Alamofire & SwiftUI

Using Alamofire library

What is Alamofire?

Alamofire is an open-source networking library written in Swift that simplifies the process of sending HTTP requests and handling responses. It supports various HTTP methods and includes additional features like parameter encoding and response validation.

How to use Alamofire in an app?

To use Alamofire in an app, follow these general steps:

1. Add Alamofire as a dependency to your project using CocoaPods or Swift Package Manager.
2. Import the Alamofire module into your project.
3. Use the provided API to make requests to an API and handle the responses.

Here is an example code snippet that shows how to use Alamofire to make a GET request:

import Alamofire

AF.request("https://www.example.com/getData")
    .response { response in
        debugPrint(response)
    }

In this example, AF.request creates a request to the specified URL, and the response method sets a closure to handle the response. The function then print the response to the console.

The request can be customised by setting parameters, headers, and encoding types, among other things. The response object can also be used to handle any errors or parse the returned data.

Adding Alamofire as a dependency

1. Using CocoaPods

Installing Alamofire using terminal.

• Navigate to project folder

cd ProjectName

• Create pod file

Pod init

• Open the podfile created and add the line [version number is optional]

pod "Alamofire", "[version number]"

• Save file and run the following command which will create Pods folders in the project

pod install

• Now open the project’s workspace**[projectname.xcworkspace**] instead of project folder [projectname.xcodeproj]

2. Using SPM

• Go to projectName → Package Dependencies → click on +
• Copy and paste the following url

<https://github.com/Alamofire/Alamofire.git>

• Set Version to Up to Next Major (or what works for you!) and click Next

Note: Package may take some minutes to verify and load.

Or

Create a .swift file named Package in the project root folder and add the dependencies as below:

import PackageDescription

    let package = Package(
        name: "YOUR_PROJECT_NAME",
        dependencies: [
        .Package(url: "https://github.com/Alamofire/Alamofire.git", majorVersion: .upToNextMajor(from: "5.6.1"))
        ]
    )

then run the command below in the root folder directory

swift build

A simple fetch example:

import Alamofire

let url = "https://example.com/api/data"
let parameters: [String: Any] = [
    "param1": "value1",
    "param2": "value2"
]
let headers: HTTPHeaders = [
    "Authorization": "Bearer xxxxxxxx",
    "Accept": "application/json"
]

AF.request(url,
           method: .get,
           parameters: parameters,
           encoding: URLEncoding.default,
           headers: headers)
    .validate(statusCode: 200..<300)
    .responseJSON { response in
        switch response.result {
        case .success(let value):
            // Handle successful response here
            print(value)
        case .failure(let error):
            // Handle error response here
            print(error)
        }
    }

In this example, we create a URL string and define some parameters and headers. We then use the AF.request() method to make a GET request to the URL, passing in the HTTP method, parameters, encoding type, and headers. We also validate the response status code to ensure that it falls within the range of 200 to 299.

Finally, we use a switch statement to handle the response, printing out the value of the response in case of success and the error message in case of failure.

Note: To be able to send requests to server

Go to AppName → Targets → Signing + Capabilities

Tick Outgoing Connections (Client)