Alamofire是一个基于Swift的HTTP网络工具库，适用于iOS和Mac OS X。它在苹果的基础网络协议栈之上提供了一个优雅的接口 简化了一些常见的网络任务。

Alamofire provides chainable response/request methods, JSON parameter and response serialization, authentication, and many other features. In this Alamofire tutorial, you’ll use Alamofire to perform basic networking tasks like uploading files and requesting data from a third-party RESTful API.

Alamofire’s elegance comes from the fact it was written from the ground up in Swift and does not inherit anything from its Objective-C counterpart, AFNetworking.

You should have a conceptual understanding of HTTP networking and some exposure to Apple’s networking classes such as NSURLSession and NSURLConnection .

While Alamofire does obscure some implementation details, it’s good to have some background knowledge if you ever need to troubleshoot your network requests. You’ll also need CocoaPods installed to pull Alamofire into the tutorial project.

Getting Started

Download thestarter project here.

The app for this Alamofire tutorial is named PhotoTagger ; when completed, it will let you select an image from your library (or camera if you’re running on an actual device) and upload the image to a third-party service which will perform some image recognition tasks to come up with a list of tags and primary colors for the image:

Build and run the project in Xcode and you’ll see the following:

Click Select Photo and choose a photo. The background image will be replaced with the image you chose.

Open Main.storyboard and you’ll see the additional screens for displaying tags and colors have been added for you. All that remains is to upload the image and fetch the tags and colors.

The Imagga API

Imagga is an image recognition Platform-as-a-Service that provides image tagging APIs for developers and businesses to build scalable, image-intensive cloud apps. You can play around with a demo of their auto-tagging service here .

You’ll need to create a free developer account with Imagga for this Alamofire tutorial. Imagga requires an authorization header in each HTTP request so only people with an account can use their services. Go to https://imagga.com/auth/signup/hacker and fill out the form. After you create your account, check out the dashboard:

Listed down in the Authorization section is a secret token that you’ll use later. This information needs to be included with every HTTP request as a header.

Note: Make sure you copy the whole secret token, be sure to scroll over to the right and verify you copied everything.

You’ll be using Imagga’s content endpoint to upload the photos, tagging endpoint for the image recognition and colors endpoint for color identification. You can read all about the Imagga API at http://docs.imagga.com .

Installing Dependencies

Create a file named Podfile in the main directory of the project with the following contents:

platform :ios, '9.0'     inhibit_all_warnings!  use_frameworks!     target 'PhotoTagger' do    pod 'Alamofire', '~> 3.1.2'end

Next, install the CocoaPods dependencies with pod install . If you don’t have CocoaPods installed on your machine, check out the How to Use CocoaPods with Swift tutorial for more information.

Close the project and open the newly created PhotoTagger.xcworkspace . Build and run your project – you shouldn’t notice any visual changes in the running app. That’s good – your next task is to add some HTTP calls to a RESTful service to retrieve some JSON.

REST, HTTP, JSON — What’s that?

If you’re coming to this Alamofire tutorial with very little experience in using third-party services over the Internet, you might be wondering what all those acronyms mean! :]

HTTP is the application protocol, or set of rules, that web sites use to transfer data from the web server to your screen. You’ve seen HTTP (or HTTPS) listed in the front of every URL you type into a web browser. You might have heard of other application protocols, such as FTP, Telnet, and SSH. HTTP defines several request methods, or verbs, that the client (your web browser or app) use to indicate the desired action:

• GET : Used to retrieve data, such as a web page, but doesn’t alter any data on the server.
• HEAD : Identical to GET but only sends back the headers and none of the actual data.
• POST : Used to send data to the server, commonly used when filling a form and clicking submit.
• PUT : Used to send data to the specific location provided.
• DELETE : Deletes data from the specific location provided.

REST , or REpresentational State Transfer, is a set of rules for designing consistent, easy-to-use and maintainable web APIs. REST has several architecture rules that enforce things such as not persisting states across requests, making requests cacheable, and providing uniform interfaces. This makes it easy for app developers like you to integrate the API into your app — without needing to track the state of data across requests.

JSON stands for JavaScript Object Notation; it provides a straightforward, human-readable and portable mechanism for transporting data between two systems. JSON has a limited number of data types: string, boolean, array, object/dictionary, null and number; there’s no distinction between integers and decimals. Apple supplies the NSJSONSerialization class to help convert your objects in memory to JSON and vice-versa.

The combination of HTTP, REST and JSON make up a good portion of the web services available to you as a developer. Trying to understand how every little piece works can be overwhelming. Libraries like Alamofire can help reduce the complexity of working with these services — and get you up and running faster than you could without its help.

What is Alamofire Good For?

Why do you need Alamofire at all? Apple already provides NSURLSession and other classes for downloading content via HTTP, so why complicate things with another third party library?

The short answer is that Alamofire is based on NSURLSession , but it frees you from writing boilerplate code which makes writing networking code much easier. You can access data on the Internet with very little effort, and your code will be much cleaner and easier to read.

There are several major functions available with Alamofire:

• .upload : Upload files with multipart, stream, file or data methods.
• .download : Download files or resume a download that was already in progress.
• .request : Every other HTTP request not associated with file transfers.

These Alamofire functions are scoped to the module, not to a class or struct. There are underlying pieces to Alamofire that are classes and structs, like Manager , Request , and Response ; however, you don’t need to fully understand the entire structure of Alamofire to start using it.

Here’s an example of the same networking operation with both Apple’s NSURLSession and Alamofire’s request function:

// With NSURLSession  public func fetchAllRooms(completion: ([RemoteRoom]?) -> Void) {    let url = NSURL(string: "http://localhost:5984/rooms/_all_docs?include_docs=true")!       let urlRequest = NSMutableURLRequest(      URL: url,      cachePolicy: .ReloadIgnoringLocalAndRemoteCacheData,      timeoutInterval: 10.0 * 1000)    urlRequest.HTTPMethod = "GET"    urlRequest.addValue("application/json", forHTTPHeaderField: "Accept")       let task = urlSession.dataTaskWithRequest(urlRequest)      { (data, response, error) -> Void in      guard error == nil else {        print("Error while fetching remote rooms: \(error)")        completion(nil)        return      }         guard let json = try? NSJSONSerialization.JSONObjectWithData(data!,        options: []) as? [String: AnyObject] else {          print("Nil data received from fetchAllRooms service")          completion(nil)          return      }         guard let rows = json["rows"] as? [[String: AnyObject]] {        print("Malformed data received from fetchAllRooms service")        completion(nil)        return      }         var rooms = [RemoteRoom]()      for roomDict in rows {        rooms.append(RemoteRoom(jsonData: roomDict))      }         completion(rooms)    }       task.resume()  }

Versus:

// With Alamofire  func fetchAllRooms(completion: ([RemoteRoom]?) -> Void) {    Alamofire.request(      .GET,      "http://localhost:5984/rooms/_all_docs",      parameters: ["include_docs": "true"],      encoding: .URL)      .validate()      .responseJSON { (response) -> Void in        guard response.result.isSuccess else {          print("Error while fetching remote rooms: \(response.result.error)")          completion(nil)          return        }           guard let value = response.result.value as? [String: AnyObject],          rows = value["rows"] as? [[String: AnyObject]] else {            print("Malformed data received from fetchAllRooms service")             completion(nil)             return        }           var rooms = [RemoteRoom]()        for roomDict in rows {          rooms.append(RemoteRoom(jsonData: roomDict))        }           completion(rooms)    }  }

You can see that the required setup for Alamofire is shorter and is much more clear as to what the function does. You deserialize the response with responseJSON(options:completionHandler:) and calling validate() on the Response object simplifies error condition handling.

Uploading Files

Open ViewController.swift and add the following class extension to the end of the file:

// Networking calls  extension ViewController {    func uploadImage(image: UIImage, progress: (percent: Float) -> Void,      completion: (tags: [String], colors: [PhotoColor]) -> Void) {      guard let imageData = UIImageJPEGRepresentation(image, 0.5) else {        print("Could not get JPEG representation of UIImage")        return      }    }  }

The first step in uploading an image to Imagga is to get the correct format for the API. Above, the Image Picker API returns a UIImage instance that you convert into a JPEG NSData instance.

Next, go to imagePickerController(_:didFinishPickingMediaWithInfo:) and add the following right after the point where you set the image on imageView :

// 1  takePictureButton.hidden = true  progressView.progress = 0.0  progressView.hidden = false  activityIndicatorView.startAnimating()     uploadImage(    image,    progress: { [unowned self] percent in      // 2      self.progressView.setProgress(percent, animated: true)    },    completion: { [unowned self] tags, colors in      // 3      self.takePictureButton.hidden = false      self.progressView.hidden = true      self.activityIndicatorView.stopAnimating()         self.tags = tags      self.colors = colors         // 4      self.performSegueWithIdentifier("ShowResults", sender: self)  })

Everything with Alamofire is asynchronous , which means the you’ll update UI in an asynchronous manner:

1. Hide the upload button, and show the progress view and activity view.
2. While the file uploads, you call the progress handler with an updated percent. This changes the amount of progress bar showing.
3. The completion handler executes when the upload finishes. This sets the state on the controls back to their original state.
4. Finally the Storyboard advances to the results screen after a successful (or unsuccessful) upload. The user interface doesn’t change based on the error condition.

Next add the following to the top of ViewController.swift :

import Alamofire

This lets you use the functionality provided by the Alamofire module in your code.

Next, go back to uploadImage(_:progress:completion:) and add the following after the point where you convert the UIImage instance:

Alamofire.upload(    .POST,    "http://api.imagga.com/v1/content",    headers: ["Authorization" : "Basic xxx"],    multipartFormData: { multipartFormData in      multipartFormData.appendBodyPart(data: imageData, name: "imagefile",        fileName: "image.jpg", mimeType: "image/jpeg")    },    encodingCompletion: { encodingResult in    }  )

Make sure to replace Basic xxx with the actual authorization header taken from the Imagga dashboard. Here you convert the JPEG data blob ( imageData ) into a MIME multipart request to the Imagga content endpoint.

Next, add the following to the encodingCompletion closure:

switch encodingResult {  case .Success(let upload, _, _):    upload.progress { bytesWritten, totalBytesWritten, totalBytesExpectedToWrite in      dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue()) {        let percent = (Float(totalBytesWritten) / Float(totalBytesExpectedToWrite))        progress(percent: percent)      }    }    upload.validate()    upload.responseJSON { response in    }  case .Failure(let encodingError):    print(encodingError)  }

This chunk of code calls the Alamofire upload function and passes in a small calculation to update the progress bar as the file uploads. Notice the progress callback is made in a dispatch to the main queue since you’re updating the UI.

dispatch_async(queue ?? dispatch_get_main_queue()) {    let response = ...    completionHandler(response)  }

// 1.  guard response.result.isSuccess else {    print("Error while uploading file: \(response.result.error)")    completion(tags: [String](), colors: [PhotoColor]())    return  }// 2.  guard let responseJSON = response.result.value as? [String: AnyObject],    uploadedFiles = responseJSON["uploaded"] as? [AnyObject],    firstFile = uploadedFiles.first as? [String: AnyObject],    firstFileID = firstFile["id"] as? String else {      print("Invalid information received from service")      completion(tags: [String](), colors: [PhotoColor]())      return  }     print("Content uploaded with ID: \(firstFileID)")// 3.  completion(tags: [String](), colors: [PhotoColor]())

Alamofire.request(.GET, "https://httpbin.org/get", parameters: ["foo": "bar"])    .validate(statusCode: 200..<300)    .validate(contentType: ["application/json"])    .response { response in      // response handling code  }

func downloadTags(contentID: String, completion: ([String]) -> Void) {    Alamofire.request(      .GET,      "http://api.imagga.com/v1/tagging",      parameters: ["content": contentID],      headers: ["Authorization" : "Basic xxx"]      )      .responseJSON { response in        guard response.result.isSuccess else {          print("Error while fetching tags: \(response.result.error)")          completion([String]())          return        }           guard let responseJSON = response.result.value as? [String: AnyObject] else {           print("Invalid tag information received from service")           completion([String]())           return        }        print(responseJSON)        completion([String]())    }  }

self.downloadTags(firstFileID) { tags in    completion(tags: tags, colors: [PhotoColor]())  }

// 1.  guard response.result.isSuccess else {    print("Error while fetching tags: \(response.result.error)")    completion([String]())    return  }   // 2.  guard let responseJSON = response.result.value as? [String: AnyObject],    results = responseJSON["results"] as? [AnyObject],    firstResult = results.first,    tagsAndConfidences = firstResult["tags"] as? [[String: AnyObject]] else {      print("Invalid tag information received from the service")      completion([String]())      return  }   // 3.  let tags = tagsAndConfidences.flatMap({ dict in    return dict["tag"] as? String  })   // 4.  completion(tags)

func downloadColors(contentID: String, completion: ([PhotoColor]) -> Void) {    Alamofire.request(      .GET,      "http://api.imagga.com/v1/colors",      parameters: ["content": contentID, "extract_object_colors": NSNumber(int: 0)],      // 1.      headers: ["Authorization" : "Basic xxx"]      )      .responseJSON { response in        // 2.        guard response.result.isSuccess else {          print("Error while fetching colors: \(response.result.error)")          completion([PhotoColor]())          return        }           // 3.        guard let responseJSON = response.result.value as? [String: AnyObject],          results = responseJSON["results"] as? [AnyObject],          firstResult = results.first as? [String: AnyObject],          info = firstResult["info"] as? [String: AnyObject],          imageColors = info["image_colors"] as? [[String: AnyObject]] else {            print("Invalid color information received from service")            completion([PhotoColor]())            return        }           // 4.        let photoColors = imageColors.flatMap({ (dict) -> PhotoColor? in          guard let r = dict["r"] as? String,            g = dict["g"] as? String,            b = dict["b"] as? String,            closestPaletteColor = dict["closest_palette_color"] as? String else {              return nil          }          return PhotoColor(red: Int(r),            green: Int(g),            blue: Int(b),            colorName: closestPaletteColor)        })           // 5.        completion(photoColors)    }  }

self.downloadTags(firstFileID) { tags in    self.downloadColors(firstFileID) { colors in      completion(tags: tags, colors: colors)    }  }

import Foundation  import Alamofire     public enum ImaggaRouter: URLRequestConvertible {    static let baseURLPath = "http://api.imagga.com/v1"    static let authenticationToken = "Basic xxx"       case Content    case Tags(String)    case Colors(String)       public var URLRequest: NSMutableURLRequest {      let result: (path: String, method: Alamofire.Method, parameters: [String: AnyObject]) = {        switch self {        case .Content:          return ("/content", .POST, [String: AnyObject]())        case .Tags(let contentID):          let params = [ "content" : contentID ]          return ("/tagging", .GET, params)        case .Colors(let contentID):          let params = [ "content" : contentID, "extract_object_colors" : NSNumber(int: 0) ]          return ("/colors", .GET, params)        }      }()         let URL = NSURL(string: ImaggaRouter.baseURLPath)!      let URLRequest = NSMutableURLRequest(URL: URL.URLByAppendingPathComponent(result.path))      URLRequest.HTTPMethod = result.method.rawValue      URLRequest.setValue(ImaggaRouter.authenticationToken, forHTTPHeaderField: "Authorization")      URLRequest.timeoutInterval = NSTimeInterval(10 * 1000)         let encoding = Alamofire.ParameterEncoding.URL         return encoding.encode(URLRequest, parameters: result.parameters).0    }  }

Alamofire.upload(    ImaggaRouter.Content,    multipartFormData: { multipartFormData in      multipartFormData.appendBodyPart(data: imageData, name: "imagefile",        fileName: "image.jpg", mimeType: "image/jpeg")  },/// original code continues...

Alamofire.request(ImaggaRouter.Tags(contentID))

Alamofire.request(ImaggaRouter.Colors(contentID))