID: Int) // Destroy Activity
	}

On each of the request we need to define the http Method 

	var method: HTTPMethod {
	switch self {
	case .activitiesIndex:
	return .get
	case .activityDate:
	return .get
	case .getActivity:
	return .get
	case .createActivities:
	return .post
	case .updateActivity:
	return .put
	case .destoryActivity:
	return .delete
	}
	}

each Request can have a sub path like -

	var path: String {
	let subPath = "activities"
	switch self {
	case .activitiesIndex:
	return subPath
	case .updateActivity(let activityID, _):
	return subPath + "?" + "\(activityID)"
	case .destoryActivity(let activityID):
	return subPath + "?" + "\(activityID)"
	}
	}

Finally the most important for a Protocol is a asURLRequest function which returns the URLRequest

	func asURLRequest() throws -> URLRequest {
	var urlRequest = NetworkManager.getTokenRequest(path)
	urlRequest.httpMethod = method.rawValue
	switch self {
	case .createActivities(let parameters):
	urlRequest = try URLEncoding.default.encode(urlRequest, with: parameters)
	case .updateActivity(_, let parameters):
	urlRequest = try URLEncoding.default.encode(urlRequest, with: parameters)
	default:
	break
	}
	return urlRequest
	}

Refer - Gist - https://gist.github.com/bishalg/4d554cd79a138c43c00c17cebf6eb3d3

2. Response Serializable

Now task is to use extend the DataRequest so that we can response back SwiftyJSON object from our network request.

Refer - Gist -  https://gist.github.com/bishalg/0561c81f921858725731f2c36819e99c

3. Network Request

Finally with our Response Serializer and Network Router ready we can finally make our Network Request. 

	static func mostRecent(
	onSuccess: ObjectsCallBack? = nil,
	onError: ErrorCallback? = nil) {
	let route = ActivitieRouter.activityDate(activitiesDate: ActivitiesDate.recentMonth)
	let _ = Alamofire.request(route)
	.responseSwiftyJSON { request, response, json, error in
	guard error == nil else { return }
	// create - objects array or object
	// return - objects
	onSuccess?(objects)
	}
	}

Thats is it ! Out Networkig code is complete ! 

But you may have noticed that there is one class NetworkManager which is not present ! But that is upto you to manage as per project basic which can be generalized code for say like base url etc.

Refer Gist - https://gist.github.com/bishalg/ffaf0d90bd0e9d05f4db0285b2e5418a

Links - 

https://github.com/SwiftyJSON/SwiftyJSON

https://github.com/Alamofire/Alamofire

https://gist.github.com/bishalg/4d554cd79a138c43c00c17cebf6eb3d3
https://gist.github.com/bishalg/0561c81f921858725731f2c36819e99c
https://gist.github.com/bishalg/ffaf0d90bd0e9d05f4db0285b2e5418a

RK03 - ResearchKit "Hello World" with Instruction Step

"Hello World" with Instruction Step

No software can go forward without a simple "Hello World" application.
If we break this rule, the Gods of "Programming for Dummies" will crush us !
So without any further due lets do some coding !!!

https://gist.github.com/bishalg/c5268460b81344451e44


// 1

   @IBOutlet weak var gettingStartedButton: UIButton!   

// 2

    @IBAction func gettingStartedAction(sender: UIButton) {        self.sayHellowToTheWorld()    }        func sayHellowToTheWorld() {        // Make Steps         let step1 = ORKInstructionStep(identifier: "step1")        step1.title = "Hello World!"                let step2 = ORKInstructionStep(identifier: "step2")        step2.title = "That is it ! :] Thanks"        

                 // Make a Ordered Task of steps

        let task = ORKOrderedTask(identifier: "ourFirstTask", steps: [step1, step2])

                  // Present the ViewController of hence made Task !

        let taskVC = ORKTaskViewController(task: task, taskRunUUID: nil)        taskVC.delegate = self        presentViewController(taskVC, animated: true, completion: nil)    }

// 3

extension HomeVC: ORKTaskViewControllerDelegate {

   func taskViewController(taskViewController: ORKTaskViewController, didFinishWithReason reason: ORKTaskViewControllerFinishReason, error: NSError?) {        self.dismissViewControllerAnimated(true, completion: nil)        let buttonTitle: String?        switch reason {        case .Completed:            buttonTitle = "Completed"        case .Discarded:            buttonTitle = "Discarded"        case .Failed:            buttonTitle = "Failed"        case .Saved:            buttonTitle = "Saved"        }
        gettingStartedButton.setTitle(buttonTitle, forState: .Normal)    }

} 

// 1 - Getting Started -
In our VC we have a button which will start a ResearchKit survey and will change based on our action

// 2 - Action on button will start the survey

If we do "Next" and "Done" after  we started from "Getting Started" button it would present us a Task-ViewController which will make a delegate at the end of it step.

// 3
// Extend out View Controller so that it handles the Delegate of TaskVC
// Once the task is completed we will update our button to reflect the result !
// And finally its our responsibility to dismiss the VC we presented.

Here is one of the expected flow -

1. Home Screen


2. Research Kit - TaskVC presented with "Hello World" Instruction Step ( ORKInstructionStep )



3. Second Instruction Step with "DONE" button - 2/ 2



Finally if we will get any one of the following result ( ORKTaskViewControllerFinishReason ) -
In this case we will have either Completed or Discarded result.

    

RK 02 - ResearchKit - Native App on HTML ?

As an iOS developer you would tend to think that Framework that Apple has developed must be on native Objective-C or Swift. The ResearchKit framework itself may be on Objective-C but the Architecture of the App development includes lots and lots of HTML and JSON files.

So you might need to revise your HTML / CSS skills before we proceed further.

If we dig inside "Resources" folder for the sample app for Parkison.



The major of contents are in HTMLContent folder, and  JSON is used to map the those HTML to each Views or ViewControllers.

Now lets examine  StudyOverview.json -

"questions":

    [

     {

     "title":"Welcome to mPower",

     "details":"A Parkinson Disease Research Study",

     },

     

     {

     "title":"About this Study",

     "details":"AboutStudy_intro",

    

     },

     

     {

     "title":"About the App",

     "details":"Please tap on the image below to watch a short video introduction to mPower.",

     "video_name" : "Intro",

     },

     

     {

     "title":"How this Study works",

     "details":"howstudyworks_intro",

     

     },

Hence the app framework binds your HTML via JSON files -
for example to bind your AboutStudy_intro.html file you have following JSON -

{

     "title":"About this Study",

     "details":"AboutStudy_intro",

 }

Which has the content like this -

Links -

https://github.com/ResearchKit/mPower/tree/master/Parkinson/Resources
www.w3schools.com/html/

www.w3schools.com/css/

www.w3schools.com/json/