POST data to a PHP method from Swift

Question

I'm trying to post some info to my PHP file from Swift. My php file is executed, but the posted variables just don't get through to the php file. What am I doing wrong?

Swift code:

@IBAction func buttonPress(sender: AnyObject) {

        let request = NSMutableURLRequest(URL: NSURL(string: "http://www.domain.com/php_swift_test/insert.php")!)
        request.HTTPMethod = "POST"

        let postString = "a=test&b=bla"
        request.HTTPBody = postString.dataUsingEncoding(NSUTF8StringEncoding)

        let task = NSURLSession.sharedSession().dataTaskWithRequest(request) {
            data, response, error in

            if error != nil {
                print("error=\(error)")
                return
            }

            print("response = \(response)")

            let responseString = NSString(data: data!, encoding: NSUTF8StringEncoding)
            print("responseString = \(responseString)")
        }
        task.resume()
    }

PHP code:

<?php
    @session_start();
    @ob_start();

    $host='localhost';
    $user='test';
    $password='Passw0rd99';
    $db_name="mysql_test"; 

    $connection = mysql_connect($host,$user,$password);

    $a = $_POST['a'];
    $b = $_POST['b'];

    if(!$connection){
        die('Connection Failed');
    }
    else{
        $dbconnect = @mysql_select_db($db_name, $connection);

        if(!$dbconnect){
            die('Could not connect to Database');
        }
        else{
            $query = "INSERT INTO res_club (FirstName, LastName) VALUES ('$a','$b')";
            mysql_query($query, $connection) or die(mysql_error());

            echo 'Successfully added.';
            echo $query;
            echo $a.$b;
        }
    }
?>

An empty row is added to the database, with no first name and last name. The PHP file doesn't get the $_Post['a'] and b

The echo statement, echo $a.$b stays blank too. No errors are shown.

Are you getting an error? If so, show us what the error was and/or what the `responseString` was. That will help diagnose basic problems. Perhaps you can share the PHP code, as the problem may rest there (e.g. is it really looking for `application/x-www-formurlencoded` request). BTW, did you set the `NSAppTransportSecurity` in your `info.plist`? http://stackoverflow.com/questions/31254725/transport-security-has-blocked-a-cleartext-http/31254874#31254874. You might also want to set the `Content-Type` header, though that's not generally strictly required. — Rob, May 23 '16 at 21:29
No errors shown. i added my php code above.... into.plist and content type. Are these things i would do in Xcode? or on the server? — Martin Vidic, May 23 '16 at 22:34
But you do see the "responseString" message, which presumably shows "Successfully added" message and your `$query`? Also, when you print `response`, are you seeing a status code of 200? Re `info.plist` change, I'm surprised that it works at all if you used `http://` scheme on iOS 9 (if you have `https://`, though, it's not needed). But that can't be the problem because that would have resulted in an error message. — Rob, May 24 '16 at 00:08
Thanx :) That was actually it... In xcode i had http whereas on my server I rewrite to https. So I changed my Xcode urls to https and now it works. — Martin Vidic, May 24 '16 at 17:22

score 6 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 23 '16 at 20:50

This worked for me.

Video - https://youtu.be/wYkZ47Rz8iU

Swift Code - Example

let request = NSMutableURLRequest(URL: NSURL(string: "http://www.kandidlabs.com/YouTube/SwiftToMySQL/insert.php")!)
        request.HTTPMethod = "POST"
        let postString = "a=\(usernametext.text!)&b=\(password.text!)&c=\(info.text!)&d=\(number.text!)"
        request.HTTPBody = postString.dataUsingEncoding(NSUTF8StringEncoding)

        let task = NSURLSession.sharedSession().dataTaskWithRequest(request) {
            data, response, error in

            if error != nil {
                print("error=\(error)")
                return
            }

            print("response = \(response)")

            let responseString = NSString(data: data!, encoding: NSUTF8StringEncoding)
            print("responseString = \(responseString)")
        }
        task.resume()

PHP Code - Example

 <?php
    $host='localhost';
    $user='root';
    $password='';

    $connection = mysql_connect($host,$user,$password);

    $usernmae = $_POST['a'];
    $pass = $_POST['b'];
    $info = $_POST['c'];
    $num = $_POST['d'];

    if(!$connection)
    {
        die('Connection Failed');
    }
    else
    {
        $dbconnect = @mysql_select_db('YoutubeTutorialDB', $connection);

        if(!$dbconnect)
        {
            die('Could not connect to Database');
        }
        else
        {
            $query = "INSERT INTO `YoutubeTutorialDB`.`Users` (`Username`, `Password`, `Info`, `FavoriteNumber`)
                VALUES ('$username','$pass','$info','$num');";
            mysql_query($query, $connection) or die(mysql_error());

            echo 'Successfully added.';
            echo $query;
        }
    }
?>

There's a typo in this code: $usernmae = $_POST['a']; should be $username = $_POST['a']; — Will Buffington, Aug 24 '18 at 19:25

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 30 '18 at 16:37

this is the updated version (swift 4) from the example above

// the only one that work
func sendJson(){
    let usernametext = "new person"
    let passwordtext = "nice"
    let request = NSMutableURLRequest(url: NSURL(string: "http://localhost/example/todatabase.php")! as URL)
    request.httpMethod = "POST"
    let postString = "Title=\(usernametext)&content=\(passwordtext)"
    request.httpBody = postString.data(using: String.Encoding.utf8)

    let task = URLSession.shared.dataTask(with: request as URLRequest) {
        data, response, error in

        if error != nil {
            print("error=\(error)")
            return
        }

        print("response = \(response)")

        let responseString = NSString(data: data!, encoding: String.Encoding.utf8.rawValue)
        print("responseString = \(responseString)")
    }
    task.resume()
}

simply change the variable usernamtext,passwordtext or whatever inside the postString,and the url to your liking. this actually the only one that work i found that many other tutorial does not work.

Very nice. When printing responseString i get my output. But how do i place it into an array so i can access each value separately? — Wouter, Feb 16 '19 at 22:15

POST data to a PHP method from Swift

2 Answers2

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